Gender Equality Madagascar Project #31478

Transform Lives in Madagascar with Silk and Raffia

by Conservation through Poverty Alleviation, Int

Transform Lives in Madagascar with Silk and Raffia

Project Report | Oct 19, 2020
Keep Moving

By Catherine Craig | CPALI Director

Cocoon silk products by Tanana

Everyone knows how difficult it is to engage with today's sluggish markets. The Madagascar economy, dependent on vanilla production and tourism, is no exception. The vanilla market, the most important agricultural market in our area, is vulnerable to disease, weather conditions, political instability, theft, early picking, regulatory controls and now a crashing world economy. In 2016 vanilla beans were purchased for $400-$450 per kilo (compared to 60-80 US$/kg in 2015 and 30 US$/kg in 2012). Obviously that price was not sustainable and led to considerable graft and many buyers have had to switch to cheaper alternatives. As a result, the vanilla market in Madagascar market crashed in 2019-2010.

SEPALI Madagascar director, Mamy Ratsimbazafy, reports that SEPALIM cocoon farming program is now seen as a "life-saver" program. In previous years, 2016-2019 , the team had difficulty convincing subsistence farmers to farm caterpillars, as well as sustainably collect cocoons after the adult moth had emerged. Now our cocoon market is one of the few ways that farmers can earn money and that artisan women can engage in steady work.

Mamy has amassed large stocks of cocoons produced by 6 different genera of silk moths. At last we have enough to expand into new market areas and a means to increase our ecological and economic impact! However, the Covid-19 crisis emerged and international shipping has been slowed. It takes twice the amount of time that it did previously to ship a box from Maroantsetra to Tana and two times again the time and expense to ship from Tana to the US. Furthermore, the financial crisis due to Covid means that both the markets we had been working on developin, as well as many previous buyers, have disappeared.

Thankfully, GlobalGiving had our back and offered extra financial assistance to help us get through the next few months. The CPALI team is now focused on developing a digital presence for SEPALI Madagascar through its new market site, Tanana Silk. If you have not had time to visit our online portal, please do! www.tananasilk.com. When you log on you can sign-up for our new Tanana Silk newsletter that will keep you up to date on new products and current sales. We are also now twittering up a storm at 2silk_ta; pinning our latest creations at "Ta'na'na Silk" on Pintrest and instagramming at "tananasilks". You can also find us in the Fair Trade Federation holiday gift guide. We have begun stocking inventory in the US so we are able to ship most items in time for the holidays!

69.5 kilos of cocoons!

Collage art by Tanana artisans

New digital marketplace for Fair Trade Federation

Links:

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Jun 23, 2020
Team eludes Covid-19

By Catherine Craig | Cpali President

May 27, 2020
Marketing on line to support SEPALIM

By Catherine Craig | CPALI President and Founder

Baskets designed by Lalaina and made by the team

We are happy to report that there have been no known occurrences of COVID in Maroantsetra. The team has been able to continue to work wearing masks (each team member has 6 and they change them every 2-4 hours), each wears the new SEPALIM uniform, hand washing is required upon entering the workshop and no one other than team members are allowed into the compound. We anxiously await the arrival of winter in June in Madagascar and continue to keep our precautions in place.

Mamy and Lalaina have both been thinking about new products to farm. Fruits are available for about 1 month during the year in abundance and much goes to waste. Mamy would like to set up a fruit drying program. We are getting generous help from a new agricultural advisor, Chris Pannkuk whose experience in tropical agriculture spans the globe. Lalaina is also taking on new projects to enhance food security. She is working on teaching herself how to make flour from locally available breadfruit.

Mamy is taking immediate action to help the team insure itself again hunger during the coming lean season. He set aside a room in their house for storing food. He provides a salary advance to team members to purchase rice when it is immediately available. The rice is stored ahead of lean period until needed. Farmers will not have to deal with inflated prices. This is the same approach the team took to ensure that farmers could afford to purchase school supplies for their children. If you remember, Mamy and Lalaina purchased school supplies during the off season so they could offer them to SEPALIM silk farmers at low cost when school starts. This allows team members to avoid having to purchase them from local venders who increase the price during school season. Hooray for the SEPALIM social network!

Our new CPALI summer intern Stella Gryler is making facemarks from our beautiful cocoon silks. They will be sold on our Ta'Na'Na online website! The masks are made from COCOON SILK and lined with 2 layers of contrasting, cotton. The inner layer is finished off with a small pouch for an inner layer filter if desired. Filters are not provided with the mask but we recommend a simple coffee filter that can be changed every day. The masks can be washed in cold water as needed.

Also new to the market are Lalaina and the artisan teams beautiful cocoon silk baskets. The baskets are made in three sizes (a basket family) from the different types of silk with which SEPALIM. Melissa McFadden Photography in Walla Walla is helping Tanana put together a new online store by taking beautiful pictures of Lalaina's new cocoon-silk baskets. I will be sending new links in the future but here is a sneak peak! They make a unique gift made from wild cocoons trimmed with natural dyed, woven raffia trims.

Cocoon silk mask made by intern Stella Gryler

Covid mask filter pouch

Diversity of basket colors

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