By Rachel Kramer | CPALI Executive Director
"Working as an artisan has brought so many benefits. My greatest hope is that our work continues to grow.”
- Wild silk and raffia artisan, SEPALI Madagascar team
Access to fair and stable income helps local artisans, technicians, and community leaders to support their families and educate their children. With your support, our circle of 20 full-time, talented artisans is thriving. They're sharing valuable skills with a new generation of 60 women artisans, most of whom are mothers, to bring new, beautiful Madagascar wild silk and raffia textiles into the world.
We recently sat down with two talented artisans on the SEPALI Madagascar team to hear why their work is important to them, in their words.
We invite you to watch their interviews in this new short film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PD7XC89phQ
Rasoeline's story
Rasoeline, 56, has been employed as a full-time artisan since 2013. Originally from a remote village along the Antainambalana River, Rasoeline’s earnings have enabled her to educate her children. Her eldest son completed his high school diploma last year, and recently passed his university entrance exam. This achievement brings her, and other members of the artisan team, great pride.
A skilled weaver who has mentored many young artisans over the years, Rasoeline's eyesight isn’t what it once was. Her role now focuses on ironing wild silk cocoons and finishing raffia textiles.
Her husband is a baker. This season, they are early adopters of a special smoke-ejection cookstove that has been custom-designed by the SEPALI Madagascar team to run on fuel bricks made from invasive plants. Rasoeline and her family’s user feedback will help engineer improvements to the stoves as we explore options to scale uptake of this forest-saving fuel in 2026 from textile dye baths to home cooking.
Investing in women's futures
By connecting local artisans' creations to fair markets, our non-profit's shared social enterprise, Tanana Madagascar, supports gender equity, investing directly in women's futures and commmunity well-being.
Fair trade models like ours create value for women by offering economic independence, social empowerment, and leadership opportunities--moving beyond fair pay to providing training, skills development, and community investment. Your support truly has an outsized impact.
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