By Catherine Craig | President, CPALI
A LONG WAY FROM HOME
One of SEPALI's goals is to create new and accessible opportunities so that women can earn money and care for their families - the same problem many women face. In Madagascar, people that live in rural communities do not have easy public transportation that allows them to travel to jobs and back daily. In the case of SEPALI farmers, reaching a workshop involves 3 modes of transport - boat, bus and walking! Therefore, we are building a new training center where women can spend the night while they are away. Nevertheless, even though SEPALI pays transportation, and provides lodging and food, most women are unable to attend more than one or two workshops a year.
To address women's needs, SEPALI Madagascar is exploring new ways to implement work programs in the villages so women can do a little work every day. They will still travel to the training center for new training but they can practice and continue to make textiles close to home. But what to do when there is no electricity? We are on the search for treadle, sewing machines capable of sewing a zigzag stitch! So far we have tracked down a machine sold commercially in the US but the cost is prohibitive. If anyone has a functional machine with a treadle that is gathering dust in the garage, and who would be willing to ship it to Madagascar (we will pay the cost), please contact us! We will document the machine's journey from your home (with your help!) to Maroantsetra and up river into a selected women's group where it will continue a productive life!
TO THE MARKET
A long way from our women's groups, CPALI US is working hard to develop new markets for our artissan's textiles. All of the revenue from their sale is returned to the project so that we can continue to expand our training programs. Thanks once again to Amelia Thrall and th Boston Architects for Humanity, we were able to attend the Architectural Digest Home Design Show in New York in March to display our artisan’s work. In the attached photo you can see the three gorgeous drapes made to tempt new designers - and, in fact, it worked!
We attracted the fabulous Karen Brown! The Karen Brown Design Group is our first partner to develop a line of furniture using our beautiful textiles. Karen has already made a chair, "Natural Selection", that she has donated to the IFDA 2015 Take a Seat Charity Auction in Boston. Attached is a sneak peak! Better than that, not only is Karen designing chairs, but her plan to design a whole collection of furniture using our non-spun textile!
Also, we are thrilled to announce that ABC Home and Carpet, also contacted at the New York show, will be selling placemats and table runners made by women artisans in their holiday catalogue. ABC will focus on natural colored textiles but who knows what new colors will emerge from SEPALI Madagascar once they begin experimenting with natural dyes! Stay Tuned!
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