this is a story about knitting

and i usually post knitting on the reformed pirate but i thought i'd post this story HERE instead (not to worry, i'll link to it). there are so very many organizations like this one (not all crafts mind you). so many helping women who then in turn help their entire families. everything from solar ovens (using just some cardboard and tin foil) to making jewelry out of recycled materials.

it's funny i didn't see a link to hathay bunano in the story itself (i guess i could have missed it) so here it is!


Taking jobs to Bangladesh's poor
By Mark Dummett
BBC News, Ratankandi

Never mind the global downturn, even in the good years, Ratankandi would be an unlikely place to come across a positive business story.

It is a thin, sandy strip of an island that sits in what is known in Bangladesh as the Jamuna river and in India as the Ganges.

Every year the island floods and the 100 families living on it know that it is only a matter of time before Ratankandi is washed entirely away. They are among the poorest people in the country.

But 40 women among them now work for a thriving company called Hathay Bunano (translates as hand-made) that sells hand-knitted baby clothes and toys to customers in Europe, Australia and the US...............

"Before Hathay Bunano came here, we had nothing to do. The women just sat in their homes," one of the workers, Shilpy, explains.

"But now we have learnt a skill and we can earn some money and pay for our children's school fees," she told me as we walked along a sandy path past the simple homes of the island's inhabitants........

pic: from bbc

Women in Ratankandi make toys and clothes for export to the West