I grew up in Zambia in a privileged family. I ate 3 meals a day, I had the opportunity to study and I had good health care despite living in a developing country. I believe that these are basic human rights. We all have dreams sometimes big, sometimes small. My dream has always been to address poverty. Not with temporary solutions, not with handouts but to make a long-term impact by development through entrepreneurship.
Yawama of Sweden wants to give women the opportunity to rise above poverty. Together with our partner in Zambia- Little Ndaba we embarked on a long and challenging task. Our goal was to create commercial toys made by women in remote areas in Zambia. Toys that not only meet the quality and design expectations for the European market but produced with sustainable organic cotton sourced in Africa.
We have worked hard sourcing appropriate cotton, developing patterns and designs, reworking designs to cut time and costs, training and meeting quality specifications and regulations. Our business model has encouraged women to knit and crochet parts of the dolls from their homes in remote rural areas and we are so proud of the group of over 50 women that have worked so hard to learn and master the Yawama designs and quality specifications. We continue to believe in providing alternative employment opportunities to women in rural areas
One of the many challenges has been to maintain a constant supply of organic cotton from Tanzania which has proved costly in a price competitive market. Organic cotton in Southern Africa is a scarce and pricy commodity. After numerous attempts and discussions we are sad to say that we have chosen NOT to proceed with the organic cotton.
Economic Empowerment of women continues to be our primary focus!
Please take note that our cotton although non-organic continues to be OEKO certified and therefore fills all requirements for child safety.
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