Artisan Hut, Bangladesh

The highly skilled, traditional handweavers of Bangladesh are being put out of work by the demand for cheap, fast fashion. When the only priority is to get the garment from the design board to the shop floor in 6 weeks, handweavers cannot compete with the power looms which increase productivity by up to nine times.

One of our producers at Artisan Hut spinning thread

Some of our producers washing and preparing the fabric

These thousands of hand weavers have been left unemployed and they are forced to take on backbreaking work pulling rickshaws or leave their homes in rural areas to migrate to cities where they can work in factories.

Artisan Hut was founded to deal with this crisis; it employs over 250 artisans in rural areas such as Narshingdi and Jhenaidha. Workers are paid up to 100% more than they'd earn in the commercial sector, and traditional hand skills such as handweaving, spinning, block printing and hand embroidery are favoured in order to maximise employment.

When her husband became ill in 1997 Asma Begum, a weaver, started working for Artisan Hut to support her three children. She says:

"Because of Fair Trade we are paid higher wages, have a good working environment, a community workshop and even a scholarship for our children. I never thought business people could think for their workers in this way. Thank you to People Tree and their customers who are promoting Fair Trade business and bringing a better life to people like me."