A NETWORK OF ARTISANS
Adorn Online works with a talented team of artisans based in the rural and urban areas of the Sindh province in Pakistan. The majority of Adorn’s artisans are women who are home based workers, working independently or working with an NGO. Our partner NGOs facilitate cooperation, communication, design training and intervention for the artisans to ensure the women have access to inputs, guidance and also ensure immediate payment for work received. Home-based workers have added advantages since they have flexibility of schedules, plus they are able to ensure a safe working environment. These opportunities allow women with added responsibilities of working in the fields, domestic work and/or child care, the ability to continue working in their craft and earning a livelihood from it. Adorn rates of work are significantly higher than the market rates to ensure that women are benefitting from their talents, and not forced to succumb to exploitative practices generally employed in the rural and urban centres of Sindh. The majority of our women artisans are working in the crafts of Rilli, embroidery, stitching and patchwork and appliqué quilting.
Adorn also works with individual artisans who are not under the umbrella of support NGOs. These artisan are all based in the urban areas and have personal relationships with various members of our core team. Each individual artisan is given design training and the inputs required for the work by a member of our team and they are paid immediately upon receipt of the finished product. Many of our block-printers are struggling artisans, the majority of whom are men since this particular craft is run by male artisans in both the rural and urban centres. Our male artisans generally work in the crafts of dress-making, block printing and Ajrak making.
Adorn seeks to adhere to the ’10 Principles of Fair Trade’ as defined by the World Fair Trade Organization (see http://www.wfto.com/fair-trade/10-principles-fair-trade ) in its relationships with its team of artisans and NGO partners.
