Mela Artisans Celebrates Women: Inspiring Change through Entrepreneurship
Leading up to International Women’s Day on March 8, Mela Moments will celebrate the accomplishments of women artisans, designers and leaders who epitomize this year’s theme “Inspiring Change”.
Mela Artisans is excited to participate for the first time in International Women’s Day, a U.N. recognized holiday observed every year on March 8.
“Women’s equality has made positive gains but the world is still unequal. International Women’s Day celebrates the social, political and economic achievements of women while focusing world attention on areas requiring further action.” -Internationalwomenday.com
This year’s theme, “Inspiring Change,” resonates deeply with the Mela Artisans family. Our vision is to provide a sustainable global market for artisans while fostering entrepreneurship within their communities, particularly for historically marginalized groups such as women. Much like Mela’s own purpose, the 2014 women’s day theme “encourages advocacy for women’s advancement everywhere in every way. It calls for challenging the status quo for women’s equality and vigilance [in] inspiring positive change.”
Workers of Panchachuli, an all-female artisan group from northern India partnering with Mela Artisans.
To commemorate and recognize the remarkable women in the Mela Artisans family, we are launching a 10-day celebration of women with special promotions, blog posts, interviews and photos. This includes 30 percent off all products made by women artisan groups, a free gift with any loan made for $100 or more, and blog profiles featuring the women team members and artisans of Mela.
Celebrated across the globe, International Women’s Day aims to recognize achievements and progress made in women’s empowerment and opportunity across national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political lines. Both retrospective and forward-looking, it offers the chance to examine past struggles and accomplishments, but more importantly, to look ahead to the untapped potential and possibilities that await future generations of women.
Children of workers from Ayaaz Handicrafts in Moradabad, India.
The Mela Artisans model hopes to inspire the consumer not only with beautiful and functional handcrafted artwork, but also by forging a personal connection with Indian artisans through purchases and loans that allow them to grow their businesses and develop their artistic skills. In turn, the artisans build successful enterprises that provide a stable family income, safe working conditions and an improved standard of living; all of which impact the larger community in positive ways.
“Mela Artisans business model reflects my belief that creating more opportunities for those who have been underserved by the current system actually benefits every level of society, globally and locally.” – Mela Artisans Co-founder, Sonali Mehta-Rao
(From Left to Right): Artisan Coordinator Meena Ojha, Artisan Coordinator Sushma, Mela CEO Navroze Mehta, Mela Chief Creative Director Dipali Patwa, Mela India Country Director Sangeeta Sen-Davis, Aavishkaar Partner Noshir Colah, Aavishkaar Staff Member Neha Argawal, Mela India Operations Manager Svetlana Pereira
We hope you will continue to visit our blog, follow us on Facebook and twitter, and shop melaartisans.com to help us celebrate women during these important days and beyond.
For more information about International Women’s Day and Mela Artisans, please visit www.internationalwomensday/melaartisans.com
