One of the things I feel quite passionate about is using Fairtrade 'ingredients' wherever I can. I spend time finding Fairtrade beads that I can use in my designs and the first ones I found were Kazuri beads. Kazuri was founded in 1975 by Lady Susan Wood a daughter of English missionaries. She and her husband set up the East African Flying Doctor Service in Kenya. Lady Susan hired two disadvantaged women to create beads in her shed in Nairobi, Kenya. She quickly realised the potential - there were so many single mothers who needed a steady income to support their children with basic needs such as money for food and the fees to send them to school. The business was opened up to many more women and by 1988 the Kazuri factory was officially formed and uses clay from Mount Kenya to make these beautiful unique beads. The company now employs more that 400 men and women and with local unemployment reaching 90% at times, one employee will often be supporting up to 15 extended family members. SO, go back to my designs and look out especially for the Kazuri designs and know that not only are they unique, they are beautiful and are Fairly traded.
