In Their Shoes
Organization Details
In Their Shoes is a start-up organization that is just starting the beginning stages of becoming a registered non-profit. We currently have two income generation projects running in rural villages in Thailand in which we partner with existing groups of women creating Thai handicrafts and contract them to create exclusive products to be sold through our organization. We utilize their skills and knowledge to design gorgeous products that will appeal to a global market to bring extra income to the women and their communities. Products will be sold on our website, in Fair Trade stores (our products have been picked up by one Fair Trade store in New York already!), at home parties, farmers markets, and trade shows.
Support Needs
We’re looking for:
Design (Web or Print)MultimediaPhotographyVideographyWeb Design
Impact Story
We have a passion for serving others, community development, and the empowerment of women to become change makers in their communities. We aim to share the stories of the women who partner with us - to highlight their extraordinary skill, diligent work ethic, dedication to providing for their families in difficult socioeconomic conditions, and mostly, their kind, warm spirits. As our two projects have only begun operating within the past three months, are impact is fairly intimate. We currently have six "creators" (3 in each group) who are partnered with us on a contractual basis. They are free to work as little or as much as their schedule permits, as our main concern is that they are able to earn an income without taking away from their home and community responsibilities. We pay the women per item at cost for the materials and their time. The additional profit is then split into thirds, 33.3% going directly back to the creator, 33.3% going into a savings fund for the creator's community (to be used for projects that benefit the whole community), and 33.3% to go towards administrative costs (website, registrations, packaging, etc.) which will always be less than 15% of the total retail cost of each product. So, in addition to receiving local market value for each product, the creator will also be receiving additional personal profit, and accruing funds for important projects that need funding in their village. We do expect each women that partners with us to be apart of our peer mentoring program after their initial six months with us to help spread the impact of the project by teaching other women in need of work a skill, but also to ensure that the skills of creating traditional Thai handicrafts are passed down to younger generations of Thai women. In the future, we hope to run workshops on finance and budgeting, as well as community organizing, to ensure that all of the ladies involved with our organization become change makers within their communities.
