Project Funding Opportunity

Hey Friends,

Its Trinh here writing to give you an opportunity to support the work I am doing here in Mali . Read ahead!

For the past six months or so, I have been meeting informally and formally with a local women’s artisan cooperative in Sikasso. The women dye fabric, paint traditional mud cloth paintings and knit children’s clothing. After talking to the women about their products, evaluating the capacity of their skills and the overall productiveness of their cooperative, it was determined that the women need training in better business practices and tools to expand their product supply.

The training I am organizing with the women’s cooperative is a step towards breaking out of the Malian artisan mode. The idea for the business and creativity development training came when visiting various artisan workshops and boutiques and seeing the same elephant sculptures, same beaded jewelry and the same wood carved mother carrying her baby. There was not much product diversification or quality control. The interviews I had with the women’s cooperative and other artisans confirm that yes they have the potential to expand their markets what they lack is the technical capacity or the market information to be competitive.

The goals of this training include encouraging the women to take creative risks using locally made textiles and materials and to provide the women training on marketing, accounting and savings to improve and sustain their business. The training is a month long. The first weeks will include a hands-on workshop where the women will work in groups and focus on using locally made textiles to develop a cultural representative product line of home décor items. Following the workshop, the Cooperative will test their new products at a national artisan festival in February. The training ends with a debrief and training on savings and accounting.

SO…I am writing to ask for your support in funding this training.
The total project costs: 632.00 US dollars. This goes to paying for the fabric, cloth dye, trainer per diem and entrance to the artisan fair. My hopes for this project are not grand, it is small steps first. I think this training will be an opportunity for the women to flex their creative talent, be exposed to potential new markets and ultimately gain income to improve the quality of their lives.

You can go to this link to read more about the project (check out other PC projects as well!) and donate what you can.

LINK: https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=688-226&ion=africa

OR GO to:
www.peacecorps.gov
Click on Donate to Volunteer Projects
Click Africa programs
Scroll to Mali, T.Tran

Feel free to pass on this email to any friends or family members interested in funding a project like this. Thanks in advance and please let me know if you have any ideas or resources for this project (any designers out there). All advice and recommendations are welcome!

Take care
Trinh