Posts Tagged ‘natural’

Executive Travel – being the CEO, on a Fair Trade shoe string budget

Veranda of my guest house home in Aghaijara, Bangladesh – where to watch the water hyacinth float down the river and enjoy a cup of tea is better than a 5 star spa!

Veranda of my guest house in Aghaijara, Bangladesh – where you can watch the water hyacinth float down the river and enjoy a cup of tea - it's better than a 5 star spa!

I was talking to another CEO about a trip I was doing overseas. Oh your going off on a “jolly” he said – little did he know that when you run a social business like People Tree you travel to and fro at the weekends (which means you don’t have time to wash your socks and bake your kids cakes between working weeks). Also I arrive and and go straight into my 12 hour working day. Most fashion company bosses stay in 4-5 star hotels – but I stay in guest houses and villages with our Fair Trade groups, partly because the food is better and fresher but also because it’s a huge waste of money!

The difference in a week’s 5 star stay in a city of a developing country could fund a designer or technical advisor to come to the country and run workshops – obviously it’s an easy choice for me to choose to travel on a shoe string! Little places are more friendly too and because many of our Fair Trade groups are in villages, I get to enjoy fresh air too.

Working in the shelter of my mosquito net

Many suppliers/garment factories put up their customers in 5 star hotels as part of their hospitality, but People Tree pays to stay with our Fair Trade groups in their guest houses. After all it’s real cost for food, housekeeping, cleaning, etc. Why should suppliers pay for their customers hospitality?

Executively dressed?

I’ve been surprised by how people dress when they visit culturally sensitive places – I’m writing in shorts and a camisole at home in the summer’s heat, but in Bangladesh you cover up however hot and humid it is. I wear a shalwar kameez and long thin legged trousers called churidar. When it’s 36 degrees and 80% humidity you have to put your foot in a plastic bag just to get them on.

Here’s how…

Like this...

Crafts to Change the World

Miki and Safia photoshoot and interview between downpours!

Miki and I photoshoot and interview between downpours!

I go kissed by a circus elephant along the way

I got kissed by a circus elephant along the way

My Mum loves crafts – and my grandmother was an embroidery designer before she ran a home for delinquent boys – I guess that’s were my love for crafts started.

Prokritee is part of MCC, the Mennonite Central Committee and has worked to support the world’s poorest people for over 40 years.

Monsoon, Bangladesh

I started working with these groups 19 years ago and together with the brilliant designer Suraiya Choudhury we brought natural dyes to Bagda Enterprises, that now work making body scrub mits for the Body Shop. We’ve also worked closely with craft groups to design literally thousands of products using traditional skills and natural fibres for Japan and UK.

Travelling by rickshaw

Suraiya and Safia with her favourite drink - fresh 'tender' coconut

Suraiya and me with my favourite drink - fresh 'tender' coconut

My third assignment in Bangladesh is to document the amazing craft skills and interview artisans to show the impact on their lives. So I travelled with my photographer friend Miki Alcalde and Kate Wakeling by van, ferry, rickshaw then on foot into Agailjhara, Borisal to do just that.

Fresh flowers, the best welcome of all

Kate and Safia with their flowers

Natural fibres can be used to make so many crafts. Chopstick holders and bangles and a dragonfly made of recycled newspaper – I’m just mad about crafts and the social change it brings!