Ladies at artisans effort courtesy of Siham Craftlink
Artisans Effort was founded in Kolkata, West Bengal, India in October, 2003. The founding members were a group of artisans, all specialists in their own fields eg embroidery, leather, jewellery, paper products etc. They came together as they had heard about fair trade . They heard that with fair trade you are treated with respect, that a fair price is paid and that a good relation is built between the producer and seller. All these artisans had been previously treated badly. They had problems being paid, there was irregularity of work and above all were rudely treated