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The Fairer Trade - March 2007
Surrey toy company Tree House Blue, who specialise in sourcing traditional, natural and fair trade toys, is delighted to announce the addition of the Kenana Knitters, producers of beautifully knitted African animals, from leopards to clownfish, to their portfolio of fair-trade suppliers.
For the women of the Njoro region in Kenya, the Kenana Knitters co-operative is proving to be a hugely successful lifeline. The co-operative was set up in 1998 to help rural women find some much needed income, utilising their spinning and knitting skills. Kenya is still very much a male-orientated society where the wife and family may have little claim on a man's earnings, but the Kenana Knitters group enables its workers to directly benefit from their efforts. Knitting is ideal, as it requires minimal equipment and can be done in snatches when time permits. When the rains come and the family crops and vegetables need tending, not much knitting gets done, but in times of drought and crop failure, when the family garden is bare of supplementary vegetables, money can be earned to purchase the necessities of life.
This group generates two forms of income, buying the local wool, then creating more work by turning the wool into a marketable product. The money goes directly to the women who are thus able to improve the quality of their lives.
Director Susie Kennedy says "These products are gorgeous: the wool is locally sourced, and then dyed using plants found in the area. This produces some incredibly vibrant colours that really characterise these critters from theAfrican landscape."
Based in the village of Walton on the Hill in Surrey, Tree House Blue was founded in September 2006 by Susie and Peter Kennedy, who believe that businesses have a responsibility to trade in a way that has a minimal impact on the environment; supporting cottage industries and craftsman, whilst still providing unique, inspirational, quality products for children.
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