Artisan Hut is a fairly young organization which was formed in 2002. It was in that year that most hand-weaving artisans were being lured away from their rural villages to the large textile mills in Dhaka to produce machine-loomed fabrics.
Reviving a dying art:
Artisan Hut not only made a vow to revive the dying tradition of hand looming , but also to create a fair production model for rural craftspeople. Their aim is to ensure artisans are not mistreated or taken advantage of , as they often are in conventional factories. This job creation project has successfully revived the hand looming industry, employing over 250 artisans. By focusing on traditional hand skills, like hand weaving, block printing and hand embroidery, a large number of people are now able to earn a fair wage and increase their standard of living through the garment production and design process.
Employing People vs. Machinery:
Machinery is rapidly taking away jobs and livelihoods from traditional hand weavers. The only way to stop this is by buying hand-woven products. Hand weaving fabrics saves 1 ton of CO2 emissions per year per hand loom. The highly skilled, traditional hand weavers of Bangladesh are being put out of work by the demand for cheap, fast fashion. Artisan Hut was founded to deal with this crisis. Workers are able to double their income by using their traditional hand weaving, block printing and hand embroidery skills.
Our Partnership:
Azadi Project is proud to contribute to Artisan Hut’s important objective of creating jobs. Their hand woven fabrics and high quality garment construction is evident in every article of clothing they create. We look forward to building a strong partner relationship with the producers at Artisan Hut. We hope our support enables them to grow further and continue to build fair, safe and sustainable workplaces for the people in their communities.