Toockies Organic Cotton Soap Bag

ORGANICThe natural cream cloth is made with cotton yarn from a GOTS certified organic mill in India.FAIR TRADEThe Toockies Project has opened an unimaginable door of opportunity for knitters. In Nababpur, over 230 women desperate for a dignified way to earn a living, are mobilised and trained to create Toockies products. A community centre provides these women with a central location for training, picking-up yarn and dropping off finished product, though most knitters choose to work from home (as is culturally required) allowing them to work flexible hours.About the BrandToockies founder Anna Marie Stauss grew up in a small fishing village on the island of Terceira, in the Azores, west of Portugal. Her mother had very few opportunities to make money because culturally she was expected to stay home and provide free labour to support the family. Her only source of income was embroidery.When Anna married, moved to the US and became a homemaker herself, her mother-in-law introduced her to knitted dishcloths, better known as "Toockies". Anna very quickly became dependent on these "Toockies" to clean her home, her car and even her children! She soon wondered why everyone hadn't heard of these amazing little cloths that worked hard and lasted for years! They were cost effective because they out-performed the disposable cleaning products she had always used and they did not need to be replaced every week.Anna began to think about how she might start a home business, with the help of women who could use a bit of extra money, just like her mother did. A couple of years and a few pregnancies later, she saw a documentary on the plight of young women in India who were forced into slavery and prostitution. She wondered how desperate the need to survive must be, that someone would give up their child to some unknown fate for money to buy food to eat? In the documentary a group of people were trying to rescue some of these young women, but they were in need of funds to support them because the young women did not have any skills that they could use to support themselves.This was the final push for Anna in her plight to make a difference and in answer to her prayer, she met Mrs Jaya Basu who had recently started a non-profit programme to help children in India. They exchanged ideas and information about their mutual interest in the “greater good” and decided it was time to build a business plan. Today, Jaya Basu is Anna's partner at Sinko Corp in the US and Lavinia Trade is now the international distributor for The Toockies Project. Collectively they are working hard to make a difference for women and their families in Nababpur, India using a fair trade system very similar to the embroidery co-operative her mother belonged to. The Project has also given their knitters the opportunity for them to learn how to write their own names, enabling them to sign the packaging of each product they have skilfully hand crafted. In recent travels to India, Anna visited the 9 villages they are currently working with in West Bengal and was heartened to see how well the children of the women they work with are doing. They are thriving!