These are the hands that make your baskets ❤️
We take great pride in the handmade goods we curate from across Africa, ensuring people are paid well and that we are enriching communities, rather than extracting from them.
While our core work is providing small loans for household items with big impact in rural Kenya, our side hustle of selling goods is important for a few reasons:
- The proceeds support our work in Kenya. We lost most of our donors during the pandemic, and the revenue generated by sales at the farmer's markets, pop-up shops, and online store allows us to keep doing our work in Kenya.
- It allows us to give back to the women who receive loans from us. This reciprocity is essential in relationship building. All of our sisal baskets are made in the community where we work, by the women with whom we work.
- It expands our impact outside of rural Kenya. Whether it's an elephant grass bike basket from Ghana or a sweetgrass bread bowl from Rwanda, artisans and their families benefit from us making their gorgeous handcrafted goods available to you.
- It connects us to you! When you shop with Zawadisha you know that you're doing more than buying shit. It's an investment in women, in communities, and in goods you will treasure.
Here's all the ways you can support and shop with us:
- Starting on June 1st, we'll be at Shirley's Farmers' Market in the shopping center at Booth and California in Reno nearly every Saturday through the first week of October.
- We'll also be at the Riverside Farmers' Market on Sundays from 8 am to 1 pm.
- Shop online, all day, every day!
- Check us out at the Reno Night Market the last Friday of every month from 5 to 11 pm at Glow Plaza Festival Grounds.
- Place your order for a sisal basket between now and July 15th. I'll be spending HOURS at Hadithi selecting my favorites, and we am more than happy to pick one up for you too. This is our big buy for the year, and the baskets go quickly! Simply contact us with the size and colors you are interested in and we'll go from there.
We hope to see you at the market or package your online order before I head to Kenya. We really love this little way of spreading joy and connecting you to a people and place so vibrant, wonderful, and special.