Against child labor
Care & Fair
¡°Wherever the social situation has improved and children have had a school they could attend, child labour has disappeared¡±. Terre des Hommes
On the basis of this premise, in 1994 several companies that imported carpets from India, Nepal and Pakistan founded the Care & Fair organisation. Its principal objective: to eradicate child labour from the carpet manufacturing industry in these areas.
At the same time, the initiative aims to:
- Improve living conditions and provide training and decent, paid employment for families working in carpet production workshops.
- Inform manufacturers that member companies will not buy any products that have been manufactured in unacceptable social conditions or using child labour.
- Set an example and raise awareness in the industry that working with social responsibility leads to better welfare for everyone.
With the conviction that this goal is achievable with the right help, Care & Fair basically works in two domains: education and health.
More than 450 companies in the carpet industry collaborate with Care & Fair on a voluntary basis, allocating 1% of the value of their carpet imports. This helps to fund schools, training activities, hospitals and health programmes developed by Care & Fair in the countries mentioned.
Nanimarquina has been a member of Care & Fair since the outset and we guarantee that no child labour has been used in the production of our rugs.
The Kala Project: a rug for a better world
The Kala project arose from nanimarquina¡¯s desire to collaborate with the Care & Fair association. Aware of the importance of initiatives that help towards development and progress in India, our main producing country, from the beginning of our cooperation with Care & Fair we dreamt of creating a project for the children of carpet craftsmen: to set up a new school in India.
We took as our starting point the creativity and imagination of the Indian children themselves. We organised a drawing competition among pupils of several Care & Fair schools and the nanimarquina design team then adapted the winning drawing and turned it into the Kala rug.
¢ã150 from each sale of a Kala rug is earmarked for funding a new Care & Fair school in Bhadohi (India). The school will help to create a better future for the girls and boys of Bhadohi, a small rural town a few miles away from Benares, where people make their living from farming or from traditional carpet production. The future of the sons and daughters of Bhadohi craftsmen depends on this type of initiative.
