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Coconut Shell Earrings
Being a rural development worker is a powerful way to learn about the interconnection of the difficulties facing rural communities. While educating villagers on health issues and the steps they can take to, say, protect their families from malaria and treat their infected children, you learn that without a sustainable source of income, it is often very difficult for people to adopt even simple behavioral change for a better quality of life.The work that I have done with my community to develop marketable crafts through the sustainable use of local materials grew out of such experience. People were often eager to learn about protecting their health, but more eager to put our heads together and look for ways to earn enough income to feed their families and to get themselves out of the cycle of poverty and poor health. I try to do what I can in these situations, collaborating with local associations to create a small sustainable source of income, and the coconut shell crafts are a result of one such collaboration.
It’s amazing what beautiful things can be made out of natural resources that would be otherwise thrown out! Before we began to experiment with handicrafts, empty coconut shells were of little use in our village – in general, after the coconut meat is scraped out for cooking and eating, the shell is either directly discarded, or sometimes used to hold ground-up “moina” (henna) leaves for dying fingernails and hands, or maybe as a container for sand used to scrub the bottom of blackened pots and pans.
Together with local artisans and aspiring artisans, we experimented with different crafts and production methods using this and other natural resources, which can be harvested, used, and produced in a sustainable manner, and marketable to the tourists who come through the area. Sustainability also includes getting a fair profit for the sale of the crafts, which in turn heightens the incentive to be involved in the protection of the threatened local environment that attracts eco-tourists to the area.
Success!
After months of experimenting and small-scale sales, the artisans had greatly improved the quality and increased the variety of the products, while beginning to see their work generate income as well. The improvements have only continued.
Now, the artisans have organized into a cooperative, and sell their products (mainly earrings) both locally, nationally, and now overseas! One particularly successful young crafter has been able to finance his schooling, buy his notebooks, purchase a bike, purchase a portable phone, and even build himself a house of his own, with walls made from flattened recycled oil drums (a common local practice). Another artisan has also just purchased herself a telephone, and is also selling “sakafo mitsangana” (roadside meals) by her home – she was able to buy the necessary food supplies, dishes, and utensils with her earring-sale profits. This second source of income will help her and her family during the rainy season, when our village’s road virtually becomes a river and the tourist traffic slows significantly, even to a halt in some months.
My Role
As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I’ve been the idea-sparker, the encourager, the marketer, the public relations person, and the facilitator for various other pieces of the project (i.e., typing statutes from the versions we’ve written out together and assuring that they are brought to the proper regional authorities to be stamped and signed, etc.), plus the trainer of small business skills, simple budgeting, notions of quality control, marketing, and networking for sustainability. I’m no expert myself! But there are some simple notions of business that are hardwired in Americans, which if combined with sustainable development practices and a knowledge of the crafts that tourists prefer, can come together to create a viable micro-business project.
Going International
After much experimenting with sending samples abroad, we recently established a working relationship sending the earrings (as well as other small crafts) to a shop called The Midnight Sun, with locations in Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
Local sales of the earrings have been based at Le Tsingy Relais, a bungalow-style hotel nearby the artisans’ village, frequented by tourists who visit our famous area. Just recently, the earrings have begun to be sold at the entrance to the Ankarana Park, about 20 km from the artisans’ home, where they’re making quite a stir and being bought fast by the tourist visitors. The Ankarana entrance is along the paved main road of our region, so the heavy rains are no obstacle to year-round park access.
Through sales to the eco-tourist community, the artisans have been able to appreciate the value of being involved in the protection of the local environment, and are empowered to stake their claim in the eco-tourism market – for the preservation of the region’s ecology, and for their own survival.
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lilturns |
Latest page update: made by lilturns
, Apr 28 2007, 3:04 PM EDT
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