World of Good

World of Good partners with cooperatives, NGOs, and nonprofit organizations in developing countries to bring traditional arts and craft products to the US market. Not only does this directly benefit the artisans and craftsmen, but a part of the profits are spent towards the promotion of free trade policies and funding of social development projects. They use grocery stores, bookshops, yoga studios, and other places as outlets for these products. In their first year, they sold over 100,000 handmade items crafted by 133 artisan groups in 31 countries directly benefiting the lives of over 2,500 artisans and their families. This is true social entrepreneurism!

Other organizations on the same track are the League of Artisans, Seven Shores, Ten Thousand Villages, Blue Moon, and WorldStock, where you can shop by country (from Afghanistan and Bosnia to South Africa and Thailand) or by product line, including furniture, jewelry and even fair trade coffee from Colombia. We at Udai are trying to look into more details about these organizations and see how we can help them.

Promotion of products from rural areas is not just restricted by arts and crafts, but innovations in mechanical design of post-harvest processing machines like those promoted by Shristi, and the recent plan to commercialize health drinks made by local herbs in Bengal.