This is the first in a series of micro enterprise profiles on makethingsfair.com. We want to make people aware not only of the progress of the consumer giants, but also of the people who are engaging with specific communities and harnessing their energies in creative and transforming ways.
It might seem hard to believe, but there is some good news coming out of Iraq. Buy Shoes. Save Lives. have joined forces with families in the North to make their traditional, hand crafted shoes available to a wider audience. Founder, Jeremy Courtney was interviewed in Relevant Magazine:
The full name is klashi kurdi. They’re made locally [in Northern Iraq] by Kurds. By one shoemaker’s account, they’ve been around since 600 B.C. Whether you believe that or not, they’re definitely legendary in this part of the world. It takes at least 35 hours to make one pair…we can introduce you by name to the people who make our shoes. I love the idea of seeing families apprenticed in this trade. It’s beautiful.
The company is ‘fair trade’ in its simplest form: workers get a fair and much needed income, while extra profits are invested in funding heart surgery for Iraqi children:
Klash and Kids Klash are not made in anonymous factories or sweat shops. We do not have relationships with grizzly foremen to the exclusion of the actual labor force. We meet with the shoemakers themselves, know their names, know their families, eat lunch with them and treat them with as much respect as we desire for ourselves.
To order your pair, click here.
(source: The Preemptive Love Coalition, Relevant Magazine)
