Unique gifts for kids
IF YOU'VE EVER WONDERED what this Online Shop advert : www.cooltoysandbags.com was doing in the SP Crier magazine, there's a simple explanation; we're promoting our family connections with Barefoot in Sri Lanka.
The majority of people working with Barefoot live and work in the rural areas of Sri Lanka, where lack of education and poverty are still an everyday reality. Barefoot offers them real work, regular income and involvement with a creative process that takes place in their own village.
Available Online is a unique range of colourful stuffed toys, bags and backpacks for kids. Each piece is hand -crafted by one person using Barbara Sansoni designed Barefoot hand-woven fabrics.
Barefoot was born in 1958, out of a need to rehabilitate young women who had little schooling and had been placed in the care and protection of The Good Shepherd Nuns in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It was founded by the Mother of Good Council at that time and Barbara Sansoni, a young Sri Lankan artist.
Barefoot dyes its own cottons, silks and wool with colour mixed by the Master Dyer after original designs by the Barefoot Designers. The fabric is woven in one of six weaving centres, As well as sewing clothes, toys and accessories Barefoot make wall hangings, bedspreads, sarongs and rolls of fabric which are works of art in their own right - more at : www.barefootceylon.com
Barbara is now a well known artist & designer in her own right around the world and remains at the head of Barefoot which now has some 600 people weaving and sewing all over the country, creating valuable "fair trade" employment and support for the Sri Lankan economy.
The www.cooltoysandbags.com Online Shop design and management is available to all e-commerce entrepreneurs FOC from : www.eRepco.co.uk