On a recent trip to India I spent some time with the incredible humans that run the New Delhi branch of JOYN India.
I was in India visiting friends and was hoping to find some companies who were passionately pursuing ethical production during my stay. Within a few conversations people began pointing me in the direction of an organisation called JOYN. I was very excited to find that their offices were a stones throw from my apartment and jumped at the opportunity to meet with them and hear their story.
The couple running the New Delhi offices are amazingly generous with their time and openly shared the dreams, visions, values and challenges JOYN was facing. One thing that I found particularly inspiring was their commitment to employing untrained vulnerable people and providing them with all the support they need to become artisans who take pride in producing JOYN's beautiful products. This commitment to employing people instead of machines, and creating as many jobs as possible in the production process is a huge undertaking. A commitment like this creates significant societal change but is difficult to sustain, as they can only handle a certain amount of business growth each year in order to keep up with the necessary training and support of their employees. I was thoroughly impressed with their uncompromising commitment to this vision.
Another of the many things to love about JOYN is that they cover the production process right through from raw picked cotton to the finished product. This allows them to employ many more people in a range of locations in Northern India and provides opportunities for employees to receive training in a variety of skills.
Alongside providing employment and continual training for their employees they also support them with meals, education, English and vocational training, and medical care. JOYN are passionately, unreservedly committed to community transformation and they are already achieving it.
Check out this video and be inspired: http://joynindia.com/pages/our-handicraft-process
JOYN's products are currently available on their website (http://joynindia.com/) and through TOMS marketplace (http://www.toms.com/marketplace).
Unfortunately they do not currently have any stockists in New Zealand so I am trying to find interested retailers. If that may be you or someone you know please comment on this blog post and we will see what we can do to get JOYN products to NZ.
