David's AW News: Mothers Day in Bali - You will cry.

Greetings from the AW warehouse in Bali

Extreme weather everywhere, Spain has massive rain, China unseasonably hot, here we have hurricanes and downpours causing flash flooding - but at least in the UK the sun is shining and Spring is in the air..At least one place in the AW world has some good weather. Last week I was telling you about the lady boss who makes some of the shop fittings we stock. And news from India.. if you missed it you can catch up here.

Today we went in the rain to the Bali Baby Home, the charity we support here. It's not far from the warehouse, but roads were closed or flooded and we struggled to even get there.

So Spring is in the air.. Mother's Day very soon.. Then Easter, it's Spring!

And if you are looking for quality artisan Dream Catchers, always good at this time of year.. then now is the time to stock up.. (see below).

Trip to the (Dream Catcher) component village..

So we heard about this Kampung, a village area not far from the airport.  So we went to explore and see what we could find.  There is one street, where small wholesalers sell supplies to artisans. It was a little hard to find, but behind a row of local restaurants and past a temple and school we found a sleepy street. Small shops stuffed to the rafters with everything you can imagine for making. So we went to explore and see what we could find.

It helps that Bondhan is from Java and can speak the language, all the shops were owned and staffed by Java people. In this way we elicited lots of information.

One lovely lady in one shop explained that every week a truck load makes its way from Java and deposits stock to her store - the Java artisan produced in home industry fashion, collected up and shipped here to be sold to Bali guys. And the guys that make our Dream Catchers get many of their materials and components this way. In fact the Pastel Macramé Dream Catchers, which are a Spring Best Seller.. we found all the components here.

I noticed a carton with Chinese markings on it, and asked if actually the components were Chinese, no she said the only place they can get quality feathers was China, and of course the Glue guns that everyone needs but everything else came from Java.

By the way, if you prefer vegan dream catchers.. yes of course we have.. and recently arrived Glue Guns for you or your crafty customers.

Well we often describe the creations with these components as Macrame, but you could also describe them as Crochet. And famously a genuine crochet machine has yet to be invented, so I asked if the round doilies (above) were machine made, our lady said not, all home industry. And went on to describe how many a lady could make in a day and even gave us a little demonstration.. impressively fast.

For best prices (she suggested) we could buy a truck load direct from her hometown and have it delivered to our warehouse.. what do you think? Is there a market for ready made macrame craft components? The soap flowers components we sell are a big seller and an always growing market... maybe this could be interesting.

However, before we get too excited I have some due diligence and questions..

1. Need to check this isn't actually a sweatshop product, 2. that no exploitation is happening and 3. that the cotton used is Indonesian (not Chinese).

Now we have our contact, such a nice happy lady, we can plan a trip to that part of Java and see first hand, like we did the other week with the sarongs supplier in Java.

Today we went to the Bali Baby home..

We have supported it for a couple of years.. but it's still a pretty new Charity. The founder is a lovely guy, who was moved to do something about a terrible problem in Indonesia, unwanted pregnancies resulting in abandoned babies, sometimes dead babies. Often very young girls in conservative areas find themselves pregnant, some runaway in shame, and often to more liberal Bali - Pak Burhan the founder came up with the concept of taking in the girls, helping them with the pregnancy, and then working to reunite the girl and baby with the family.

We came to pass on a substantial donation, that they will use to make a seperated kindergarten room and employ teachers, because as the years pass the children are getting to that age.

From the Bali Baby Home website:

Will abortion be the solution? Or the baby is born and then thrown away? Have you ever thought when society condemns you, your family ostracizes you, no one will accept you?

Legal Facts will not side with pregnant women. Abortion is a criminal offence (in Indonesia), while giving birth is not ready? Throwing away is also a crime that is no less than murder?

Social media powered.

He has many success stories that if you hear them will make you cry. But the number of babies not nested back into the community continues to grow, last time we visited he had 21 babies from 1 week to 2 years old, now he has 32 in Bali and we learned 15 and 18 in two new homes in Java.

Thanks to social media (they have a dedicated guy for this), volunteers regularly come from Europe to help, this time there were two sisters from Southampton and three French girls. The same social media brings visitors everyday bearing bags of baby food and toys. They even found volunteer medics to help with health issues. The babies themselves even have instagram accounts and this aids the renesting process grandparents can get to see and gradually reaccept ostracized girls and babies back into the society.

The founder Pak Burhan wasn't there today, he is in Java currently, but his manager spent time with us.

It's Mother's Day soon... What could be better than supporting these Mothers and their babies and saving lifes?

Two ways to help.

You can make donations directly on Bali Baby Home website

Or to our donations page, we will pass it on and make sure it is spent on a specific project. Freedom Fund.

Take care everyone

Have a lovely weekend.

David