![[Liberia] Cummings Foundation Africa boosts artisans’ earnings with new handicraft showroom](Handicraft.jpg)
[Liberia] Cummings Foundation Africa boosts artisans’ earnings with new handicraft showroom
The Cummings Foundation Africa has opened a handicraft showroom allowing Liberian paintings, textile and handicrafts to be purchased by the public as it looks to boost the earnings of artisans.
The Foundation in collaboration with one of its partners, Game Changers, collects artistic works that promote Liberian arts and culture and also provides a marketplace for craftsmen and craftswomen can take their products to be sold.
The showroom is hosted at the headquarters of the Foundation, with emphasis on craftswomen.
“What we are trying to do is to support a number of women’s groups though the Foundation,” said Country Director Fatu Gbedema in an interview with FrontPage Africa on Sunday at the opening of the showroom. She said the Foundation had thought not only to empower people through capacity building but also provide an opportunity for them to showcase and sell their products.
“If they have a place where they can put those products than it can be sustainable; they can bring in their things every month and they get sold, and they get paid every month,” Gbedema added."
"The products are on sale from Monday to Saturday weekly, according to Gbedema. A grand opening of the handicraft showroom could be done alongside the launch of the Foundation, she said.
Game Changers that collaborates with Cummings Foundation on the handicraft project works with 50 craftswomen.
The handicraft project is even stretching its bounds, with the incorporation of a coconut oil producer. Gbedema says the hope was that the Foundation could work with 1,000 women, across the country.
“The handicraft sector is a US$20 billion industry in the world, especially African handicraft, and Liberia is not really doing well in terms of understanding the market and then tapping into it successfully,” she said. Gbedema said a recent travel to Marrakech, Morocco for a handicraft trade and impact seminar, where she represented Liberia, inspired the handicraft project.
“The good thing about the conferences we attended recently is that we now get to see how the external market works. She said handicraft is a non-traditional export market that requires knowledge on the demand and supply of the handicraft market, something Gbedema said the Foundation could do to find out what the market wants.
“Generally, people just produce and pray that someone will come and buy it, and that does not happen all the time. Now we’ve changed that around and we’re finding out what the people want, what the specks are for the buyers and then working with the women to produce those products that we know will be bought.”
Cummings Foundation has been working with women on the handicraft project for a while. Games Changers has been organizing an annual arts and culture festival and another is expected to be held on Christmas Day this year. Game Changers also participates twice a year in an arts and culture show in the United States.
The Foundation works with Vital Voices, a United States-based organization, on the handicraft project. She says she established contact with international foundations such as the Grace Machel Foundation, Canadian Businesswomen Association and others that she says are willing to mentor Liberian women into the production and trade of handicraft and others. Locally, the Foundation in addition to Game Changers, works with My Heart’s Appeal on the handicraft program.
