December 2011

We wish you a very Happy New Year! -from all of us at the Sasha family

Sasha Store

Celebrations

December is the month for fun, parties, celebrations and anticipation for the New Year! In keeping with the festivities, the Sasha shop was also looking very happy and cheerful! The shop was full of a variety of products on display and we had good sales! Many visitors, tourists and buyers visited us this month as they usually do every year! Many are regulars and Sasha shop is a must visit on their to-do list. On the 3rd of December, the much awaited Kantha Exhibition was inaugurated by June Maliah. Our artisans had been working the entire year to put up a beautiful collection of bedspreads, cushion covers, stoles, garments and accessories which received a very good response among all the customers. Along with the normal collection, the recycled garment collection was also much appreciated. On 16th and 17th Dec we participated in a Lifestyle Midnight Carnival “Vanity Street” held at Forum Mall. Most people loved our product range and we received a very good response among different segments of people. We displayed products in line with our Christmas collection. Decorative hangings, stoles, candles, jewellery, coir items, leather, diaries and cards were a total hit! Also, from 16th to 18th Dec we organized a Christmas Bazaar at City Center, Salt Lake. We displayed similar products as in Forum and the response was good.

News from the Field

Team Work
The highlight of the month was a series of interactions of the Sasha/SSA team with the Producer partners. In the daily grind of day-to-day activities, close interactions are often overlooked. So it is always necessary to converge, reassess and reconfirm our commitments to each other, the network and Fair Trade. The larger objective is to conduct businesses efficiently as well as to keep continuity in market access to ensure regular work for artisans.
The month culminated with the Sasha Annual Producer
Group Meeting in Kolkata.
At SSA, apart from facilitating the series of interactions and the larger Producer Group meeting, we were involved with some of our own programmes as well. We had a workshop on Environment, Health and safety Jeevika Development Society, where 21 artisans participated. Apart from interactive session on workplace safety, fire safety, first aid & waste management; visual communication materials for display and awareness were provided.
Four interactive sessions were held with producer partners belonging to Sasha Craft Services, Sasha Textile Artisan Association & Sasha garments. Several issues were identified, discussed and recommendations made to work jointly. Common objectives were revisited; present global economic scenario and its impact on markets were discussed in addition to streamlining supply chain and operational matters for smooth functioning. The larger objective is to build Fair Trade businesses and improvement in the quality of lives of the end producers.
The Producer Group representatives and leaders shared their views on how they need to intensify the efforts in domestic market along with export business.

Sasha Annual Producer Group Meeting 2011

The biggest event of this month was the Annual Producer Group Meeting, an annual affair. This year it was held in Kolkata on 29th to 30th December 2011. The inaugural day began with the traditional lighting of the lamp by Ms. Roopa Mehta, Mr. Debasish Ray Choudhuri, and Alim Bhai of Vikas India & Sumita Biswas of Panchannagram Mahila Samity.
After the brief welcome address by Ms. Mehta & Mr. Ray Choudhuri, Producer Group Incentives were handed over to a total of sixty two groups- 22 amongst them were awarded additional incentives for their commitment to implementing additional benefits for their artisans and adherence to other Fair Trade standards. This was followed by a business session with presentations on highlights of the year and focus areas for the coming year from December 2011. A special dinner and cultural programme was organised for the evening.

Award Ceremony

Day two was dedicated to the presentation of the Subhashini Kohli award, in fond remembrance of the founder. Self Help Handicrafts Society received the trophy this year. Other groups that received citations were Ushagram Lokoshikshaniketan and Raju Adhikary. Asha Niketan received special mention.

Business Plans

The award ceremony was followed by the marketing presentations on export & domestic. The second half of the day was devoted to intensive discussions on expanding markets, roles, responsibilities and road map. Important decisions were taken for active engagement and result orientedness in domestic marketing. All the groups actively participated and shared concrete ideas through group work. Producer Group representatives to the Sasha Executive Committee were selected for next two years. The Annual Meet concluded with a vote of thanks.

Trainings and Workshops

We also had an in house workshop with the field team at Sasha, Sasha Craft Services, Artisan Association, the departmental heads & SSA persons. The workshop was extremely interactive and was divided into two sessions: first on operational issues like follow up, quality & progress tracking. The second was on skill development;and topics covered importance of team work, communication skills like listening, speaking, reading & writing; critical thinking & barriers to it. The workshop was interspersed with activities and games based on the topic.

The workshop was conducted by Sujata Goswami and attended by the DSWS staff and SSA persons. The workshop was entirely practical with discussion on real issues the units are facing in relation to the topics, with activities. Roshni Mukherjee and Swagata Ghosh visited the Save the Children supported DSWS tailoring units at Sandeshkhali to conduct skill assessment and make operational arrangements so that Sasha may work with one of the units for the domestic market in the presence of the representatives of Save the children, DSWS and members
of SSA .

Read our October 2011 Update