TradeAID International

Artisan Organization: TradeAID International

Country: Bolgatanga, Ghana

Straw basket weaving is a common trade in northern Ghana, especially in the Upper East Region, where mostly women execute this incredible craft. The Handwoven African Market Baskets utilize a very intricate process –– it can take up to seven days to complete one basket!

Akugre Alebipoorum is one of TradeAID’s weavers. She is in her late sixties and lives in Sumbrungu, a suburb of Bolgatanga. Akugre has been weaving baskets for 20 years to earn enough income to care for herself and her family.  Thanks to TradeAID’s weaving center, she and her fellow weavers can now sit and do their weaving comfortably. And with the introduction of fair trade payments, she is able to save enough money in the rural bank so she can pay her children’s school fees, unlike how she was previously living, from hand to month.

Basket weaving with TradeAID has changed Akugre’s life and the lives of many other women in her community. And working with Globeln, which provides a steady stream of orders, enables her to continue to provide food for her children and meet all of her other needs.

Akugre loved seeing her photo (with the basket she made!) so much that she asked our photographer if she could have a copy for herself, which he happily supplied.