Sungi Development Foundation

Sungi Crafts
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Our Vision and Mission Statement
Our vision is equal, just and sensible distribution of resources, based on an unbiased approach towards religion, gender, cast and need to the environment, so that a prosperous society develops on the principle of justice and equality.
With the mission to bring about policy and institutional changes by mobilising deprived and marginalised communities with the view to create and environment in which community at the local level maybe able to transform their lives through the equitable and sustainable use of resources.
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Background of Sungi’s Enterprise Development Programme

 

  • The Enterprise Development Programme (EDP) is the successor to the Crafts Program. In 1994 "Jisti" Craft Programme (JCP) was a revival programme, which started on a voluntary basis in one village. 

     

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    This village was Noordi and it was formally adopted by Sungi in July 1997 to become part of this funded pilot program. In response to the demands of the village communities, it has now reached out to villages in four districts of Hazara, namely Haripur, Abbottabad, Batgram and Mansehra, and in Muzaffarabad of AJK within Sungi’s program area.

  • Now the programme has also reached out to marginalized crafts wo/men belonging to CBO’s, NGO’s all over Pakistan to promote traditional crafts and provide support in networking and marketing of their products through Sungi Craft Shops.

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    At the beginning of 2009 a total of around 5000 artisans work with EDP in Haripur, Abbottabad, Batgram, Mansehra and Muzaffrabad.

    Advocacy Initiatives
    The program is working on the awareness raising of the home based worker’ rights since 1994. In the recognition of its efforts Ministry of Women Development selected Sungi and assigned the task to draft the first National policy on Home based women workers with the financial support of UNIFEM.

    After consulting with all the concerned stakeholders in all four provinces of Pakistan  the first draft of the National policy was also  shared in the Regional conference on home based workers in October 2008.
     

    Fair Labour Policies

    In all products are handwritten notes stitched in, showing the name of artisan and of village.

    Registered with Fair Trade Organization as advocating partner.

     

    Profit Transparency Policy:

     

    75% goes back to the artisan for labour and material and 25% to Sungi.
     
    All price tags give details of Sungi's profit distribution and is another FIRST in Pakistan. In addition each artisan stitches a handwritten label into the products to show name of artisan and village. In this way the profit trail can be followed to ensure that each worker is paid under the fair labour policy and as per IFAT.
     

    Sungi’s intense involvement in this area is continuing in the process of creating livelihoods, supporting entire communities on many levels such as health, education and standard of living. The women’s  involvement in the economic processes, defines a new role for them, a role which traditionally has been non-existent in Pakistan.

     
     The Programme’s Objectives are:

     

    v   “Improve local livelihoods through economically viable, socially acceptable and environmentally sensible use of local resources”. 

    v   Generate income for the most marginalized communities and therefore reduce poverty. 

    v   To improve livelihood rights of the most marginalized communities which is achieved through capacity building, effective networking and advocating for the rights of home based women workers at various levels for legislation / policy reforms. 

    v   Enhance entrepreneurial skills of rural craft persons by linking them also to microfinance institutions.

     

    To establish small enterprises at house hold levels. Especially by marginalized women, contribute to considerable improved standards of living together with social integration which supports and strengthens each person's life on all level. We encourage creativity and community work. 

     

    Sungi is working with dedicated staff at regional level and its objectives are achieved by holding regular exposure visits and training to capacity build in the following specialized fields:

    v  Quality control

    v  Colour and design

    v  Product development

    v  Skill enhancements

    v  Marketing

    v  Record Keeping

     

    To enhance and support the success of the home based women workers Sungi opened their own Craft Shops as far back as 1999. Starting with one shop in Islamabad followed by Karachi then in Lok Virsa / Islamabad and with the recent addition in Abbottabad.