Grant & Give

108 Mala proudly showcase luxurious bedding and bath, decorative home accents, fashionable jewelry, and stylish personal accessories. Each product is handmade and eco-friendly, utilizing sustainable textiles, organic cotton, recyclable and lead-free materials, vegan fabrics, and natural dyes. Preserving traditional crafts of appliqué, embroidery, block printing, and weaving, each piece represents the work of fair trade artisans from around the world.

We are committed to supporting the lives of artisans and craftspeople everyday. All 108 Mala products and operations follow Fair Trade principles and engage in sustainable and eco-friendly product development. We truly believe gainful employment, self-respect, market access, and enterprise development help eradicate poverty.

Each year, 108 Mala provides grants to support local communities around the world. All proceeds go to development organizations, collectives, and communities working on livelihoods, income generation, and micro-enterprise development.

We also actively engage in ensuring all products are green – by using organic and natural cottons, working with recyclable and sustainable materials, and supporting carbon off-setting projects. Every step of the production process seeks to minimize the impact on the environment.

Check back regularly with us here for updates on 108 Mala's Grant Foundation and for future Giving Opportunities. Thank you.

Meet the Artisans and their Crafts

108 Mala works with individual craftspeople, artisan collectives, and non-profit organizations. Our partners focus on training women in marketable skills, supporting ancient and local handcrafted works of art, developing self-sufficiency for artisans, and improving the quality of life of marginalized communities.

108 Mala works to enable, enhance, and empower artisans and craft communities in urban slums and rural villages - helping them to design eco-friendly products and marketing them to international customers. 108 Mala is proud to work with these artisan communities and organizations to give them access to better shelter, basic rights, water, education, and infrastructure. The stories of the following women demonstrate how handcrafted textiles can change lives:

Kavita, at 18, had seen more tragedy than most do in a lifetime. Her brother was a farmer whose shame at his mounting debt from high cultivation costs and low commodity prices caused him to commit suicide. Her father was too frail and weak to continue his work at the loom. In deep poverty and with no other breadwinners in the household, the responsibility for bringing food to the table came to rest solely on Kavita’s shoulders.

Working with local partners and artisan cooperatives, Kavita has been given skills to sustain her families’ livelihood through weaving fabrics, block-printing materials, and painting on raw silk 108 Mala works with Kavita and numerous other female artisans who sell products to help stave off poverty and build small entrepreneurship ventures.

108 Mala has identified the production of non-violent silk yarn to generate livelihoods for tribal and rural families in India. Female artisans are working to produce and weave wonderful and natural raw silk to promote an independent and viable enterprise for their families. Women like Hema, who just a few years ago saw her life in terrible conditions.

Months without work, struggling to feed her six children and selling valuables for basic medical care, Hema joined a self-help group. Through accumulated savings and a micro-credit loan, she purchased a reeling machine to create silk yarn from cocoons. She received skills-training from local non-governmental organizations and now reels about two kilograms of fine quality yarn per month. She has even become a supervisor for other women entering the trade. Her income now comprises the main livelihood source for the family. Hema plans to teach her daughter skills so she can become self-dependent as well.

Raji started working with a female cooperative twelve years ago. Embroidery had been a hobby of hers since childhood, but she was never given the support or tools to use her skills for gainful employment. Fifteen years ago her husband died, leaving her to take care of her three children. To sustain her family, Raji would migrate looking for work, disturbing her home life and her children’s education.

She found a training facility supporting women and their crafts – giving her strength and confidence to live life as an artisan producing work that rivals any factory-made product in the world. Raji now owns her own house and is teaching her children the art of embroidery to go through life with dignity and self-respect.

Sangeeta recalls her family struggling to make ends meet. She would spend her days rag-picking, barely collecting enough to feed the family one meal a day. Her father would often drink away any savings they accrued – leaving the family with no other options but hard physical labor and strenuous working conditions. Sangeeta met some female artisans and started a training program to help her gain an income through stitching, embroidery, and quilting. The craft community works with local partners to change the lives of women like Sangeeta everyday.

Fair Trade

108 Mala works with artisans to support livelihoods and income generation in developing countries around the world. We focus on women and marginalized communities, helping with product development and design for eco-friendly, handmade, organic, and sustainable products. By becoming a recognized brand for fair trade and luxury goods, we aim to create a platform to support artisans and their work.

Our commitment to Fair Trade is evidenced by our adherence to the following principles in relationships with our diverse partner collectives and organizations:

1. Pays fair wages, according to local and international context, to the artisan that crafted the product and associated employed staff
2. Has a clear and enforced standard for minimum working conditions of craftworkers, which applies to suppliers and sub-contractors, and includes:
1. Follows non-discriminatory hiring practices
2. Provides access to safe and clean working environments
3. Endorses standard and consistent rules for payment terms and conditions
4. Ensures no involvement of child labor and follows all international and domestic child labor laws
3. Creates and deepens long-term trading relationships with two-way transparency
4. Increases upfront payment to assist artisans and their livelihood with 0% interest loans for pre-production
5. Offers design, technical, and supply chain assistance
6. Strives to increase eco-friendly, environmentally sustainable production at all points on the supply chain
7. Supports the sustainability of the community, the culture, and the environment

Green Initiatives

108 Mala believes in working with the earth and its natural resources to provide a sustainable future for all people involved in our work. We help artisans chose and discover eco-friendly fabrics, production, and packaging. In addition to making every effort to minimize environmental impact in our product cycle, we actively engage with local green businesses, support carbon-offsetting projects, and work with various charities and organizations.

108 Mala is honored to be apart of the Fair Trade Federation.
The Fair Trade Federation is the trade association that strengthens and promotes North American organizations fully committed to fair trade. 108 Mala is excited to be apart of the global fair trade movement, building equitable and sustainable trading partnerships and creating opportunities to alleviate poverty. For more information, please visit www.fairtradefederation.org

108 Mala is a proud member of 1% For The Planet.
1% For The Planet is an alliance of businesses that donate at least 1% of their annual revenues to environmental organizations worldwide. 108 Mala is proud to be a part of this powerful and important network of socially responsible businesses. We look forward to being an active part of helping America go green! For more information, please visit www.onepercentfortheplanet.org

108 Mala receives Business Seal of Approval from Green America’s Green Business Network.
Green America's Green Business Network is dedicated to helping socially and environmentally responsible businesses emerge and thrive to form a global green economy. With Green America's Business Seal of Approval, 108 Mala hopes to leverage this network to increase awareness of environmentally responsible consumption and production. To provide a lasting impact on the artisans and environment around us, we continue to seek out new ways to support renewable energy, fair trade practices, and the green economy. For more information, please visit www.coopamerica.org.

108 Mala works with Carbonfund.org to offset our carbon footprint.
Carbonfund.org works to fight against global warming, helping businesses to reduce and offset their climate impact and build a clean energy future. In addition to minimizing our impact on the environment at all points in the supply chain, 108 Mala offsets what carbon emissions we cannot reduce. After calculating our yearly carbon footprint, we then support an equivalent value of carbon dioxide emission reductions through domestic and international renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects.

108 Mala is striving towards 100% recyclable, eco-friendly packaging and labeling by 2011.
We are on the hunt for environmentally sustainable, bio-degradable, recycled, and/or natural sources for packaging our artisan-made products. Stay tuned for more information!

Income Generation and Livelihood Projects

Coming soon!

Sustainable Materials

108 Mala sources the highest quality fabrics, textiles, and materials – ensuring the end product is both luxurious and eco-friendly. All of our products have green and sustainable elements to the design and production. For example, the bedding is handmade by artisans, our scarves use natural silks and vegetable dyes, our jewelry is lead-free, our journals use recycled and handmade paper, and our handbags are traditionally block-printed by hand.

For our Bedding and Bath Collection, we work with:

• Certified organic cotton for some of our most popular lines
• Khadi - 100% hand-spun, hand-woven cloth – created by a traditional spinning wheel and supported by Mahatma Gandhi for rural self-employment and self-reliance
• Natural and vegetable dyes as well as unbleached fabric
• Hand block-print, hand applique, and hand-embroidered techniques
• Handmade by female Artisans in Western India

For our Handbags, Purses, and Travel Accessories, we work with:

• Certified organic cotton for some of our most popular lines
• Khadi - 100% hand-spun, hand-woven cloth – created by a traditional spinning wheel and supported by Mahatma Gandhi for rural self-employment and self-reliance
• Recyclable and vegan materials
• Natural and vegetable dyes as well as unbleached fabric
• Hand block-print techniques
• Handmade by female Artisans in Northern and Western India

For our Scarves and Wraps, we work with:

• Cruelty-free yarn and fabrics
• Natural, vegetable, and azo-free dyes
• Hand looming techniques
• Handmade by Artisans in Northern and Eastern India

For our Jewerly, we work with:

• Lead-free metals and pieces
• Recyclable stones, gems, and beads
• Sustainably harvested and produced
• Handmade by Artisans in Northern and Eastern India

For our Journals and Stationary, we work with:

• Handmade paper
• Recycled lined inserts
• Naturally-fallen leaves, bark, petals, and twigs
• Natural and vegetable dyes
• Made by Artisans in Western and Southern India