Bwindi Handmade Crafts

Wishing all our friends, supporters, customers and partners a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year!

We are so grateful for all the partnerships and collaborations that have grown in the last year and we are looking forward to another exciting 12 months of working together, empowerment and positive, sustainable impact!

WORLD CHILDREN'S DAY is in April in Hong Kong, in September in Germany and today it is marked by the United Nations. There can’t be too many opportunities to reflect on the well-being and rights of children and how to realise real change.
We strongly believe that financially empowering women in the communities where we work in Uganda creates a solid foundation for responsible and sustained improvement in child welfare and rights.

Today we are celebrating just a few ways how jobs in crafts makes a difference to children!

1. Improved Education: With some extra household income, women can afford to buy the basic supplies that are needed to keep children in school, for example books, pencils, and school uniforms, as well as sending them with lunch so that they can remain at school. Empowering women economically supports the goal of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education for all.

2. Enhanced Healthcare: Increased income from craft making enable women to afford better healthcare for their families. Regular health check-ups, vaccinations, and timely medical interventions contribute to improved child health. We have heard from our partners that they save part of the money they have earnt from crafts in order to have access to an emergency fund.

3. Empowerment and Role Modeling: Financially empowered women serve as positive role models for their children, especially daughters. This can break the cycle of gender inequality and empower the next generation. Witnessing empowered women can inspire children, fostering a belief in equal opportunities for all, regardless of gender.

By focusing on empowering women economically through opportunities in craft making, we not only uplift women but also create a ripple effect that significantly improves the well-being and rights of children. These efforts align with various Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), emphasizing the interconnectedness of social and economic development.

If you would like to find out more about any of our programmes or would like to support us by showcasing our crafts, please get in touch or share this post!

We are keeping the going all weekend and so we are sharing some more feedback from a customer who bought (a couple of) our gifts for a family member at Christmas.

Anya from the US said, “Very happy with my purchase. Lovely gift box, beautiful items, & eco-friendly packaging. Was given the option to customize certain items to make the box more personalized. Shipped directly to the recipient with hand written gift message, arrived in time for Christmas, & was well received! Prompt shipping & good communication from seller. Many thanks! 5*”

Our gifts sets not only include lots of great fairtrade goodies, but they are fully customisable depending on personal preferences, can be shipped worldwide and direct to the lucky recipient, and make amazing gifts all year round.

Don’t forget to say thanks to the hardworking, dedicated teachers at this time of year!

Keeping the positive vibes going all weekend!!

We are continuing our meet the maker series by introducing the big smile of Rehema.

She has 40 years of life experience and is the vice chair of the Nkuringo Weavers who meet in a trading centre at one of the starting points for the gorilla treks - high up in the clouds in the southern sector of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

For Rehema she enjoys weaving in natural, earthy colours to create large lidded baskets in a style that the ladies call Rushashara in the local dialect of Rukiga and means 'open weaving'. Weaving is an important source of additional income for her but perhaps more than that holding a position of responsibility in the group also empowers her to speak out in the wider community on behalf of the ladies in the group.

This is a beautiful reminder that what we are doing is not really about the lovely practical grass-woven items that our ladies make using their hands, but of the WHY we are doing this and why our customers connect with us - we are empowering women through creating jobs, roles of responsibility and positive models within the community and this leads to sustainably and responsible communities in rural parts of Uganda.

If this resonates with you, leave us a comment below and check out our little shop on Etsy for some gift inspiration.

Happy Friday!

Wishing everyone lots of love not just today but always, come rain or shine!

“He who loves, love you with your dirt.” Ugandan Proverb

We really enjoyed working closely with customers in the lead up to Christmas on putting together personalised gift sets to send directly to friends and family for the holidays – many were from the USA and wanted to send a gift to family in Europe that would arrive in time for Christmas.

It is so rewarding to receive positive feedback about our gift sets of fairtrade goodies alongside our crafts from Uganda. Therefore, we are going to use today’s post to share some feedback.

Anya is from the USA and bought a couple of our gift sets to send to family in Germany. We worked with her to personalise her sets and her aunt loved her gift set so much that Anya left us this positive review on our .

“Very happy with my purchase. Lovely gift box, beautiful items, & eco-friendly packaging. Was given the option to customize certain items to make the box more personalized. Shipped directly to the recipient with hand written gift message, arrived in time for Christmas, & was well received! Prompt shipping & good communication from seller. Many thanks! 5*”

Exciting, thoughtful fairtrade products = Happy customers = a fairer more just world!

If like Anya you would like to make someone’s day by showing that you care, then sending a personalised gift then please leave a comment below or send us a DM. You can also check out our gift sets in our Etsy shop (link in bio!) - we can make up gift sets for all budgets and preferences!!

Have a great weekend!

Some midweek good news!

We are very excited to announce that we have been given the opportunity to pop-up in a Weltladen shop in a small town called Celle in Lower Saxony, Germany. This will be our first time showcasing our crafts in a shop in a non-English speaking country!

The Weltladens which literally translates as world shops are run by volunteers who have a passion for seeing a fairer more just world. They identify that Fairtrade is a powerful tool to try and achieve this and through their shops they champion crafts and everyday groceries that have not only been carefully selected from providers that are Fairtrade registered, but also showcasing smaller brands and groups that might not otherwise have the opportunity to promote their items and stories.

Whilst we as a brand are not yet Fairtrade registered we do aspire to the 10 Fairtrade Principles in all that we do, from providing opportunities to the small remote communities bordering Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, paying our partners fair prices for their items which allows them to extra left over to better cater for their families and invest in the wider community, as well as being kind to the planet in the way that we source the materials for our products through to the way that we package and ship our crafts. We work closely with our partners to make sure they are at the heart of decisions that are made around designs, pricing and importantly future planning.

We are very grateful for this opportunity to have our crafts on display alongside over brands from Uganda like coffee from Utamtsi and we are hopeful that we might be able to grow our collaboration and popup in more Weltläden and independent shops in Germany and beyond!

If you know of a shop where our products would look great in then please tag them in the comments below and we’d be so pleased to start the conversation!

Happy hump day everyone!!

Happy Monday!

The Nkuringo Women Weavers group are continuing to grow in numbers and a bit of Monday motivation we are shinning the spotlight on the newest member of the group who has joined in the New Year.

Meet Florence: the very newest member of the Nkuringo Women Weavers group - the first member to join in 2022. She is 31 years old and is a mother of 3 children. She has the hope to build her own house and to own her own goats, but her dreams and motivations centre on ensuring that her children receive a good education. She sees weaving as a way to generate an income to achieve this and has learnt to weave from other ladies in the village. Florence weaves bowls and large shallow trays in a bright mustard yellow which she achieves by dying her grasses with bark from a native tree called Omufumbwa which is sourced responsibly from a re-introduced indigenous tree source.

Keep an eye out for some upcoming post where we will be sharing some more information about the dyeing process and sharing some video clips of the ladies dyeing their grasses.

Florence learnt to weaving from other ladies who taught her and was was motivated to join the group after seeing how the ladies were benefiting not only financially by earning an income from weaving but also by seeing them playing a more visible role within the community as business women working together - !

Let us know in the comments what you are looking forward to most this new week and don’t forget to check out our little shop on Etsy – link in bio!

Have a great week!

Happy International Day of Education!
Schools in Uganda have started going back after nearly two years of being closed during to Corona virus precautions. This is fantastic news for the young people who like their peers around the world have found it really tough and frustrating not to be able to go to school.

Education is seen as the key to building bright, more prosperous futures for not only young generations but for a country as a whole. When we speak with our partners about their motivations for making crafts and their hopes for the future it comes as no surprise that earning additional income to be able to afford to pay for all the things needed for their children’s education, is always the number one answer, with many ladies saying that they want to provide their children (and grandchildren!) with the tools and opportunities of a better future – not too different to parents the world over.

Access to basic primary school education in Uganda has really improved over the last decade or so, but with overcrowded government schools, parents often try to find the money to be able to send their children to smaller private schools.

At our core as a social enterprise we aim to financially empower our partners by seeking out market opportunities to showcase their beautiful crafts and provide them with a sustainable income so that they make clearer decisions about conservation, health and education.

Just before Christmas we did a soft launch of a new partnership with a local group of women who hand make bars of soap with locally sourced ingredients and scents. Not only are they great soaps that provide jobs for a small group on women in a community bordering Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, but this project is part of a wider health initiative which promotes improved hygiene and handwashing in the home and at schools. For each bar of soap that is sold, a bar of soap is given back to the community.

This year we are working with our friends at Rugando Parents School to provide not only the soaps to them but also to run handwashing workshops when the soaps are delivered. This initiative is particularly important during uncertain Corona times. Please take a look at their page for more details and message us to get your orders of soap in to support this responsible, impactful intervention.

Our soap is available from us directly or in store and . We are always open to new collaborations to increase the impact of this super initiative so please drop us an email, DM or comment below!

We’re kicking off the new week by sharing some in the form of from a recent (international) customer who bought one of Beatrice’s brightly coloured aprons as a gift for one of her sisters – the other sister also got a bit jealous and wanted one for herself too!

Maria left us this lovely review on our little shop!

Well-made crafts = Happy customers = empowered women partners!

So please don’t just take our (poor) pictures as how beautiful these aprons are, take Maria and her sisters’ words for it! We’ve got lots of beautiful fabric aprons handmade by Beatrice on our Etsy shop so check them out at the link in the bio.

And if you have any photography tips on how we can take better photos of these brightly coloured kitengye fabrics in order to show them off for all their worth, then please leave a comment below or drop us a DM!

Have a great week!

For our first meet the maker post of 2022 we are giving the spotlight to the weaving group of Nkuringo.

They are a group of about 16 ladies who meet in a small trading centre situated high up in the hills bordering Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Southwest Uganda. The chair of the group is a lady called Alvera and she is supported by who is the vice chair. The group particularly enjoys making large lidded baskets in two different styles - Rushaarara (which means open weave) and monochrome zigzag Nyamuraza (which means terracing). They share common missions of earning some additional income in order to become more independent in the community and to be able to support their families, especially their children's education and medical needs.

They have some exciting plans for 2022 including purchasing their own motorbike in order to be able to provide transport to ladies of the group who would like to attend meetings but are less mobile and would normally just weave from home, as well as improving their ability to get to the nearest larger town from where they can ship items to customers – it is a 2-hour motorbike ride to get to the nearest post office. The would also like to complete a small building project of a communal meeting place where they can better store their crafts as well as hold their weekly meetings – currently they store their crafts in one of the members’ house and they meet in a small office in the trading centre which isn’t always available for their use.

When you empower women you empower the whole community!

Here’s to a productive and prosperous new year!

Wishing all our supporters, partners and friends a peaceful, prosperous and healthy 2022!!

The last year hasn’t been without its challenges for us all but our resilience, perseverance and collaboration has gotten us through it, and we are looking forward to a successful new year in which we hope to grow and develop existing and new collaborations, create further opportunities for our partners to share their skills and talents, and build the positive impact that these opportunities create for planet and people!

Let us know in the comment below what you are looking forward to most in the coming months!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Small independent brands popping up are not just for Christmas!

For all your gifts for beyond just Christmas visit where you will find our crafts on display alongside other super cool brands like .eco , and .

Let us know in the comments what your favourite gift at Christmas was or one you would rather swap!

Today we are having a moment and would like to share some from !

One of our customers last Christmas bought one of our wood-carved gorillas that are carved by Oscar and friends using their hands (and feet!) in a small village border Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, home to the endangered mountain gorillas. She bought the gorilla as a gift for her boyfriend and no surprise he loved it!

Oscar’s gorillas have been very popular this Christmas too – they make great stocking fillers, secret Santa gifts and are something a bit different for that person who has everything and is just so tough to buy something original for! Not to mention the great back story about how they empower young men in southwest Uganda by providing them with an income and deterring them from poaching or cutting trees in the forest.

It’s not too late to pick up that last-minute gift – the little fellows are still in stock for our London-based followers and for our Swiss fans!

If you’re interested in the conservation efforts in then please leave a comment below or DM us!

In the lead up to we are back were it all started for us as a small brand showcasing the talents and hard work of our partners in Uganda – in !
We are privileged to have our crafts on display alongside some awesome brands like and anaisamormelts to name just a few!

If you are looking for an afro-vibe Christmas then look no further than , cool brands, fun events and lots of in-store activities!

Drop us a thumbs up in the comments if you are feeling the good vibes this Christmas!

It is always a great sign when our partner numbers increase as it shows the trust and faith that our partners have in working with us and today we are introducing a new lady who has joined the group of women weavers who meet together in the Nkuringo trading centre, high up at the borders of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in southwest .

Meet Folorida. She is a young woman of 22 years and although she is the newest lady to join the group she brings with her several years of weaving experience. She started to weave when she was 16 having grown up watching her mother and aunties weaving. She enjoys making large lidded baskets in a distinctive monochrome zigzag pattern. In the local language of Rukiga the ladies call this pattern design Nyamuraza which translates as ‘terracing of land’. Women in Uganda play key roles in subsistence farming in the family and so it is beautiful at this hard work transpires to the creativity of their weaving.

Folorida is not yet married and is saving the additional income that she generates from selling her baskets so that she can buy some 'domestic birds' aka chickens! Her mission is to save her own money now so that she can better support her future family.

If you want to empower women by supporting their efforts to generate additional income for them and their families please check out our little or send us a DM for more information!

You can also check out our baskets at a couple of our Christmas popups and

Do you have some spooky tricks planned for the weekend?

If treats are more your thing then our little shop is just the thing you need!
To celebrate the changing colours of the trees, pumpkin season and the start of warm cosy meals around the dinner table we are offering a 15% discount across our whole shop - and not just on these beautiful autumnal coloured products! All weekend until Tuesday 2 November 2021!

Let us know in the comments what’s your favourite thing about autumn!

Fun fact!
If you didn’t know already… all the colours used by our partners in their weaving are all natural and are achieved by boiling the grasses with roots, herbs and barks - not artificial colours here! And the results are amazing items that will add a perfect accent of colour to your walls, tables or shelves!!

If you are interesting in finding out more about our partners and their products then please drop us a DM!

Don’t take our word for it… here is what a recent customer had to say after buying a couple of our grass-woven tablemats! Luciana is a repeat customer, so we must have done something right first-time round!

“Love my mats! This store has great quality items and customer service. 5*” Luciana - USA

Well-made crafts = Happy customers = empowered women partners!

If you want to empower women by supporting their efforts to generate additional income for them and their families please check out our little or send us a DM for more information!

Our shop also has 15% off everything…. Just in case you needed an excuse to shop with us!

Have a great weekend!