Thursday, April 09, 2009
Elevyn Helps Out
Arts and crafts has never been my thing. In primary school when my masterpiece of a collage of a fishing village made of rice and red beans was my pride and joy. Unfortunately, one shake was all it took for an avalanch of badly-glued dried foodstuff to come rattling down all over my desk.
But there are people out there who depend on creating masterpieces of arts and crafts for a living (i am evidently not one of them). And as gorgeous and uniquely made those pieces are, quite often the main problem for them to make a living out of it is that they don't have the proper platform to showcase their works, or they are unfairly paid from the final sales price in the market (as low as less than a measly 10%).
That's where Elevyn comes in (pronounced as "eleven")!
With the tagline "Empowering Communities Through Trade", Elevyn is basically an online platform for marginalised communities, rural entrepreneurs and NGO's to be able to set up an online shop and sell their arts and crafts to the global market.
Here's how Elevyn works:
One of the great things about Elevyn is that it really is a cause for the local community. When someone buys something from one of the online shops, 5% will automatically be channeled to a cause that supports the local community. Causes include training for disabled people, food for elderly and single moms and more.
I was browsing through the online shops at Elevyn and there were a ton of exquisite handmade items such as jewellery, baskets, paintings and souvenirs for sale! I also read snippets of info about the local communities that made all of the things for sale.
A tribal-ish necklace made with tons of colourful beads [click]
A floral style painting [click]
An eyecatching necklace and earrings set that looks perfect with an LBD [click]
Colourful bookmarks so you're never lost [click]
And if you think you know someone who needs some help to start helping out a community, there's also the option of buying a gift certificate from Elevyn.
Anyway with so many online blog shops popping up, this is just one with a difference that will make a difference.
Many thanks to Tongue in Chic too! ;)
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