We buy about 5% of our products from Kenya - most of it carved soapstone. The business we deal with is run by Pauline, a Kenyan woman who currently lives in the UK and introduced herself to us about 6 years ago. Pauline is keen to provide employment for crafts-people in the Kisi area of Kenya and to improve the quality of life there. A striking example of this is the large primary school (for 600 children) which was built using money from her business (she decided to put in half her profit towards the school and inspired by her, the carvers also donated money, between them giving two-thirds of the total cost). 

Pauline co-ordinates the supply of goods from the carvers to us. She organises the packing and shipping and makes several visits to Kenya each year to help the movement and flow of orders, quality control and so forth run as smoothly as possible.

In terms of ethical trading, this is the place where we make the most positive contribution: the people we buy from clearly benefit from the trade we can give them, and there is very little down-side (perhaps the only negative is the environmental impact of shipping quantities of heavy soapstone across the world, though we feel this is justified given all the positives). We have visited everywhere where the goods are made and have a relationship which goes beyond just trade. We pay up-front for goods before they are produced and are happy to take a lower margin here than elsewhere. Indirectly, through the amount of business we have given her, we have helped Pauline to expand her business beyond its reliance on us.

We decided we wanted to help out the local community in Kisi.   So we are largely funding a well-digging project, and are hoping to be involved in building a new clinic.