Programs: BrandAid Foundation
Announced:
August 9, 2010
Category:
Providing Small & Growing Businesses with Access to Financing & Business Services
Fund Amount: $48,000 Grant
Disbursed to Date: $48,000
Above, artisans create large numbers of vases,
to meet demand of vendors abroad.
See more in the BrandAid Photo Gallery.
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund awarded a $48,000 grant to BrandAid Foundation to help local artisans in Haiti who urgently needed assistance to stabilize their businesses. The Fund also enabled them to fulfill an important order from Macy’s, as a part of Macy’s exclusive "Heart of Haiti" collection. The "Heart of Haiti" collection is inspired by the courage and culture of the Haitian people.
Through the BrandAid grant, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and key partners have helped rebuild artisan workshops in Jacmel that were destroyed by the earthquake. The project also funded short-term warehouse rental space in order to provide storage for production materials and finished handicraft products. Macy's "Heart of Haiti" collection is a 20,000 piece collection sold online at www.macys.com/haiti and in 25 Macy's locations nationally. This order ensured livelihoods for more than 200 Haitians who now know that they will be able to provide food, shelter, clothing, and education for their families. The collection was met with wide popularity, selling out in many Macy’s locations. The remaining workshops belong to artisans involved in projects with the companies Anthropologie and Margaritaville, along with one workshop designated for carnival mask making.
One local artisan involved with this project, Gerard Dume, lost his workshop during the earthquake and had been living out of a tent in the ruins of his house and workshop. Despite these conditions, he still managed to deliver his order for this collection, thanks to the repairs.
Why We Invested in BrandAid
Clinton Bush Haiti Fund's grant to BrandAid reflects our commitment to creating economic opportunity by restarting, creating, and expanding new small and growing businesses.
Transforming Lives and Livelihoods
With support from the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, BrandAid has:
- Increased global demand for Haitian crafts;
- Collaborated with Aid to Artisans, another Clinton Bush Haiti Fund grant recipient, to aid long-term development of the Haitian arts and crafts sector;
- Assisted artisans on multiple levels of the supply chain to translate their skills into successful businesses by providing assistance in branding, marketing, and distribution.
About the BrandAid Project
The BrandAid Project is a global initiative to provide world-class branding, marketing, and distribution support to artisans in developing countries. Its co-founder, Cameron Brohman, has lived and worked in Haiti for over 25 years. Jacmel, which was hit particularly hard by the earthquake, is a traditional center for Haitian papier-mâché crafts. BrandAid Foundation, in partnership with other organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the Association pour le Développement de l'Artisanat du Sud-est (ADASE) a Haitian NGO, seeks to brand Haitian crafts produced in Jacmel and the Croix de Bouquet section of Port-au-Prince under the name "Carnival Jacmel." Learn more about the BrandAid project at www.brandaidproject.com.
