Small Steps & Good Deeds
As a small community business, all our profits are put back into the local community around us on the Zambezi in Zambia! Take a look at our latest pie chart for a look at the money, honey! And how it is spent.
Through our bright and beautiful Zambezi Joy Society, we have been able to provide opportunities for local makers to sell their handmade products to a global market and scatter joy and Chitenge Cheer around the world.
We’re incredibly grateful for all the support our sweet little shop has garnered thus far. We're grateful not only for the joy of sharing our vibrant Chitenge cheer and the patterns of the Zambezi with you, but also because it’s meant that our Zambezi makers have been able to bring in an income.
With the profit from our Shop Sales we’ve been able to purchase what we set out to from the beginning… an industrial, electric sewing machine for Mrs Njapao, who is creating beautiful tablecloths for the shop! Originally, and for many years, she has been using an old, non-industrial Flying Dove machine that could only be powered by foot.
We have since been able to gift her with a Juki industrial machine that is both powered by electricity or by foot (if load-shedding hits). Mrs Njapao was ecstatic with the new machine! This small step has huge consequences for her business and efficiency, making her work easier and more productive, bringing in more income for her and her family.
The old machine has been handed on to her husband who sews too. He has a carpentry business on the side and sews his own upholstery for his creations.
With the shop profits we’ve also been able to help more women on the Zambezi! Edith and Bettina in the Malambo village who - through Royal Chundu - we work closely with through seed donations, fresh produce purchases, craft sales and guest visits.
They haven’t been making money currently through village visits, with no guests at Royal Chundu during Lockdown, which is an important line of revenue for them. We have since been able to purchase and provide them with fuel for their village garden pump (which we will continue to support, using shop profits).
Browse, purchase, support the makers through our online shop!