By Tim Straight | Founder and Executive Director
Yes, we've restructured! HDIF has moved offices back to the Impact Hub, is reducing staff, and is shifting focus... Not easy at all, but after 14 years of creating jobs in Armenia, we needed to step back and rethink... become lean and mean, in order to be more effective...
1. We are focusing very strongly on Armenian sheep's wool... a wasted resource! With 90% of wool produced in Armenia annually being burned, we want to use this wasted resource - circular economy, value chain, digitilization... while still creating jobs. If you want to learn more about that effort, see our other project profile:
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/armwool-reviving-armenias-wool-heritage/
2. We however continue full steam to provide high quality hand made products from our 'classic' collection. An example of this is 400 blue elephants (not exactly native to Armenia!) hand crocheted in Gyumri for shipment to the EU and the U.S. The last 200 were picked up from the new office at the Impact Hub at Sasountsi Davit just days ago. Bulk orders like that are a staple of our work. They provide solid, regular work to our artisans around the country. Other clients in Switzerland, the UK and Australia also order in bulk regularly.
3. HDIF also has a few solid clients in Yerevan. These are mostly tourist shops that carry our bread and butter products - Armenian letter ornaments, key tags and magnets, taraz themed key tags, and a smattering of other products. We recently fulfilled an order for 390 of the hanging letters to Matenadaran here in Yerevan, as well as hundreds of letters, key tags and magnets to a new Made by Armenia location. This in addition to regular orders from Note Mote's two locations and several others.
4. And of course there is our display in the tax free area at Zvartnots airport that places large orders every second month or so.
We do all this to support the 150 artisans around the country that depend on us for a supplemental income.
Pround of what we do, and do so well!
So grateful for your support....
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