Peter: "Our aim is to strengthen the groups so that their governance is transparent and their activities are socially and economically sustainable."

French luxury fashion house Chloé and Mifuko collaboration began in 2021 in the midst of the pandemic. Since then, Mifuko's artisans have been weaving baskets for Chloé, to which Chloé adds their own design elements to create a co-branded collection.

Uupi has been shooting Mifuko's images since 2011 and grown as a professional alongside us. We asked her to write about this experience from her own point of view.

Community-based organisation founded in 2021 brings together women's groups

Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) has verified Mifuko as a genuine social enterprise in August 2022 on the basis of the Guarantee process set by the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) of which Mifuko is a certified member.

We interviewed Eevi about her product experience, and she brought pictures of her Mifuko products at home with her family members.

Self-motivated and resourceful team player is one of our key actors in Makueni

Anita is inspired by the synergy between company and NGO

Depending on the size of the basket and the experience of the artisan it takes between half a day and two days to weave a basket. Once the basket is complete, the ends of the baskets are trimmed with scissors, which have also been donated to the artisans by the Finnish homeware company Fiskars. Each basket is marked with the name of the artisan who weaved it, and its journey from the warehouse to Finland and from there to resellers and into the customers’ homes begins.

The plastic used in Mifuko's baskets is surplus and recycled plastic. The baskets are highly durable, so the carbon footprint of the plastic is minimal.

Launched in January 2021, the WASH and Grow! project has made consistent progress on ecological sanitation, strengthened local civil society by supporting the establishment of Mifuko Women Development CBO, a women artisans' own grassroots level organisation, and established effective cooperation with local government.

Faith Nzeve and Sabeth Ndaka have been friends for eight years, they met during a general meeting for Mifuko weavers. 

The achievements and new challenges of Mifuko Trust's WASH and Grow! project

Francis Ogonga and Mifuko have been working together since 2009. Gololi Crafts, a social enterprise, produces a variety of handicrafts from local eco-friendly materials, employing disadvantaged women and widows. The ceramic stars in our collection are made by Gololi Crafts.

The Finnish and Kenyan project managers, Peter Manyolo and Anita Lintula, took up the challenge in late 2021 and applied for funding from Fingo Powerbank to create community-based innovations. Community-led innovation is about ordinary people developing and testing solutions that benefit the whole community. Together with Butterfly Works, a Dutch organisation, Fingo Powerbank trained the applicant organisations with co-creation with the users of the product in design thinking methods.

Hanna Anonen won the Young Finnish Designer award in 2021 and no wonder since she has designed fun and colourful products for multiple Finnish brands. Anonen designed Mifuko's Kandili candle holder series which has five stackable models. We interviewed her about her design process and collaboration with Mifuko.

Vilma Autio tells of her background and interests in WASH and Grow!

Christine, Florence, and Alice sat next to each other when all the weavers were gathered together. They started chatting and one thing led to the other, and now they are now practically inseparable.

WASH and Grow!-hanke vahvistaa käymälärakentamisen esteettömyyttä