April heralds the arrival of spring season across the Northern hemisphere. It is also the harvesting season and the beginning of a new calendar year. April is full of festivities, with Poila Boishakh in Bengal, Basiaskhi in Punjab, Bohag Bihu in Assam, Vishu in Kerala, Good Friday, and Easter and so on. A time to clean our homes, beautify them, wear new clothes, cook a variety of food and regain our hopes for the coming year. April also marks the Fashion Revolution; a movement that came up as a rejoinder for the terrible Rana Plaza tragedy.
Fashion Revolution #whomademyclothes
On 24th April 2013, 1,134 people were killed and over 2,500 were injured when the Rana Plaza complex collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. That’s when Fashion Revolution was born. We love fashion, but we don’t want our clothes to come at the cost of people or our planet. Fashion Revolution is a global movement calling for greater transparency, sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry. We are concerned at the way our clothes & accessories are sourced, produced and purchased so that what the world wears has been made in a safe, clean and fair way. There are now over 80 countries worldwide taking parts in the Fashion Revolution movement with the #whomademyclothes campaign. We believe in fashion which is fair and sustainable– which values people, the environment, creativity and profits in equal measure, and it’s everyone’s responsibility to ensure that this happens. We at Sasha ran a social media campaign for this year’s Fashion Revolution Week. Visit our Facebook page to know and appreciate what we do! https://www.facebook.com/sashafairtrade/
Boishakhi Fiesta
Continuing with the spirit of the Fashion Revolution Week, we celebrated Bengali New Year with “Boishakhi Fiesta” at the Sasha Shop, with our new collection of clothes in Ikkats, Brights and Malkha, with saris in Natural Dye, Linen, Banarasi sarees, Begumpur cottons, varieties of stoles in Phulia cottons, natural dyes, Jamdanis, linen etc. We also displayed new collection of jewellery in copper and metal, pottery and more. A special Pop up show for Rangsutra clothes was organized to joins hands with social enterprises committed to small producers. We used this week to encourage millions of people to ask brands ‘Who made my clothes’? Our Boishakhi fiesta featured our own producers, #RangSutra and Rabha tribal weaves from North Bengal. Read more on the event – http://www.wotweb.com/wot-article/sashas-boisakhi-fiesta/
Sasha pops ups
From 10th to 13th April, Sasha participated in 4 of Cognizant Technologies offices in exhibition on occasion of the Bengali New Year. Sasha also participated in “Baisakhi Mela” at The Tollygunge Club on 23rd April. Infinity Technologies invited Sasha on Earth Day (22nd April) for hosting a pop up show.
SOIR-IM Country Director@SSA
Our Swedish Development partner SOIR-IM’s Country Director Ms. Savitri Sharma & Program Officer Ms. Sharon Mary Jacob visited SSA to understand SSA’s work in depth and the role of Sasha, to get clarity on the project plan for 2017 and to discuss and update the management letter from the Audit of 2016. They also visited two of Sasha’s Producer Groups and the Sasha Shop. We also discussed about future collaboration and challenges that can be mitigated jointly through greater cooperation.
Stay tuned for the World Fair Trade Day celebrations with us in May! #BeAnAgentForChange #FairTradeDay.
