Annapurna Handicraft

Annapurna Handicraft is a small scale business organization aimed at allivating economy of women Home Based Workers (HBW) living in various parts of Nepal. The business organization beleive that gender equality can never be achived until and unless housewives don't have finiancial dependency. The main hurdle in the field of gender equality is connected to finiancial independency among women who has to look up on men, be it husband,father,brother etc.
Though women work longer hours than their male counterpart, it is the men of the family who make decision when it comes to finiancial issues. Due to social structor of Nepal, women still have take care of household chores which lasts more than 12 hours.
Annapurna Handicraft is providing part-time work to housewives. Besides working in the workshop, members can take raw materials home and work when they are cooking or get some free time in between their daily chores.
Besides handicraft production, It is also involved in a micro-credit project which provide soft-loans to its members so that they can invest it in tools/raw material etc.
Training on use of locally avilable resources are being organized in various parts of the country.
Annapurna Handicraft was established on 2000 to facilitate Kathmandu based deprived women living and to promote their skill in an innovative way. the enterprise was established to create win-win situation for both the individual members and the enterprise as a whole. The members of the enterprise produce all the products and in turn, Annapurna Handicraft provide them with employment and shares profit with themAnnapurna Handicraft is committed towards innovative new techniques of creating various products including natural fabric and handmade Lokta paper items that suits the needs and demands of its customers.
Annapurna Handicraft explores traditional skills practiced by different communities and encourage women to identify their skill in production of different goods including fashionable, market friendly products, with very high quality standards
Most of our raw materials such as hemp, nettle, cotton, silk, natural pashmina come from the foothills of Himalayas, and they are made locally. Local villagers collect wild hemp and nettles in quantities that do not adversely affect the bio-system, to keep the harvest eco-friendly.
As mentioned above, Annapurnna Handicraft is committed towards dealing on eco-friendly methods while producing what we sell.
Process of eco-friendly production
Production begins with soaking the plant fiber, which is then boiled with ash to bleach it and make it soft. After drying on rocks in the sun, the fiber is turned into thread by hand and delivered to looms to be woven into fabric. Hemp fabric is a bit harder than nettles and is more durable than cotton, and hemp products are long-lasting. These natural fiber fabrics are healthful for the wearer, providing warmth in cold weather and helping one stay cool in during hot weather

PRODUCTS
As Papparius for Egypticians, Handmade Lokta papers has been in every important events of the history of Nepalese people since time unknown. Like Pharoas of Egypt, Nepalese people have used Lokta paper to preserve valuable documents.
In Annapurna Handicraft, Lokta paper is beeing used in manufacturing variety of products including awide range of stationary items, gift items, lampshades etc. Craftsmen of Nepal have been using age-old method to produce unique handmade papers, also known as Lokta Paper.