Kadam

Kadam's approach to empowering impoverished women and youth in rural India is inventive and innovative; the organization builds self-sustaining "craft clusters" across the country. These craft clusters are comprised of women and youth that have received training in weaving traditional crafts or entrepreneurial skills. This approach addresses overlapping environmental, social, and cultural concerns. The crafts that Kadam produces combine environmentally sustainable materials with traditional local community methods of hand-crafting. Further, Kadam's model prioritizes the empowerment and agency of local communities. Although the organization is instrumental in the initial stages establishing craft clusters, training participants, and building quality control infrastructure, Kadam then transitions the project to the community's control. In this way, Kadam is committed to providing local employment that is sustainable, culturally relevant, and self-sustaining.