WISE - Women In Social Entrepreneurship

This is an initiative with the aim of empowering women in Nepal to become entrepreneurs and to further employ disadvantaged women in particular. Our team started the venture to support women to take control of their lives through economic opportunity.

All profits generated from the business stay in the country and are reinvested into the education of women and children, and the development of other projects and business ideas. The resulting network of professional women and free female entrepreneurs is strengthening the women’s social position and their economic security.

SHAKTI MILAN – our first project

Shakti Milan means ‘the power of women coming together’ and is the perfect name for the first project under this initiative, which involved the setup of a bag-manufacturing site in Kathmandu. Since developing the project idea in October 2014 over a thousand bags in Nepal, Australia, Germany, Austria and Switzerland have been sold.

In a newly set up studio in Kathmandu, a team currently consisting of 12 women are manufacturing quality bags made from recycled materials – such as from rice sacks. These unique and handcrafted products are distributed through online channels and individual networks. The seamstresses in Nepal receive an education and a fair remuneration for their services, which allows them an economic perspective, and social recognition.

Dhaka: hand-woven cotton fabrics – the second project

Since April 2015, we have collaborated with the Dhaka-Ladies. The team of ten women who originally come from a village in eastern Nepal, now weave beautiful cotton fabrics with traditional patterns by hand in a small workshop in Lalipur. Saru, the founder of this company has a big heart; encouraging the team to use their own ideas and implement them is part of her ethos. She operates from this small workspace, with 6 looms that we would describe as ‘antique’. Saru weaves with her team beautiful shawls with a very old traditional pattern called ‘Dhaka’.

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