We want women to prosper and to be able to shape their own lives. Furthermore we want the natural environment to be preserved and to flourish. To us this makes intuitive sense on a human level. We want our suppliers to be happy and full-filled, living in a healthy environment. But this also makes business sense. We work in a unique context with many challenges. Challenges for us as a business, but even more challenging for the communities that we work in. For more details please read “A day in her life”. The result of those challenges is that in recent years there is a distinct trend towards migration to urban centers from rural villages, and Nilotica trees are cut down for charcoal. If this trend continues this could mean that in 25 years time there won’t be any people living in the Nilotica rich communities, or maybe there will not be any more Nilotica trees. What do we do then?

So aside from the fact that human compassion gives us an interest in our supplier’s lives and in the health of our planet so does our business. We are tied together. When they prosper we prosper, and when we prosper they prosper! It is that simple. And we wouldn’t want it any other way. But we go beyond that fundamental dependency to maximise our impact. To us that is good business.