or Rural Areas
& Business Networks
Make it Matter provides artisans from across Tanzania with a premium market place that they would not normally have access to. We empower artisans living in remote, rural areas or with challenging circumstances by providing them with our platform to reach customers beyond their local communities.
WHEN WOMEN thrive,
SO DO THEIR COMMUNITIES
HOW IT STARTED
Rebecca Young, British born, has lived and worked in Africa for the past 20 years. Rebecca was first sent to Tanzania to volunteer in Pangani, a coastal town on the east coast. Later she returned to work with the Maasai in Ololosokwan before being sent to a grass roots youth project in urban Dar es Salaam. During the 14 years of working in Tanzania the art, crafts, music and storytelling has played a large part in Rebecca’s work and life.
In 2017 she was presented with an economic challenge experienced by hundreds of artisans and creative entrepreneurs from across Tanzania which threatened cultural heritage and traditional craft techniques. The dilemma jeopardised the economic stability of marginalised women, mothers and female led co-operatives who relied on their artisanal crafts as an income.
Artisans had limited access to markets for selling their arts and crafts on a regular basis. Middlemen would use bully tactics and dictate wholesale prices compromising fair trade standards and dignity in the workplace. Seasonal tourism was not enough to provide a consistent income for a household to plan for a safer, more secure future. With no justification to produce artisanal crafts, many reluctantly turned to alternative income generating activities threatening the future of craft that had such deep rooted cultural heritage. Make it Matter was born as an initiative to provide artisans from across Tanzania with a premium market place that they would not normally have access to. Make it Matter does not only sell the products but works with the artisans to build their brands, their production capacity, provides quality control training and connects them with technology and business networks to grow and flourish.
