How do mothers in small, struggling villages "create a sustainable livelihood" and should you care? By way of Mir at Would Coulda Shoulda, I've learned about LOTUS by LOA. LOA stands for League of Artistans. It's a group that states one of its missions is "to create a unifying platform to build sustainable business enterprises in the craft sector in India."

LOA's marketing director Shruti Ganguly contacted Mir and eventually me via email and explained that LOA works "with artisan groups in India to promote socially conscious crafts and consequently empowers village women. In other words we market their beautiful products in the US and we invest our profits back into those groups, allowing for more women to be employed."

LOTUS by LOA launched its beautiful website that will help sell crafts created by Indian village women and this month also launched a Mother's Day promotion. I missed telling readers about the Mother's Day promotion, but it's still the month of mothers, and as all mothers know as well as those who appreciate what mothers do, "a mother's work is never done." It's never too late to show the mothers in our lives that we appreciate them nor is it ever the wrong time to help mothers who struggle to put food on tables.

Ms. Ganguly said that LOA is "a young organization with a big heart and within the last year (it has) been able to affect the lives of over two thousand villagers and we still have a long way to go."

How are they doing that, affecting the lives of over two thousand villagers? According to its website, LOA helps mothers keep more of the money earned from craft sales in their own pockets.

Over 20 million artisans in India work in the handicrafts sector. Most of them live below the poverty line and in the county’s most remote areas. They are forced to sell their crafts through middlemen, and often earn less than 5% of the end price of their goods.

... The League of Artisans will return all profits above a fair trade cost of production and operating costs to the artisans groups as investments in trainings, raw materials, more efficient modes of production and all that is needed to create lucrative, sustained livelihoods from their handicrafts production.

You can read more details on the group's mission page. However, you can help directly by visiting the site and purchasing products such as handcrafted scarves and wraps, home accents, or even encourage corporations where you have influence to use the LOTUS corporate gifts program.

In affluent American communities some women argue about whether they should earn money on their own or be a full-time mom totally dependent on their husband's income. I've written about these types of choices before, but as a woman whose female ancestors have worked outside the home and earned money because the real choice was to feed children or not to feed children, I shudder at such debates.

I think that these days if you can afford to debate whether you personally earn money for your family as a woman then you're already more blessed than you realize and your debate is an internal conflict that you should be grateful to have. In other words, you have a personal philosophy issue that doesn't involve me or the economically-deprived masses. You're experiencing a genuine luxury, one I've had before, and one that some women in this world would find so foreign in concept that any squabble about the choice to work would seem both shallow and ludicrous.

Consequently, when I hear of projects such as LOTUS by LOA, I reflect on how little of the world beyond us we truly know, and I respect the souls who find solutions to make lives better for everyone. As we've heard so many times before, if you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem. As women of conscience, may we strive to always be part of the solution.

Other Links

• American India Foundation