For us, our way to contribute to a more sustainable world is upcycling and doing glass craft. However, we would like to show you that at Lucirmás sustainability is part of our character, beyond how we make a living. This is why two years ago we decided to support a supporting initiative with a percentage of our earnings. Would you like to know what it is? Keep on reading:
Lucia’s Commitment with Kiva and Small Entrepreneurs
In 2013 Lucia Bruni, founder of Lucirmás, decided to do a supportive contribution on a personal basis, giving the 5% of the earnings from the sales on her online shop. After that, she began to look for the best way of helping and discovered Kiva, a microcredit platform where people can finance entrepreneurs’ projects from developing countries. Being an entrepreneur herself, she thought the best way to help them was to give them a hand, in order to start up a business and be successful. “I understand perfectly how hard it can be to set up a business on your own, so this seemed to me the best way to help them”.
Those microcredits are allocated to all the African people who need them, but that do not have access to bank loans. Mostly they are women -who must provide for their families- and thanks to those small loans they can create a little business in order to get ahead, give the money back and improve their family’s life quality substantially.
Lucia is a glass artisan, and, for that reason, she would have liked to allocate her money to microcredits related to craftsmanship, but she did not find any project related. So, she decided to allocate it to two projects associated with agriculture and food selling; nonetheless, those entrepreneurs work the land with their hands and want to set up small business, like Lucirmás at its beginnings.
The first of those microcredits, already paid and totally refunded, was for Aissa Kane, a 37-year-old family mother who lives in Segú, one of the biggest towns in Mali. Aissa lives with her parents and her family; she set up a small business (sell of potatoes, clothes and spices) through other microcredits; thanks to this, she could extend her catalog. This was her eighth loan, which she invested in buying 30 potato sacks to sell. With her efforts, she not only succeeded in refunding her loans, but also in making her business. Moreover, she can take care of her mother and her son with the 100.000 CAF she earns every month (about 150 €). Her dream is to have a house of her own. We really hope she will get it!
The second microcredit, -already paid and being refunded- was for the Kenga group. Kenga is a 57-year old Kenyan farmer and his job is really hard to carry through, because in his region it hardly rains. Some time ago he was contacted by Komaza, an association which aim is to train farmers and to help them in order to develop plantations in arid zones. This loan will be used to buy seeds and an irrigation system for planting eucalypti, trees that will be benefit to him and will create a beautiful landscape at the same time. Kenga aims also for investing his earnings to start up a small dairy business in the farm, in order to send his sons to school.
If you want to have a look at Komaza’s work, watch this video:
One of the best ways to be sustainable is to help those who have less, so that they may improve; let’s support the ecological balance of our planet. So, for each purchase through our web page, we will allocate the 5% of the amount to those microcredits. If you buy a Lucirmás product, you will contribute to help those projects. Will you give a hand?
