Welcome to Tribes and Nations ethically made toys. We, with you, would like our kids or nieces and nephews to play with a toy that makes another kid also enjoy his play. There in the village or slum to be free of a short tempered father (because his rent is overdue) free from preventable diseases (because he slept on a damp mud floor) free from multiple home duties (because his mum had complications in child birth). The absence of these signs of poverty are there because people like you have made the effort to buy fairtrade goods, people like us at Tribes and Nations got a business with a just bite up and running and someone on the ground there thought “let’s pay people fairly”. What a great combination!

Our range is exclusively fair trade so that you can buy with your conscience and confidence. We have partnered with WFTO (World Fair Trade Organisation) certified groups and small charities in order to bring you unique and socially responsible gifts that bring joy to both sides of our globe.

Our partner in Sri Lanka has long been sending contract work into the village cottage industries, setting up small workshops in central locations and doing so without religious or ethnic bias. The opposite has been the scourge of Sri Lanka in recent decades but their work has brought change.

Beyond this, the village appropriate skill of handloom has been kept alive. An ancient art like this disappearing can be a bit of a yawn for most westerners who have not seen a loom nor care for non mechanised forms of labour. The reality of a handloom’s heritage and income generating ability is different. A mix of ancient and modern technology in a village is not a mark of ‘backward thinking’ but one that honours old techniques as part of their history while well understanding that these will work when the computer or machine breaks down. It can be repaired, top to bottom, from resources found in the village. The income power of a handloom is perhaps on its way up as markets tire of characterless products lacking the quality, strength or texture that the handloom brings.

But without fair wages, the handloom can’t bring hope. Employers who have gone against the trend to make some big dollars have elected to use fair trade as a means to empowerment.

Fair trade empowers the producer as it brings:

• fair wages and conditions to the developing world

• Dignity as people start to see they are worthy of being paid properly

• Hope as communities unionise and mobilise then put their own plans for development into action

• Village based wealth, stymieing the migration to the mega cities – allowing families to be united and supportive of village structures.

• Recognition of the crucial roles of women as charities and fair trade visits educate and encourage these counter cultural changes.

For those of us in the west fair trade brings:

• The ability to shop with a clear conscience

• The chance to make a positive difference with our dollar where in many places that same dollar has brought damage.

• Protest! Who doesn’t love to say to a big guy (corporate) “I don’t have to buy from you and encourage you in your abuse of people in trade”

• Power to transport one part of the mostly common reality here, fair wages and conditions, overseas.

We are happy to bring you these modern, bright and Fair Trade toys so your child can have fun and be creative at the same time. They also make great gifts or all time keepsakes.