MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR

My name is Leander Hollings and I am the founder of the charity MySmallHelp which is registered in the UK and Nepal. MySmallHelp aims to relieve poverty amongst children around the world, starting with Nepal.Whilst working for MySmallHelp I have found it very difficult to understand what "real" help is and I am still learning! When a poor, innocent, orphaned or street child is in need of basic love, support,education and food then charity appears to be the only option. However, I don't believe charity alone can solve the problems of poverty in the long term. I wanted to find a more sustainable solution to relieve poverty in the developing world by creating jobs and demand in the West for products produced in Nepal.

The idea to set up MySmallShop was formed after my second visit to Nepal in May 2007 and continues to be developed. Pramilla (one of the MySmallHelp volunteers) had asked if I would visit her small jewellery workshop where she lived and worked. I was very happy to have been invited in to her home but shocked at the story of her family business. Unfortunately her family did not have enough money to own their own shop or house. Therefore, they rented rooms in a large building and paid for workers to produce jewellery in their home. The producers were provided with silver and gems from the rich shops in Thamel. Pramila would take the finished products back to the shop where the silver and gems had been given to them and they would receive a payment for the production of each item.

We now understand that an average bracelet takes 8 hours to make. For each bracelet produced in Pramilas factory she would receive about 50 rupees (less than 50p) and would keep 10 rupees for her family to run their home and factory and would give 40 rupees back to the producer. This effectively means that the producer was earning less than 5 rupees (about 3.5p) an hour.

I have been out to Nepal 3 times over the past 18 months. At the end of June 2007 I was given some jewellery by Pramila and she desperately asked me to try and sell it in the UK and give her any money back for the items which I sold. When I was given the initial jewellery I had absolutely no idea about how I was going to sell it. I had no experience in selling jewellery and I had no idea about silver or gem stones. Not a very good start! However, I started by approaching friends, families and local shops and eventually managed to send more than £1000 back to Pramila in Nepal.

As I am not earning any money from the charity work for MySmallHelp (we work only with volunteers). All profits from MySmallShop are donated back to MySmallHelp to help relieve poverty amongst children around the world, starting in Nepal. I have decided to set up MySmallShop as a social enterprise to provide myself with a basic salary and to create jobs in Nepal and elsewhere in the developing world.

On my recent visit to Nepal in April 2008 I have learnt more about how the producers are working in the small jewellery workshop and I have taught Pramila about the benefits of fair trade. I took her to meet the director of GET PAPER INDUSTRIES (one of the leading fair trade businesses in Nepal) and she was "so inspired!". Get Paper has provided us with a dream and model to work towards.

MySmallShop is now providing the "Nepal Handmade silver jewellery workshop" with regular orders and upfront payment for silver, gems and labour at an hourly rate of 37.5 rupees which provides the producers with an average income of 9000 rupees a month for a 8 hour 6 day week. This is a vast improvement on their previous 98 hour week at 5 rupees an hour. We are also working on improving the safety and environmental conditions of the work place and hope to be able to employ more workers in the very near future.

We are currently in the process of registration for BAFTS importer status and hope to have some news on the progress of this application soon!

If you would like to receive any further information, answers to your questions or if you would just like to send your comments. Please do not hesitate to contact me directly on leander.hollings@mysmallshop.org or 07717263426