Empowering crafters in a nutshell
As one of Bangladesh's largest fashion retail chains under the umbrella of one of the world’s largest NGOs, Aarong’s flagship outlet also claims the largest retail space in the country as part of its presence in the Uttara district of Dhaka. Fighting to uphold the dignity of the marginalised, this chic brand began as a humble project. After it’s initiation as a project to provide employment for a limited number of rural women through silk production via sericulture and the art of nakshikantha(embroidered quilts) in 1978, Aarong extended its support to rural artisans by investing in their handicrafts for several years into its operations. In the process, it saw the emergence of independent producers and created income-generating opportunities for thousands of artisans from communities beyond the reach of BRAC. Weaving together new opportunities for people with the skilled work of their artisans, Aarong has carved out a unique market segment, giving hope to the crafters.
How it all started
When BRAC started its journey in 1972, the initial goal was to serve as a relief operations committee for a designated amount of time. Once its relief operations were underway, BRAC reasoned that providing limited relief to the rural poor was not a lasting solution for them to overcome poverty, as in the newly sovereign Bangladesh, almost everything - including the economic infrastructure of the country - was left upturned. After the completion of its relief operations, BRAC shifted its focus to empowering the poor, forming a long term approach to community development. Around 1976, while operating its targeted group approach, BRAC realised that the most disadvantaged groups in poor rural communities were women, and required a route that would empower this group while also providing income generating opportunities.
BRAC began encouraging silk farming by women in Bangladesh’s Manikganj district. Initially, BRAC had a few scattered buyers in Dhaka, with weeks or even months passing between supply and payment. Today, the process is much more streamlined and efficient as BRAC established Aarong, whose artisans represent the cutting edge of social enterprise. Through BRAC’s innovative approach, the global community now has a prime example of how targeted mobilisation of the poor can support sustainable development efforts, while also generating a financial surplus.
The birth of Aarong
BRAC observed that women in Bangladesh were increasingly involved in agricultural activities. It also recognised that it was the male members of families who marketed the crops and reaped the profits, even though women completed about 75 percent of the agricultural work. In order to create an alternative opportunity to earn an income for these women and contribute to the development of a skilled workforce, BRAC established its sericulture project in 1978 under the leadership of the late Ayesha Abed, former executive assistant director of BRAC.
The sericulture project has supported women in the rural areas of Manikganj in producing high quality silk, and women in rural communities of Jamalpur in producing traditional hand-stitched nakshikantha. However, it soon became apparent that the women producing the silk and nakshikantha did not have sufficient buyers for their products, nor were there any stable platforms for them to market their items. Seeing the opportunity that lay in the challenge, BRAC took the initiative to create a platform so that these women could sell their products to the urban market. Thus, Aarong was launched in 1978, creating a linkage between the rural poor and urban retailers.
Since its inception, Aarong, which means 'village fair' in Bengali, has been working towards BRAC’s mission of poverty alleviation through economic development and human capacity building, with a specific focus on the empowerment of women. The retail process follows several steps: first, a design team conceptualises the season’s motives which are then sent to the rural artisans for production. Aarong continuously develops the artisans’ skills through training programmes, and conducts quality control of the completed items before they are bought at a fair price and then sold across retail outlets in urban markets. By evolving the traditional retail process, Aarong strives to provide a uniquely Bangladeshi lifestyle experience while encouraging social change. A newly generated demand for Bangladeshi handcrafted products illustrates that Aarong has achieved this vision, and continues to challenge the retail industry with its sustainable fashion ‘revolution’.
Continuing the legacy through an extended reach
After the death of Ayesha Abed, her family members founded the Ayesha Abed Foundation (AAF) in 1982 in her honour to continue her projects’ operations. AAF gathers and organises both the skilled and previously untrained artisans from various village organisations across the country and provides them with training and employment; its numerous centres serving as Aarong's production hubs. The foundation currently has 13 centres and 541 sub-centres spread across Bangladesh.
The co-existence of Aarong and the Ayesha Abed Foundation, both geared towards the same ambition, made an extensive support system for artisans all over the country a reality. Through this system, independent producers conducting fair trade with Aarong are encouraged to organise other artisans from their communities, including those communities which BRAC’s services have not yet reached. Today, there are almost 800 independent producers active in different corners of Bangladesh and working with them are nearly 30,000 rural artisans. Additionally, more than 35,000 other artisans are working at AAF centres, producing and selling goods to Aarong to support themselves and their families, resulting in a total of over 320,000 direct and indirect beneficiaries.
BRAC, Aarong, and Ayesha Abed Foundation’s assistance to artisans
AAF's current services to the artisans include free skill-building, supply of raw materials for production, transportation of goods, quality control, storage, management, finance, marketing, and microfinance loan options through Aarong. Working mothers have access to day care centres for their toddlers while they work, and senior workers receive a retirement benefit. AAF employees in rural communities also obtain various support from BRAC, including micro-credit services; seeds, agriculture, poultry, livestock, and fisheries inputs; free schooling for their children; subsidised tube-wells and sanitary latrines; health care including free eye check-ups and glasses, free treatment of tuberculosis and severe illnesses and health education; as well as legal awareness and support.
Currently a health security scheme for artisans and their family members is being piloted to protect artisans against catastrophic health expenditures.
In addition to being trained, women recruited by AAF benefit from a living wage and job security. The workspaces are often right at the doorsteps of the artisans, to enable them to mainly work from home while being able to look after their families.
Taking into account the specific needs of its employees illustrates how Aarong through AAF has always infused a conscious effort to address issues such as the environment, gender-specific needs, safety, security and most importantly - the empowerment of women.
Village fairs in urban landscapes
Aarong’s primary customers are mostly from middle and higher socio-economic classes living in urban areas.Aarong’s retail outlet is particularly renowned amongst expatriates and foreign visitors. Today, Aarong owns 15 retail chain outlets in Bangladesh, nine of which are in Dhaka, two in Chittagong, one in Sylhet, one in Narayanganj, one in Khulna, and one in Comilla. Not only has Aarong been a trendsetter in the local fashion industry, with the Uttara flagship store claiming the title of the largest retail outlet of a single brand, but it is also a pioneer of its kind in entering the global market, having opened a franchised outlet in London in 2001, and planning the extension of its e-commerce website to international markets in the near future. Aarong offers a wide variety of products and designs in its outlets including embroidery, block and screen prints, tie-dyes, vegetable dyes, batik, block cuttings, furniture, wall mats, toys, pottery, metal works, jewellery, leather products, candles, handmade paper and paper products.
Merchant of a lifestyle in favour of the environment and sustainable development
Aside from its significant contribution to the expansion and popularisation of the cotton handloom industry, Aarong has given rise to a greater demand for locally manufactured fabrics, which in turn has played a vital role in reviving the almost extinct traditional jamdani (woven cotton fabric), muslin (loosely woven cloth) and nakshikantha. Committed to being environmentally friendly, Aarong has also introduced dyes free from AZO (restricted aromatic which may be harmful to skin) and PCP (used for chlorination, also deemed harmful) in its cotton fabric production.
In addition to redistributing 50 percent of its profits throughout BRAC’s development programmes (keeping the remaining 50 percent to sustain its own operations)Aarong’s own consumption of raw materials sustains numerous artisan communities in Bangladesh; Aarong buys 75 percent of cotton produced in Madhobdi, the core cotton production area in Bangladesh, and over 70 percent of silk produced in Maldaha.
Beyond 2015
Aarong started out with the goal of supporting poverty-stricken rural women so that they could empower themselves by utilising and further enhancing their skills. That goal remains to this day, with its scope having broadened to extend its services to more of the rural poor and urban markets. Aarong plans to launch an international e-commerce site to serve global markets and is looking to expand to more cities domestically and internationally.
