Good causes that the Amanvida webshop is passionate about
Before a new brand is added to the Amanvida family, we always do extensive research. Products must be organic, ethical, sustainable and fair. We also like to choose products that provide opportunities – to local communities, small-scale initiatives, charitable projects, and so on. Discover seven products that Amanvida supports to make the world a more sustainable, organic, ethical and beautiful place. Vote with your wallet: choose a fairer, cleaner world.
1. Teixidors: a Spanish weaving mill with a special purpose
Teixidors is a Spanish weaving mill near Barcelona that has been working for more than twenty years for the integration and financial independence of people with disabilities. They make throws, bedspreads and cushion covers that are 100% handmade, unique and environmentally-friendly.
Joan Ruíz and Martha Ribas founded Teixidors in 1983 because they wanted to help people who would otherwise have no place in society. Through her psychiatric work as a social worker, Martha discovered that in Scandinavia, weaving is used as a form of therapy for people with a social or mental disability. The manual work, focusing on tiny details, repetition of the same actions and the sense of belonging somewhere and being useful, all have an amazing therapeutic effect. The result of their dedicated work is a collection of gorgeous home textiles made from 100% organic wool and linen that give your house a natural and sustainable appearance.
2. Toockies: unique handmade scrubbing cloths, 100% traceable
Toockies help more than 800 women in Nababpur, India earn a fair income; but the benefits don’t stop there. Thanks to Toockies, they also enjoy human rights, such as freedom, independence and flexibility. They decide for themselves where, when and how much they will work, and they receive fair and dignified pay for their work. The women are trained in local community centres in Nababpur, where they learn to knit and crochet the patterns. The centre provides the work materials, and they also drop off their finished products there each day: exfoliating gloves, wash cloths and scrubbing cloths. To give the women a voice, the centre also teaches each woman to write her own name. As a finishing touch, she writes her name on every product she makes. Who made your Toockie? Was it Sabera Bibi, Bulti Saha, or maybe Tahiron Bibi?
The Toockie initiative was started by two women: an American woman, Anna Marie Stauss, fulfilled her dream for this project with the help of an Indian woman, Jaya Basu.
3. Soul bottles: Fill your life with passion
Soul bottles emerged from a desire to make people aware of our modern pollution of nature through the use of plastic. Soul bottles are drink bottles made from glass: an attractive and accessible alternative to plastic bottles. Soul bottles are robust, reusable and kind to the environment. To produce the glass drink bottles only local (German) raw materials are used – with the exception of the natural rubber – and the producers draw on local glass-making expertise. Designed by the founder of Soul Bottles, Georg Tarne. His motto: Live with heart and soul. The series includes: You're right, Flower of Life, Just breathe, Fill your life with soul and Heimat wasser.
For every Soul bottle sold, 1 euro is donated to Viva con Agua, a Hamburg-based NGO working on a range of drinking-water projects in impoverished countries. The donations from Soul bottles go to Nepal, where 40,000 people now have access to pure water, health care and education.
4. Fair trade coconut oil
How do you turn a bunch of neglected coconut trees in the impoverished, remote Solomon Islands into a multi-award winning fair trade company? By providing hand presses to farming families on a massive scale, so they can produce coconut oil without electricity! This initiative is providing an income to thousands of Solomon Islands residents. Locally-grown organic coconuts are harvested from the trees around the villages. Within an hour of being cut open, the coconuts are pressed by hand. After being filtered three times, the world’s freshest, most delicious-tasting organic extra virgin coconut oil is ready.
The Solomons coconut oil is sold under the brand name Niulife. For every 250 mL jar sold, €0.94 goes to the Solomons villagers, and €1.81 from every 490 mL jar.
5. Gula Java coconut blossom sugar
Amanprana’s coconut blossom sugar is produced in line with Fair World principles, arising from a partnership with Lestari Mandiri and Hivos. Hivos is a humanist organisation that is working for a fair, free and sustainable world with equal opportunities for women.
6. Kotobuki Matcha by Amanprana
Thanks to Amanprana’s Kotobuki Matcha, mangrove trees are being planted in Thailand and Indonesia, in partnership with our matcha supplier, Aiya. Amanprana considers Aiya to be the world’s premier producer of organic, ceremonial Japanese green tea. As well as producing the highest-quality matcha, Aiya cares deeply about global issues and tries to do its part. For instance, Aiya regularly sends its staff on two-week trips to do volunteer work, helping local people plant mangrove trees. This work has provided direct support for mangrove forests. In total, they’ve planted more than 50,000 trees in South-East Asia. Staff generally volunteer in groups of 40 to 60 at a time.
7. The Amanprana Eco Respekt bottle
We like to promote awareness of the need for clean oceans and beaches, free from plastic, for us and for our children. Amanprana has therefore created a reusable glass drink bottle, the Eco Respekt bottle.
The bottle has the Sri Yantra symbol engraved on the side. This symbol is more than 12,000 years old and is based on sacred geometry and the Golden Ratio (Phi). The Yantra evokes a feeling of harmony and peace. The spiral at the top of the bottle creates a vortex – a swirling whirlpool that revitalises the water. 100% of the proceeds from sales of Eco Respekt bottles go to our “Save the Sea” activities.