We create beautiful, joy-giving cards, gifts, jewellery & home accessories.
Our products are all made by our highly skilled, differently-able artisans in Ecuador
Our products are all made by our highly skilled, differently-able artisans in Ecuador
ArtisansBe part of the story...
Differently-able people are talented, tenacious & teeming with possibility... yet often consigned to a life of poverty due to the stigma attached to having a disability. We're passionate about giving skills and opportunities to these often "forgotten people", enabling them to support themselves & their families with dignity and pride. |
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CreativityWe're passionate about great design & excellent quality. We believe that every individual has been gifted with creativity and we want to provide people with disabilities the opportunity to use these gifts. We use locally-sourced or recycled materials wherever possible, often using things that the world has discarded and turning them into something fabulous again. Our hand-made cards, made from recycled waste-paper and banana leaves, are a great example of this. The beads shown left, are made from discarded cereal boxes. |
Overseas volunteers |
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We've been blessed by an incredible team of skilled volunteers, who we train and send out to work alongside local people in Arequipa, Peru and Santo Domingo in Ecuador. These amazing folk leave their comfortable lives in the UK to share their skills overseas. Of course, they'd rightly say that they learn as much from those they teach as they themselves pass on, as we all do .... Our volunteers include:
PERU : Laura Baxendale heads up Artizan International in Peru. She studied textiles and won awards for her stunning designs, exhibiting at national exhibitions, before launching her own jewellery company. After a spell in publishing and an adventure around Latin America, she met Susie in Ecuador and the two of them quickly realised she was called to pass on her skills to differently-able people in Peru! Laura has served with us there for over three years now and continues to hold the fort with tenacity and grace, despite the challenges of during the current Covid-19 crisis.
For more info on the projects in Peru, see our website: |
ECUADOR : Jess and Andy Lynch have been leading our project in Santo Domingo, Ecuador, for the past year. They've done an incredible job teaching many different people with a range of disabilities, in paper making, jewellery and textiles. Due to the current crisis they've had to return home, but continue to support the project remotely, as does Susie Hart our director. Jess is a trained artist and teacher and Andy has many different skills including project accounting and driving the minibus on crazy Ecuadorian roads! They will be sadly missed, but we know they'll always be a part of the Artizan family.
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Meet our founder & Director
Susie Hart MBE trained in Textiles and is the founder of Artizan International and also Neema Crafts, a social-enterprise for people with Disabilities in Tanzania, which she directed from 2003– 2011.
Now based permanently in the UK after almost 10 years in Tanzania, she is the Director of Artizan International, based in Harrogate. She set up the charity to pass on the model that she'd shown worked in Tanzania, to other developing countries where disabled people are still living in poverty; and also to provide therapeutic crafts workshops for differently-able people in the UK.
She was awarded the ‘Woman of the Year’ award, and an MBE in 2012 for services to disabled people in Tanzania.
The deaf-run restaurant which she set up as part of Neema Crafts won the Telegraph award for ‘Best British Run Restaurant Overseas in the World ’ 3 years in a row. She was born differently-able herself, (although you might not see it, after 22 operations to give her the mobility she has today) and has a daughter with Downs Syndrome. She's a member of St Luke's church in Harrogate, and loves to sing jazz in her (rare!) spare time.
Now based permanently in the UK after almost 10 years in Tanzania, she is the Director of Artizan International, based in Harrogate. She set up the charity to pass on the model that she'd shown worked in Tanzania, to other developing countries where disabled people are still living in poverty; and also to provide therapeutic crafts workshops for differently-able people in the UK.
She was awarded the ‘Woman of the Year’ award, and an MBE in 2012 for services to disabled people in Tanzania.
The deaf-run restaurant which she set up as part of Neema Crafts won the Telegraph award for ‘Best British Run Restaurant Overseas in the World ’ 3 years in a row. She was born differently-able herself, (although you might not see it, after 22 operations to give her the mobility she has today) and has a daughter with Downs Syndrome. She's a member of St Luke's church in Harrogate, and loves to sing jazz in her (rare!) spare time.
Be part of the story …
If you'd like to help us to train and equip more people with disabilities currently living in poverty, we'd love to have your support. Please click on the link above to donate. Every gift, no matter how small, makes a hugely positive difference. We're a not-for-profit registered charity, so every penny you donate is used to enable and support the differently-able people we serve.
If you'd like to help us to train and equip more people with disabilities currently living in poverty, we'd love to have your support. Please click on the link above to donate. Every gift, no matter how small, makes a hugely positive difference. We're a not-for-profit registered charity, so every penny you donate is used to enable and support the differently-able people we serve.
