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    Aarong: Looking After Its Artisans

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    Shoaib Hussain
    Aarong is BRAC's flagship social enterprise that provides income opportunities for over 65,000 rural artisans in Bangladesh. It began in 1978 as a retail outlet to ensure timely payments for silk artisans. Over time, Aarong has grown into one of Bangladesh's largest lifestyle retail chains while maintaining its social mission of supporting artisans. In addition to fair wages, Aarong provides artisans access to healthcare, skills training, and other development programs to improve their livelihoods in a sustainable way.

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    Aarong: Looking After Its Artisans

    Uploaded by

    Shoaib Hussain
    34 views1 page
    Aarong is BRAC's flagship social enterprise that provides income opportunities for over 65,000 rural artisans in Bangladesh. It began in 1978 as a retail outlet to ensure timely payments for silk artisans. Over time, Aarong has grown into one of Bangladesh's largest lifestyle retail chains while maintaining its social mission of supporting artisans. In addition to fair wages, Aarong provides artisans access to healthcare, skills training, and other development programs to improve their livelihoods in a sustainable way.

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    Aarong Factsheet

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    Aarong_factsheet

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    Aarong is BRAC's flagship social enterprise that provides income opportunities for over 65,000 rural artisans in Bangladesh. It began in 1978 as a retail outlet to ensure timely payments for silk artisans. Over time, Aarong has grown into one of Bangladesh's largest lifestyle retail chains while maintaining its social mission of supporting artisans. In addition to fair wages, Aarong provides artisans access to healthcare, skills training, and other development programs to improve their livelihoods in a sustainable way.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    34 views1 page

    Aarong: Looking After Its Artisans

    Uploaded by

    Shoaib Hussain
    Aarong is BRAC's flagship social enterprise that provides income opportunities for over 65,000 rural artisans in Bangladesh. It began in 1978 as a retail outlet to ensure timely payments for silk artisans. Over time, Aarong has grown into one of Bangladesh's largest lifestyle retail chains while maintaining its social mission of supporting artisans. In addition to fair wages, Aarong provides artisans access to healthcare, skills training, and other development programs to improve their livelihoods in a sustainable way.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Aarong

    A BRAC Social Enterprise


    Crafting better lives for rural artisans
    BRAC’s social enterprises are
    both financially and socially
    profitable ventures. Its flagship
    enterprise, Aarong, carved out
    a unique market segment for
    65,000 rural artisans – 85

    Photo credit: BRAC/Shehzad Noorani


    per cent of whom are women.
    Today, Aarong (meaning
    ‘village fair’ in Bengali) is
    one of Bangladesh’s largest
    lifestyle retail chains.

    In 1976 when BRAC employed


    rural women in Manikganj district
    in silk production, their only buyers Artisan embroidering her work with care
    were a few scattered retailers in
    Dhaka city. Weeks, even months
    would pass between supply and Looking after its members’ hospitalisation treatment
    payment. And so Aarong was born costs.
    two years later – a BRAC retail artisans
    outlet to ensure that these silk Aarong ensures that its artisans Additionally, all of Aarong’s suppliers
    farmers were paid for their goods have access to BRAC’s multifaceted comply with labour law and fair
    on time. development programmes, so that trade principles. Regular audits are
    the support they receive extends conducted to ensure that ethical
    Over the course of time Aarong standards of health, safety and
    carved out a unique market well beyond simply their wages.
    A snapshot of Aarong’s artisan environment are maintained.
    segment for traditional crafts
    and designs and, in the process, development initiative (ADI) on any
    created income generating given month at the Ayesha Abed At a glance
    opportunities for thousands of Foundation (AAF) production centres (Figures as of May 2015)

    artisans. As Aarong grew we will show a safe and nurturing space


    providing holistic support to artisans 9 million customers served
    saw the emergence of small
    entrepreneurs, and together they – with awareness on hygiene and 15 retail stores and e-commerce
    engaged in fair trade. Each of sanitation, ante- and post-natal care, website
    these entrepreneurs now creates referral services to free legal aid clinics
    and government’s social protection USD 62 million in annual sales
    opportunities – similar to what
    Aarong had provided for them – for programmes, and much more. In 3,000 employees
    thousands more rural women and 2014, a year after its launch, ADI
    65,000 artisans in supply chain, 800
    men. This results in over 325,000 has been scaled up to all 535 AAF
    producer groups
    people benefiting directly and sub-centres and five main centres.
    A health security scheme is being 13 AAF craft production centres and
    indirectly from Aarong’s extensive
    piloted by the AAF, whereby artisans 535 hand embroidery sub-centres
    operation.
    and the AAF create a co-contributory
    healthcare fund that will provide for Visit Aarong’s official website at
    artisans and their immediate family www.aarong.com

    Although every effort has been made to include and verify the accuracy of relevant information in this fact sheet, users are urged to check independently on matters of specific interest. Report
    any discrepancies/suggestions to visitors@brac.net. This document was last updated on 30 June 2015, is revised half yearly and made available on www.brac.net/visitors.

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