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Carpets weave magic while helping poverty
Julie Hemmings SUPPORTERS of a York-based charity have been travelling from all over Britain to buy its latest products.
Mala Carpets is staging an exhibition of its hand-made carpets, with sale proceeds going towards the fight against child labour in the Indian carpet industry.
The business is part of the trading arm of charity Project Mala, set up in 1988 to provide an alternative to work for poor children in eastern India.
Proceeds from the sales of the woven and knotted carpets, made by adults in Mala Carpets' own factory, pay for the schooling of children from rural families.
Indian carpet weavers usually work from home in cramped conditions but the factory offers workers benefits such as free meals, healthcare and a retirement fund.
Project Mala chairman Robin Garland said the charity gets a lot of repeat business and this week has had buyers making special trips from opposite ends of the country to buy carpets.
Mala Carpets' newest line is a range of marriage mats, which can be personalised with the initials of the bride and groom and a picture of the church in which their wedding takes place.
Although in India it is traditional for a couple to have a marriage dhurry, a woven carpet often used as a bedcover, the idea came from closer to home.
Mala Carpets were showing their wares in Banbury, Oxfordshire, at St Mary's Church and as a thank-you made a small carpet, incorporating a picture of the church.
Mr Garland said St Mary's vicar Janet Chapman had the "intriguing idea" that the charity could sell the marriage mats, which the couple could kneel on during the wedding service and then keep as mementos.
Each Mala carpet carries the charity's symbol – a blackboard – somewhere in its design to show its authenticity.
Mala Carpets' exhibition at the Tithe Barn in Church Lane, Nether Poppleton, continues until next Wednesday. The display is open daily, apart from Sunday.
For more information, visit www.malacarpets.co.uk and www.projectmala.org.uk
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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