Back in 2011, when one of the founders had an immersion in Pasay, Manila where he met a lady named Marlene. She has been making unique crafts by hand and only sell it for so much, sometimes even at a loss just to make some cash. Banking on luck for walk in customers and her mini sari-sari store, she and her family of 4 only earns at around P132/ day. Due to this firsthand experience, the group wanted to help catapult them from poverty while avoiding the dependency mind set. As Namana Crafts believes that giving alone is never a solution. It should not be a onetime process. Instead, a step by step development is needed in order to be effective. With this, the group started to sell Ate Marlene's crafts to its network and gradually expanded by helping other artisans within the community. Overtime, Namana Crafts was formalized in 2015 to officially provide these skilled artisans with market access, proper payment scheme, product designs, and additional skills in order to enrich more of their capabilities. The main existence of this social enterprise is not just aiming to help various skilled Filipino artisans’ across the country discover their full potential and cultivate their uniqueness for them to translate their creativity into its best art form but also to provide a multi sector experience for these Filipino Artisans that focuses on developing right price strategies that are sustainable for the long term. Wanting the partner communities to overcome marginalization to eventually create better futures for their families and be a spark to their respective districts as well.
