“I want women to have the means, the respect, and the recognition not only to support themselves and their families, but to rise into leadership in their communities,” says Susan Walker, founder, global non-profit and social enterprise The Ibu Movement that ‘empowers marginalised women artisans in over 40 countries to achieve financial self-sufficiency’.Since its founding in 2014 in the USA, Ibu, the Malay term for ‘woman of respect’, focusses on capacity building, education, artisan engagement, and providing a market place for these women artisans’.
Susan Walker
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Special Arrangement
Building on the latter, Susan has launched the Ibu Atelier Programme in partnership with Ibu Movement and Bank of America. Ten global women-led artisan groups, including four Indian labels, will gain access ‘to an in-depth programme designed to strengthen the handcraft economy for women’.“The programme combines design collaboration, creating innovative capsule collections highlighting each group’s techniques, with business training from experts in the field and public relations support to amplify each story,” says Susan, adding how it aims to launch these enterprises into a larger marketplace. Experts such as Peggy Clark, founder and executive director of the Aspen Global Innovators Group; Robert Prioleau, founding partner of Blue Ion (a full-service marketing company); Jane Bernard, an award-winning documentary, editorial, and commercial photographer; among others also guide the brands.
