Happy Hands Foundation is a non-profit organization working with artists and craftsmen to provide them with a stable income and sustainable livelihoods. Our mission is to revive traditional crafts and empower/enable men and women of rural India involved in the arts to live with dignity. Happy Hands Foundation believes each individual has the capacity to learn, do, and grow. We target areas such as Bhuj, East and West Godavri districts – where atleast 85% women are unemployed and 75% are uneducated.
As the crafts sector is a low-income generation one, many people are abandoning the crafts for labour work in different cities also leading to migration while some others fall under the obligation of local money-lenders and reach a state of bonded labour. Their income therefore becomes daily-wage based and irregular during certain months.
This apart, India's rich cultural and craft heritage stands at a risk with about 200 crafts being endangered today.
Happy Hands Foundation covers 25 clusters and villages across 12 states, touching the lives of over 600 artists. Through Happy Hands' design and education intervention programmes, local villagers learn about design concepts, product development and marketing through the year as they indulge in workshops organized by Happy Hands. This allows them to make and sell products thereby providing them with some income to stabilize their life and support their families.
We regularly conduct youth-based events to market these products and create an audience to understand this culture under our newly established brand, The People's Project (TPP). TPP also endeavours to bring about community change through mass participation in a wide-array of projects.
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