Vision

Alleviation of poverty by creating a sustainable ecosystem focussed around women in indigenous communities

Mission

Work towards establishing a sustainable economy in indigenous communities via an  intersection of cultural, social, and environmental approaches.

Our Values

Collaborate with Community, Uphold Quality, Practice Integrity, Take actions with a Purpose and Believe in Compassion.

Via our 3 Pillars, we are working towards creating a sustainable ecosystem around rural economies

COMMERCE: We showcase “stories of Indonesia” to Indonesians and to the world via our ethical-slow fashion lifestyle brand TORAJAMELO. We work on both B2B and B2C and through our extensive community network cater to larger B2B and wholesale orders also.

COMMUNITY COLLABORATION: Our core pillar, through which we work with our weaving communities on design and development of weaving that preserves the authenticity of the craft while at the same time staying relevant to evolving market. This pillar has evolved further and includes additional sources of income and livelihood of partner communities through “Community Based Tourism” and regenerative economy projects (community farming and agriculture as a start)

CONSULTANCY: Through our consultancy pillar, we offer advisory services to corporations on ESG, UN SDG and how they can incorporate the same in their businesses. In addition, we also offer mentoring and coaching support to impact businesses on how to survive and thrive in the current times while staying true to their core purpose.

Empirically, a high percentage of the poor are rural women out of whom many work overseas as household help. Annually, a significant number come back abused or dead. According to certain official sources the number of dead female migrants was around 2500+ (2018), and that tells us that actual numbers must be much higher.

TORAJAMELO aims to address this issue of outward migration from rural communities by focussing on reviving rural economies with weaving as an entry point. There has never been any research on the number of back-strap loom weavers in Indonesia. However, most of the more than 300 ethnic groups who live in Indonesia have a weaving heritage dating back 100s of years,  especially in the poorest and most remote areas, where there are few other alternative income opportunities.

We started our journey in Toraja in 2008 and since then, we have been focusing on creating sustainable business models around weaving communities with our 3Cs – Commerce, Community Collaboration, and Consultancy.

We have access to around 1100+ weavers in Toraja & Mamasa in Sulawesi island, Soe, Maubesi, & Oesena in West Timor, & Manggarai in Flores. We will be scaling to reach out to  1500+ weavers across more communities in the coming 3 years.