Hand Stitched Kantha Hobo Bag
Remove 10 pieces of plastic!
Rich with beauty and meaning.
The Kantha hobo bag is a wearable story of resilience, artistry, and change. Each stitch is carefully made by women artisans of Blue Mango in India, a fair trade organization dedicated to empowering disabled, widowed, deserted, and marginalized women through fair wages, healthcare, and retirement support.
Inspired by the “neelam” mango—known for its bluish edges before ripening into golden yellow—the cooperative embraces the symbolism of transformation and hope. Sustainably made and thoughtfully designed, this bag blends everyday functionality with timeless craftsmanship and a powerful commitment to social impact.
- 100% cotton
- Tie closure
- Approximately 10" H x 11" W
Approximately 24" L strap - Handmade in & fairly traded from India
"Everyone is proud of me! I am proud of me!" proclaims Surliamma, her family's main wage-earner since the death of her father in 2002. She overcame a hearing impairment and having only a 4th grade education to become a working artisan, thanks to the training and employment offered her at Blue Mango Trust.
Blue Mango has grown from four women with treadle sewing machines in an old silkworm shed to a successful, sustainable business run by and for marginalized women in southern India. The women undergo transformation, like the mango that has a blue tint before ripening to a sweet golden yellow. The use of recycled materials in their products symbolizes their ideals: to find usefulness in cast-off things.
All profits are reinvested to improve business and the quality of life of women like Panchavaranam, part of the Blue Mango "family," as she calls it, for over a decade. Widowed at 20 only to lose her newborn daughter to pneumonia a year later, Panchavaranam did not know where to turn. She found work and training at Blue Mango in 2005. "Decisions are based on our needs... they bought a bus because it was difficult to get to work; started free yoga classes because our bodies were tense from the machines. We were not eating well so they created a subsidized canteen for only 4 rupees a meal...In the midst of all my sadness, I have found some peace here."
Nagarathinum learned the value of education soon after her dad died. Dropping out of tenth grade, she worked the fields for years to care for her disabled mother and four siblings, eventually coming to Blue Mango. Now her daughters enjoy the Homework Center; her oldest dreams of becoming an engineer, perhaps by qualifying for scholarships Blue Mango awards to employees' children. "I just want my kids to get a good, steady job because life is too hard without one," she says.
This item is part of the Global Girlfriend's product collection. Global Girlfriend is focused on striving for gender equality and empowerment, and the importance of women providing for themselves and their families. By supporting jobs that guarantee fair wages by fair trade, women are able to proudly contribute to their families, encouraging their communities to flourish.
