Social Responsibility as core to our values

Certain businesses are more than just being a business. Afri-root Collective is a concept; a notion to promote the most endowed Artisans from East Africa. By doing so, it also enables markets to attain the finest handicrafts and artwork. And at fairly reasonable rates. The handicraft market is usually affected with substandard, charmless factory-made products sold at unfair; superfluous rates. Afri-root Collective counters this quite efficiently.

Suitability comes with caution

Most business ventures, start-ups are driven by the profit motives. There is no harm in it- as Milton Friedman said, that the only social responsibility of a business is to maximize profits. That being asserted, in today’s context; “businesses cannot be successful when the society around them fails”. The social cause of business relates more to sustainable development of a business environment. It is not just helping the particular fraction for immediate impact. There is a strong business case for the much-talked about social responsibility. If Afri-root Collective strengthens the trade network of handicrafts from local craftsmen today, tomorrow the business sector shall be more artsy and lucrative. If low-quality, non-genuine products continue to seep into markets for “profit maximization” today- the business would be dwindling tomorrow. The consumers demand value for the money spent.

Bringing out the best from better

Social Responsibility in business is crucial for some regions more than the others. If “only the best survives” attitude of corporates culture continue, many underprivileged yet high-in-potential regions would fade away. It is not a loss to themselves alone- but to the commerce of the world. If the sheer caliber of artisans from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania is never allowed to reach markets- the industry fails to get something really fine, it could have attained if behaved responsibly. Afri-root Collective hence could help preserve the valued, carefully-passed expertise from one generation to another.

And for further training

And finally, philanthropy if done in its real essence can prove very productive. To many businesses, social responsibility is all about donations. This is in fact their attempt to forcibly feel that their part is done. Afri-root Collective does it in right synchronization with other efforts. And this is how it turns very effective to generate part of income from proceeds towards the training and development of artisans. With many women being the sole bread-winner in several parts of East African countries, such special interest is the need of hour.