G-lish Foundation envisages a world in which rural Ghanaian families can finally become economically independent, in which their children have educational choices beyond primary school, and that the natural environment in which they live enables healthy and prosperous development.
Our motto is ‘Income generation, re-generation, next generation’. The ‘G’ in G-lish stands for ‘generation’— our philosophy on every level.
Between income generation, environmental regeneration and supporting the next generation of young people, we hope to show that creative sustainable development can break the cycle of poverty.
To help achieve economic independence, G-lish pays higher than fair trade prices to producers for their work. G-lish makes this a reality by using innovative and environmentally sustainable solutions to help reduce poverty in Ghana’s poorest communities.
We create high quality and high value products to generate higher than fair trade levels of income. G-lish collects discarded drinking water plastic and scrap African fabric and trains youth and women to transform those materials into twine. Skilled basket weavers then weave the plastic and cloth twine into baskets, bags and art work using traditional weaving techniques.
100% of income–profits from sales–is reinvested in G-lish with the aim to grow G-lish to reach more people in need and make an increasing economic, social, and environmental impact in rural Ghana. We started with one village in 2010 and now work with three in recycled production.
Profits fund G-lish’s growth. The main areas of growth have been to create more jobs: recruit more weavers and recycled materials workers to produce more baskets and new products for local sale and export. This includes expanding basket production to more villages and training traditional weavers to work with recycled materials.
G-lish works to a fair trade model of paying higher than fair trade prices to producers for their work. This provides economic security. One of the things the weavers most comment on is the relief of knowing they WILL be paid, and they will earn more than they do from any other basket making or economic activity they could otherwise undertake.