Wooden button and metal snap enclosure. Block printed on 100% handwoven fabric. Fully lined with interior pocket. 11×5″ JOYN is a producer of handwoven, handmade fashion accessories. Each of their products has been lovingly crafted by their skilled artisans. The organic cotton is hand-spun, the fabric is block printed using ancient wooden blocks, and everything is stitched by women who have overcome or are overcoming great obstacles in life. Each item enriches the lives of at least 12 people involved in the production process.
The JOYN story starts with a Ugandan orphanage and a very unusual honeymoon.
Back in 1998, Mel and Dave Murray met while studying. They married two years later and decided to spend their first summer as newly-weds working in an orphanage in Uganda. They knew they shared a passion to change the lives of people living in poverty. They just didn’t quite know how to do it yet.
After that experience, the Murrays set out to find sustainable solutions to the needs of those living in the majority world. Fast-forward ten years to 2010, and Dave and Mel sold most of their belongings, packed a few bags, and moved to Rajpur, India, with their two young sons in tow.
“At the heart of JOYN lies a desire to see lives changed. To see those crippled by poverty and hardship dance for joy.”
The Murrays had learned a valuable lesson: in order to bring real hope and lasting change to impoverished places, you can’t just swoop in with a rescuer mentality and a bunch of handouts. You have to bring opportunity, to give people the chance and the dignity to pull themselves out of poverty.
At the heart of JOYN lies a desire to see lives changed. To see those crippled by poverty and hardship dance for joy. To do this, JOYN has partnered with a nonprofit called Joycorps to provide employees with not only steady jobs and a good work environment, but a daily meal plan, education for their children, English and vocational training, and medical care. Lives are changing as a result. Theirs is a community of people who strive to take care of one another.
JOYN continues to sell beautiful products handmade by artisans who do 100 percent of the work, from weaving the cotton from scratch to block printing to stitching. This brings JOY to those who make the products, and JOY to those who buy them.
