My Home

MyHome is a Home Decor brand of MGRM. It works to simultaneously transfer advanced technologies and design concepts to rural artisan communities worldwide, while facilitating access to advanced markets to their products globally. Reinvestment of profits in primary health and education ensure sustainable development of artisanal products and artisan clusters.

The Challenge

Artisans worldwide have lagged behind in terms of technological advances, design tools, concepts selling and marketing skills, required of gain access into advanced markets. These communities are mostly rural, impoverished, and illiterate and have little to no knowledge of how to use their advanced traditional skills to meet today’s needs.

The MyHome Concept

At-Risk Village Identification: MGRM focuses on identifying large district & state/ province level at-risk artisan clusters that have a history of traditional handicraft and hand tools. We identify poor and at-risk village groups within these clusters towards their focused development.

Concept Development and Order Development: MGRM home decor and design teams strategize seasonal concepts and innovations to develop new and innovative wall-art, floor-art, mirrors, tabletops and similar hand­crafted products required by global markets of Europe, USA and others. Seasonal designs are developed by MGRM Concept & Design Centers, that are then pitched to global majors such as LnT, TJMaxx, Bed Bath and Beyond and others, resulting in sustainable order generation.

Technology & Design Transfer: new and novel technologies required to craft new products for instance in the Wooden Art range, aspects such as sustainable forestry, optimized woodcutting, seasoning, advanced finishes and others are transferred to the artisans to raise awareness and to reintroduce sustainability concepts into their communities. Seasonal designs are then transferred to the artisans, along with additional complex workflows required to deliver high quality products.

Reinvestment: MGRM reinvests profits from MyHome initiatives back for primary health and primary education in these communities, ensuring that the developments achieved are sustainable across generations.

Outcomes

We have worked with several large clusters in India and elsewhere, focusing on woodwork, brass/ metal work, glasswork, beadwork, among others. Clusters encompassing several hundreds of villages and tens of thousands of families, benefit from our initiatives.

Sustainable Employment and Income: artisan communities suffer from seasonal unemployment. Ready access to global markets ensures a steady flow of orders and income for the
artisans. Families that were once impoverished now afford even local private schools and tuitions for their children.

Healthy Families and Individuals: artisans used to frequently fall sick, due to poor nutrition and water condition. Through awareness programs on sanitation and hygiene, water purification techniques, nutrition and others, participating communities transformed rapidly to healthy individuals, who now effectively participate in the development of their families and community.

State productivity: district and state productivity improved rapidly and communities seen as backward were now well-to-do and significant contributing members of society.

Benefits

Key benefits include:

1. Artisan commuinity revitalization and rehabilitation
2. Artisan skills updation
3. Sustainable employment and income from their skills leading to higher quality of livelihood
4. Sustainable development of rural communities through local investment into primary health and primary education
5. Women empowerment by way of new opportunities; girl child empowerment by way of easy access to health and education
6. Increase in state productivity