Dolma Designs is busy packing and shipping beautifully handmade goods for your holiday gifts. What better way to show your friends and family that you care than with a handcrafted gift that is also helping those in need in India and Nepal.

Handcrafted lacquered wooden products are traditionally made in villages in Southern India, particularly in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The wood used to make our jump ropes and pencil sharpeners comes from the Ankudu tree, a local tree that grows rampantly throughout the region. It is a renewable resource, as it grows quickly and easily.

The Silk Scarf Project was started to help struggling rural communities throughout northern India. Many villages depend solely on agriculture to survive. The children must work on the farms and the fathers have to leave to find work in the city. This system keeps children from going to school and perpetuates poverty. The Silk Scarf Project began with one village and expanded to about 50 villages over a few years. Each village learns all stages of production:

The bus from Bundi to Ranthambore was crowded, hot and longer than we expected. My two travel companions, Julia King and Shaima Shahbaz, were up front with the driver - getting the real view of the multitudes of near-collisions we faced on the road. I was tucked between two Indian women in vibrant silk saris with golden nose rings and bindis on their foreheads. When we arrived to our hotel we were happy to sip mango lassis in the sun and relax under the shade of palm trees.