Love Handmade: A Gift of Love to the Women of Pakistan
Founded in 2020 in Islamabad, Love Handmade is a social enterprise working with 170 female home-based artisans across 10 villages in rural Sindh. The women produce ralli quilts, ajrak block-printed textiles, pit-loom woven scarves, and an expanding line of fashion apparel. But the enterprise is about far more than colorful, ethical fashion choices for buyers in New York, Tokyo, and London. It’s about the impact on communities in rural Pakistan when women start earning.
Love Handmade enables women, long excluded by cultural, geographic and economic barriers, to earn dignified, sustainable incomes from their homes. Through targeted training in soft skills, financial literacy, digital skills and formal business practices, Love Handmade helps women grow, not just as artisans, but as confident earners and community leaders.
2026 Market Development Grants
The R.I.S.E. Artisan Fund is proud to announce the recipients of its Market Development Grant Program for 2026. The program supports artisan enterprises with a clear mission to increase incomes to underserved communities, preserve traditional craft techniques, and address the environmental impact of their production.
Small grants of $5,000 to $10,000 help artisan enterprises make strategic market development investments to further their mission and strengthen their impact. In addition to financial support, the program offers grantees mentoring, coaching and networking to support their international marketing and overall business development.
Grants have been awarded to nine enterprises from seven countries around the world creating livelihoods for artisans in rural communities.
Why We Invested: Hadithi Crafts
The R.I.S.E. Artisan Fund has provided a working capital loan to Hadithi Crafts Ltd, the commercial arm of Hadithi Crafts CBO, a community-based organization rooted in the Tsavo region of southeastern Kenya, to finance inventory for Hadithi Crafts’ debut at the 22nd Annual International Folk Art Market (IFAM), July 9–12, 2026, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.