ETHICAL POLICY

We strive to do business in a more enlightened way and to act in an ethical manner, paying our suppliers good prices and helping them with cash flow by paying deposits and paying our bills on time!  We ask our suppliers to pay their staff fair wages, to have good working conditions, to treat them with respect and not to employ people under the minimum working age.

We also care about the environment, so we try as hard as we can, to ship our goods rather than fly them and to use as little packing as possible.

CHARITY

We are very proud to support The Brydges centre (http://brydgescentre.org), a small children's orphanage just outside Nairobi, who struggle financially on a daily basis, to carry out their hugely valuable and necessary work.  

The money we have raised to date has paid for a number of children to live at the orphanage.  We also fundraised for Christmas presents in 2008 for all 65 cchildren, and sent out 3 boxes packed full of Christmas presents and blankets.

In 2010 and 2011 we have been donating £5 for every pair of Masai Sandals sold on the internet.

We have also donated over £6,500 from 2006 to present, to various charities in the UK, by giving a percentage of our profits to charities at retail shows we have attended.

Brydges Centre Update – December 2011
 
May we take this opportunity to wish you a very happy new year and all the very best for 2012 from all the children and staff of the Brydges Centre.
 
Since my last update in July the building has progressed well albeit slowly and the main block is now up to the 3^rd floor and we have also started with one of the ‘cottages’ each of which will house 8 children and a house mother.
 
The daily needs of food, water, rent, transport and school fees amongst many others continue to east up the main financial resources (very kindly provided by you!) so it is great to see development continuing with investment principally from Bob & Nancy Brydges & their friends in the US.
 
In my last newsletter I showed you the carious water and agricultural projects that were on going on the site, since then small chicken and rabbit project have also commenced principally for egg and food production.
 
All the kids continue to do well in school and are currently enjoying their Christmas break whilst we await year end exam results. About half of the kids (mainly the older ones) have gone back to their tribal homes to spend Christmas with a distant relative, whilst the other half of the kids have no identified distant family members and have stayed at the Centre.
 
Rosemary and her team have now set up a library at the Centre which broadly caters for all the kids needs through all the years of education.
 
We held a Christmas party on Christmas Eve with the children and staff at the Centre and had a goat (right!!) chickens and lots of snacks plus stories and games/singing.
 
Below Jack (my son) pictured sitting with Jonathan and Moses, the two youngest members of the Brydges kids at present. Jonathan was handed to the Centre from the Kenya prisons service after his mother who was an inmat3e of many years passed away (probably raped and HIV POSITIVE). Moses was found in a dustbin in the Dandorra slums where the Brydges Centre has an outreach program (he was left there to die after his mum didn’t want him). Both are happy little souls now and thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas snacks and singing with Jack.
 
I trust that you all had a great Christmas break. As ever on behalf of the Brydges family I thank you sincerely for your continued support – these kids would not have a home without big hearted people such as yourselves.
 
Sean Pelling