The ‘Chotanagpurgruppe–Faire Handelsgesellschaft mbH’ is a small import organisation, which aims to give support to disadvantaged groups in the countries of India and Nepal by Fair Trade.

It was founded in 2010 by two non-profit organisations, the ‘Freundeskreis Chotanagpur’ (friends of Chotanagpur) in Karlsruhe and in Dortmund. These two organisations wanted to separate their business activities from their charitable work. To support disadvantaged groups was the initial idea of the two ‘friends of Chotanagpur’ groups from the beginning.

In 1978, a group of friends founded the non-profit organisation ‘Freundeskreis Chotanagpur’.

One member, who has worked in Ranchi/India for several years, made the experience that a group of weavers were about to leave their region, because they could hardly sell their hand woven products. Traditional Saris had become too expensive for the poor people from the villages.

This member advised the weavers in producing their craft and design in European sizes to make products as table cloth and bed spreads. As the selling of these products was quite successful in Germany, the group decided to found a non-profit organisation aiming at help for the weavers of Chotanagpur, as they did not get help from any other side – the ‘Freundeskreis Chotanagpur’.

The plan was to establish a job creation scheme as a kind of development aid. From the very beginning these organisations followed the fair trade principles and asked the partner also to follow these principles. Moreover the personal contact was very important for them. They visited their partners regularly and invited them to visit them in Germany.

Soon other groups of craftsmen asked for help as well and those who agreed to the fair trade principles were accepted. Up to now the ‘Freundeskreis Chotanagpur’ supports 10 partners.

In 2010 their structure was changed, but not the aims. A ‘GmbH'(Ltd) – ‘Chotanagpurgruppe – Faire Handelsgesellschaft mbH’ was founded to continue the work enabling the two non-profit ‘friends of Chotanagpur’ groups to keep focusing on their charitable work.

Click here to go to Chotanagpurgruppe’s website, and here to connect with them on Instagram!