The past few weeks have seen some really exciting developments for the G.R.O. Artisans Collective. We have managed to sit down with ‘Me Mots’eoa, the Artisans Collective Coordinator, for a brief chat to update us all on what has been going on.

Lumela ‘Me! Welcome to your second G.R.O. Q&A – thanks for taking the time out of your day working on financials to hang out for a few minutes. Ok, here are your 3 questions….

Both the G.R.O. Lesotho Programs Team and the G.R.O. Artisans are about to move into a much larger office, still in the BEDCO Leribe complex. What does the new office space mean for the Artisans?

Well, the new office is very exciting for the Artisans particularly because we will centralize our space to include the retail space, the workshop, and my office with the Programs Team. There will also be a larger space that we are hoping, in future, can be dedicated to a space that Bo ‘Me can bring their children to work. As mentioned, we will be able to divide the retail shop and provide a more private workshop space. The new office and retail space gives the Artisans a greater chance to improve on their customer service and retail experience skills. The whole thing is a lot more convenient with a lot more space.

The Artisans recently had a pretty high ranking visitor to the retail shop – who stopped by and how did they hear about the Collective?

The Ambassador to the United States recently visited with his family. Ambassador Nolan had heard about the Collective from one of his daughters who had met us at the most recent Maseru Bazaar where we were selling jewelry. She took a flyer and ended up telling her mom. They were both impressed and visited our website to do a bit of research on the Artisans. From there the family decided to drop in to see the women and the workshop. The Artisans were ecstatic that they took the time to visit and purchase a few pieces of jewelry – I want to make sure we thank Ambassador Nolan and his family for the support!

That’s amazing! Congrats on the expanding customer base! In other big news the Artisans seem to have established a Royal connection – can you please update us all on what exactly I’m talking about?

Queen Masenate Mohato Bereng Seeiso recently received a birthday gift from the artisans - a jewelry set specially made by the Artisans in a custom bag made of local fabrics which was hand delivered by her mom. The Queen happens to be from Hlotse so we wanted to surprise her with a small gift. She gave us some really positive feedback that was sent to us through her brother. In fact, she was really impressed and she wants to purchase a few additional pieces. She has just ordered a customer set of 3 pieces that will match her seshoshoe in blue – the seshoshoe is the national traditional fabric and is worn at special events by Basotho women. This is of course big news for Bo ‘Me as it was really quite unexpected and we are hoping that this relationship that has been established with the Royal family will continue and that our queen will be a strong advocate for the Artisans showcasing their work at a number of events. I think we are all hoping she will eventually make a visit but we’ll have to wait and see!

Posted under Notes from Lesotho