Monoprix has ordered a collection of accessories made from recycled plastic bags from Filles du Facteur to go on sale in Spring 2010. They are currently being crocheted by women in associations in Burkina Faso and Guinée.
Plasticbagrecycling
Ginbriscus, the African drink recreated by Filles du facteur, has been on sale since June 2009 in 75cl bottles. Made from organic ingredients, it is awaiting certification and production in smaller 25cl bottles. The 75cl bottles sell for 6 euros.
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Clonette, originating from Africa, this plastic doll is sold in aid of underpriviledged children in Africa. The black clonette, made from recycled plastic is our association’s mascot and used as a factor of comminication.
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PLASTIC BAG RECYCLING
In France, the association works with women from a community social integration workshop in the suburbs of Paris at Viry-Châtillon (La Grande Borne).
In Africa, a first workshop has been set up in the village of Tiébélé in Burkina-Faso.
Women are taught crochet techniques then household articles and fashion accessories commissioned to be sold via the Facteur Céleste fashion distribution network.
Plastic bags collected in France come in a wide variety of colours, whilst in Africa, the majority of plastic bags are black, the colour of recycled plastic.
GINBRISCUS
A naturel home-made energy drink, it was tested for three years at the Facteur Céleste boutique café and unanimously appreciated. Created by mixing two traditional African drinks, ginger and hibiscus, made by women in West Africa for celebrations and traditionally drunk seperately.
It is currently produced on a cottage industry scale by MamaBissa, a company that socially integrates African women, at Mantes-la-Jolie (78), in the Paris suburbs.
Ginbriscus is made from organic ingredients and organic certification is underway.
Our long-term aim is for the drink to be produced in Africa, by African women in accordance with fairtrade and sustainable organic agriculture norms.
THE CLONETTE
The pastic doll, known as Clonette, originated in the colonial era and is made in Ghana. It was the first industrially produced African doll and can still be found on markets to this day.
Thanks to Filles du Facteur it exists in black since 2006; the colour of recycled plastic.
A proportion of the income generated by the sale of these dolls is donated to institutions that help orphans and vulnerable children. Filles du Facteur has established priviledged working relations in Ghana with OrphanAid Africa who work to prevent the abandoning of children by their families.
www.oafrica.org
the association’s goal
The association’s goal is to help women in difficulty, with priority being given to immigrant women in France and women in rural areas of Africa.
We aim to help them help themselves by providing them with work so they can achieve financial independence and access to health and education
about Filles du Facteur
The Filles du Facteur, a non-profit organization, was founded in 2008 by Delphine Kohler, accompanied by a group of women friends, to perpetuate the Facteur Céleste brand philosophy and help women well beyond frontiers.
Goods are designed and produced in accordance with the causes she champions : the importance of protecting a certain “handmade” know-how, cross culture and the recycling of materials.
In 2000, the unique and colourful Facteur Céleste lifestyle boutique opened in Paris. For 7 years, it brought together under one roof young Fairtrade designers, the first baby café in the capital and crochet and creative workshops using recycled materials, for adults and children. The « carnavals-récup » concept originated from these workshops.
The seeds for the association were sown here, where, from meeting place for like-minded people, the place became a refuge for those sharing sympathy for the same causes.
In 2007, Delphine Kohler became nomadic and embarked on a series of bridge-building projects linking women from France with those from there.
Delphine Kohler had a Nubian vault mud house built in Burkina Faso and set up a workshop with the women of “her” village to crochet recycled plastic bags.
the Facteur Céleste site
