Elevyn is a kind of Etsy for marginalized communities: a way to buy directly from artisans in poorer parts of the world. You get a unique piece of clothing, jewelry or other art; they get to lift themselves out of poverty through their own work.
This is something that would be far less possible before the web. The whole thing exists online, promotion is in large part via social media (I found out about it via Metafilter), but the impact is global.
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Hi Ben thanks for the writeup. I'm Mike, founder of Elevyn and I found this through Google Analytics 🙂
You're right about the possibilities offered by the web. The village where the rural artisans are from, are hours away from the nearest towns, accessible via muddy logging roads. So access to market is a huge problem. With Elevyn, their crafts are now being sold to places as far away as Norway and the UK. This is very exciting because we're now seeing the technology really benefitting communities that are far away down the development chain.
Thanks for stopping by 🙂 This kind of thing has the potential to genuinely change the world. I'm really excited to see projects like yours emerging.
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