Sera Helsinki

SERA HELSINKI was born from love for handcrafting and design. We provide handmade woolen carpets and cotton towels made from pure ecological raw materials. All the products are made in Ethiopia – SERA is an Amharic word and means ’work’. Our products combine both Finnish design and traditional Ethiopian hand craftsmanship. Our products are ethical. Our aim is to improve the living standards of the artisans. We empower the most vulnerable groups in Ethiopia – the people with disabilities and single mothers. We want to create as many jobs as possible, so all the parts of the production are handmade. Especially the situation of the people with disabilities is desperate in Ethiopia – most of them end up as beggars on the street. We train and employ blind artisans in Addis Ababa. We cooperate with Ethiopian NGO:s as well as with Finnish Abilis. Year 2016 we started with 8 weavers, but at the moment we empower over 160 artisans, most of them blind. Our products are ecological. The wool comes from peasant farmers in the northern highlands of Ethiopia. The mothers of these families produce the woolen thread by hand. The wool is not dyed or bleached – it’s ecological and natural.