Dawn Images

The Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation (ACF), the non-profit animal welfare organisation based in Karachi, is known as the voice of the animals and it only keeps proving this. Ayesha Chundrigar, the founder of the foundation, just launched a new business that not only aims to collect funds for the animals but also make the world a better place in the process.

Her “differently holistic business model” helps causes such as “cleaning the oceans of plastic waste, making a useful product out of it, incentivising the fishing villages, empowering women artisans who have endured unimaginable trauma and are sole breadwinners of their families, uplifting the cottage industry” and supporting the cause very close to her heart.

Ayesha partnered up with her sister Sonia Chundrigar to facilitate “sustainable and ethical handmade” products named Trio-Goods for a Cause. The sisters wanted their first-ever business to be “socially conscious” in a way that helps the environment and people all the while raising funds for ACF.

Currently there are five products — three types of dog leashes and two types of toys. “These are all made of 85% waste material. 60% is purely used fishnets rescued from the oceans that kill marine life,” she wrote in an Instagram post.

The items worked their magic even before they were sold. “We have already empowered 25 women, teaching them the craft of weaving the products that they’ve perfected beyond belief, all the while training them as entrepreneurs for effective scalability. So the more you purchase, the more women we help.” She added that these women were only scraping by before this work whereas now they are headed towards financial independence.

“Every product has about 0.25kg of fish net in them, so the more you buy, the more we clean the oceans as well,” she wrote. “And finally, proceeds go back to helping more animals at ACF so the more you buy, the more animals get help. Are you seeing a pattern?”

The Tri-Goods are available on an Instagram page called Made by Trio. It features the leashes created through a “chain of kindness” and the toys.

What a wonderful initiative!