Weaving Hope, enterprise arising from our travels

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Travelling can have a huge impact on many aspects of your life. It broadens your horizons and enriches your experiences. I get frustrated with people who feel that travelling is not a sensible way to spend your money and their perception that because you have nothing tangible at the end of it, the money has been wasted. Often these are the same people who will happily buy a new car despite the huge depreciation of its value as soon as it is driven off the forecourt.

Obviously travelling leaves you with photographs and memories that will last your lifetime. Then there are the people that you meet and the communities the world over that you begin to connect with. There is the deep-seated realisation ( a confirmation of something many of us feel) that people the world over are more fundamentally similar that different. There are friendships and the connection you can make with a complete stranger when you discover that you share experiences especially of comparatively little-trodden paths.

Above all travelling can help shape your outlook on life helping affirm the positive and empower you to believe that you can make a difference and control the direction in which your life goes.

A year on from our family adventure in South East Asia are we still the people we were before we went? Yes and no. I am still a teacher, and our children still go to the same school. But we have all learned lessons and changed too. Jake is no longer a fussy eater and Elliot knows he can survive without a menagerie of cuddly animals. In lots of ways we also feel that our adventure is continuing. In Blog Entry: 401850 Weaving and Sygiria on 25th May last year we visited a Fair Trade Weaving business. We were so impressed by the work that they did that we spent much of the rest of the trip considering what we could do to help.

In May of this year, after months of preparations we began trading as Weaving Hope, an importer of beautiful Fair Trade gifts for children. This is one of the many surprises that have arisen from our travelling. We never expected to be running our own business alongside the rest of our already busy lives however the experience of our travelling has helped us to be willing to seize opportunities that present themselves. We have imported samples, run focus groups, and with the help of friends and family developed marketing materials, a stall and a website. We are learning to manage our stock and promote our produce and above all continuing to support the community in Sri Lanka with which we were so involved. We have run stalls in Clun, Stourbridge and at Fair Trade at the Fringe in Edinburgh, and begun to fulfil mail order as well. If you are interested in finding our more please visit our website: www.weavinghope.co.uk

Our conclusion is that travelling not only gives you great memories and photographs, but broadens the horizons, literally in what you have seen, and metaphorically in how it opens your mind to opportunities that present themselves. The confidence engendered by getting yourself around that world and through some extraordinary and bizarre situations will stand you in good stead throughout your life. The ripples from your adventures can spread and grow long after the initial impact of your journey. Can you think of a more interesting and worthwhile way to spend your money?

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