Who We Are

From the shortage of paper to the depleting ozone layer, to unemployment the world has many problems today. While science is trying to discover a new way to fight these problems, there has been a reasonable solution since the dawn of man. This solution is bamboo and bamboo products. Bamboo and bamboo products have many environment friendly characteristics, and can be used as substitutions in many situations and in turn generate livelihoods.

Bamboo House India, a social enterprise, was established by two First Generation Entrepreneurs, Aruna Kappagantula & Prashant Lingam in the year 2008 with an aim of using Bamboo as an economic driver for providing sustainable livelihood opportunities to rural & tribal artisans in the Bamboo sector through market linkages.

BHI is striving to create chain of bamboo showrooms across the country which shall promote & market all bamboo based products under one roof starting from Bamboo pen to Bamboo Housing Structures. Purpose is to create a long term sustainable non -migratory business model for rural and tribal artisans in the Bamboo sector by using locally available raw material i.e. bamboo and develop contemporary life style products to suit the market tastes and demand rather than age old basketry items.

The business model focuses on triple bottom lines i.e environmental, social & financial aspects . Criteria is to provide market for artisan products and make Bamboo available to the customers and try to solve the major problem of the Bamboo industry i.e poor market linkages.BHI works through a hybrid model, a 'for-profit' component and a 'non-profit' component.

"For profit" activities are handled by "Bamboo House India" involving sourcing, designing, retailing, exhibiting and developing markets and "not-for-profit" activities are handled by "Bamboo Artisan Welfare Society" involving skill training & upgradation, design development & capacity building.

First such exclusive Bamboo showroom is coming up in Hyderabad on an experimental basis for conducting reality check and gather market feedback, initiative supported & funded by NMBA – CII – APTDC – IIT (D) & AP Forest Dept.

Mission

To provide round the year employment opportunities to rural & tribal artisans in the country through market linkages and at the same time promote Bamboo as an Eco-friendly substitute to wood, steel, iron & plastic and at the same work keep our organisational activities in tune with country’s Bamboo Objectives.

Vision

  1. Do our bit in providing round the year employment opportunities to rural and tribal artisans in the country dependent on Bamboo Handicrafts for their livelihoods.
  2. To act as a link between government, Missions, Institutes and Organizations, Artisan communities and the customers for structured growth and development of the Bamboo Industry.
  3. To develop the enterprise in a professional manner and maintain Fair Trade Practices in its operations
  4. To open at least 3-5 exclusive bamboo outlets in the next 3 -5 years.
Bamboo House India is supported in its initiative by
  1. National Mission on Bamboo Applications (NMBA)
  2. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
  3. Andhra Pradesh Technology promotion & Development Center (APTDC)
  4. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT - Delhi)
  5. Andhra Pradesh Forest Department (APFD)
  6. Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL & FS)
  7. Tripura Bamboo Mission (TBM)
What We Do

  • Use locally accessible raw material i.e. bamboo for creating livelihood opportunities for the rural population.

  • Identify & motivate clusters/communities in the rural areas to take up value added bamboo activities for their economic progress.

  • Identify, formulate and execute business plans using bamboo as raw material and ensure acceptability of the proposal both by the community and the local panchyat through systematic and professional approach.

  • Initiate Bamboo plantation activity for ensuring long term raw material availability to support bamboo value added activities.

  • Provide training to the communities / clusters to make marketable products using bamboo as raw material.

  • Concentrate on streamlining and systemizing the entire process of training, production, quality control, supply chain management and marketing which are all important stages in the bamboo production chain.

  • Create a business model for the communities/ clusters to make them independent in their activity.

  • Provide professional training to a pool of key members in the community in basic management principles to enable them to run their activities in organized environment.

  • Generate awareness for bamboo products at the village level using necessary promotional programmes to ensure systematic knowledge dissemination at the village level.

  • To coordinate and facilitate rural presentations at various forums to create awareness of the bamboo craft and its livelihood implications.

  • Design & develop marketing / communication programmes for the clusters and empowering them for wider acceptance of bamboo products.

  • Arrange for fairs & exhibitions to promote products made by the rural communities for better market opportunities.

  • Coordinate & Interact with all stakeholders and business partners for providing better facilities and opportunities at the village level.

  • Arranging required infrastructural facilities required either by setting up Common Facilitates Centre (CFC) or several independent production units for achieving the very objective of the programme.

  • Develop a common platform for communities and business enterprises for enhanced understanding of each other through a systematic approach.

  • Prioritize in giving people at all levels the knowledge and skills they need for long-term development involving bamboo.

  • Follow people-first perspective, with participatory approaches in all field-based activities, ensuring ownership and decision making rest with those who benefit from the work

  • Assisting in bringing about successful development interventions through trade policy, statistical compilation, standard setting and direct community-based interventions.

  • Develop the community/village as an autonomous business entity and equip them with all aspects of professional business enterprise and prepare them in managing the market competition in an improved and structured approach.

  • Buyback arrangements of the finished products.
 
 
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