Nowadays, the negative news about Afghanistan is trending on the global news outlets and social media is full of confusion, guilt, sadness and blaming one another. However, on the other hand, no one thinks that while they are trying to help to rescue some of the people who worked directly with western countries, they can also help to sustain and to restore the legacy they left behind to the poorest and helpless people, such as the saffron farmers of Afghanistan.
The sudden collapse of Afghanistan to the hands of Taliban has devastated our team here in Canada and US, but we feel blessed that we were able to import almost tens of kilos of saffron from saffron farmers just a few days before this countrywide catastrophe happened, which has helped financially tens of Saffron famers families.
Meanwhile, as the security situation was deteriorating in Herat and Taliban was about to takeover all the province, with the partnership of Sabz Coop (which has 50K members all over Afghanistan), we were jointly able to provide temporary shelter and food to some of our Herati Saffron farmers inside Sabz Coop warehouses and facilities in Kabul city.
As Safaroma focus has always been on finding new ways to help Afghanistan grass-root women and especially women saffron farmers, we are urging the United States and other western governments and people to find ways to still keep a lifeline open to the real people on the ground.
Back in 2017, Safaroma team has helped tremendously the Sabz Co-op executives to not only export their products to the regional markets, but also to North American marketplaces. This type of positive legacies needs to be maintained and nourished.
The Safaroma team includes all like-minded individuals who aspire to make a difference in the world through tea! Together we make up Safaroma. Safaroma was created in response to a desperate need to provide a channel for thousands of Afghan female farmers to sell their products at fair market prices, thereby doing away with unscrupulous middlemen and dominant distribution corporations. In 2017, we began work with the Saffron Farmers' Union and expanded as a trusted partner for other women's co-ops as well as individual farmers.
Safaroma is an organic and fair trade tea company that blends our tea with Afghan saffron and in the process, helps to shape the lives of the enterprising female farmers in Afghanistan who pick the saffron with their own hands.
Safaroma has a notable presence online but we understand that many consumers want to avoid the added shipping costs. As a result, we are striving to make our products more accessible to a broader population by partnering with stores that share the same vision as we do. We have already established some great partnerships with local markets and stores, and are continuing to extend our reach and create new and wonderful partnerships in other parts of North America.
We would love to offer the US and Canadian consumers a chance to try their favourite tea while also receiving the incredible healing benefits of our premium Afghan saffron we add in each of our blends. Our teas are a quick, easy, and cost-friendly way of helping your consumers in regulating their digestion, relieving stress, and boosting their energy, while knowing they are doing their body good by choosing an organic, non-GMO, and preservative-free option which has been brought to them from saffron farmers in Afghanistan.
At Safaroma we embrace a conscious commitment to supporting farming communities and the surrounding villages that rely on them, as well as the sensitive and critical ecosystems throughout Afghanistan.
As a result of Safaroma's inherent understanding of their needs and challenges, Afghan women's unions and co-operatives are run totally by Afghan women in their quest for sustainable livelihoods. Over the last 20 years, we have learned that relying on NGOs who pull out after a few years was not the way to help raise the struggling farmers out of the abject poverty that had become the norm.
Our fair trade initiatives are designed to help Afghan female farmers and villagers reclaim their lives, farms and country. With our help and yours, we will provide them with the income they need to support their families and allow their children to go to school. These children are the future of Afghanistan and their literacy and education are a vital part of that future.
At Safaroma, we emphasized trade not aid, self-help not handout. We hope such remarkable visionary work will not be forgotten and Afghan women farmers will seek out economic cooperation to move the country forward. Safaroma seeks international support in its noble mission of empowering Afghan women and small entrepreneurs.
As Safaroma focus has always been on finding new ways to help Afghanistan women entrepreneurs and especially women saffron farmers, we are urging the United States government and Americans to find ways to still keep a lifeline open to the real people on the ground.
In conclusion, the rapid rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan has shocked and alienated the international community and governments. Surveillance and brutality on Afghan citizens are exclusively for women and girls can not be described in words. They are afraid that like the last regime of Taliban they will be forced to stay at home and they will take away the right to education, work and attendance to the community events.
Fortunately, in the midst of these crises, our farmers are still committed to return to their farms to harvest their saffron threads and to help their families financially. Therefore to ease their unbearable pain a bit, the Safaroma team decided to donate 20% of this profit to our Saffron Farmers in Afghanistan.
Also, in order to allow you to participate in this noble mission, we have created a charity account for them, so that you could directly donate to Women Farmers in Afghanistan here.
They need your support more than ever, because the war is impoverishing the farmers. Every penny of your donation will be transferred to them and it will be well-documented for your reference.