Leading media and e-commerce website Tonic has announced their new partnership with Citta. Tonic is a site focused on effortless activism and social good, and their project with Citta will benefit women in India and Nepal. Beginning today, November 11, 2009, visitors to www.tonic.com can purchase a unique 100% pashmina scarf, designed by Lucy Barnes and handknit by the women of the Citta Himalaya Women’s Center – fashion you can feel good about.
Proceeds will be funding the new Jaisalmer Women’s Center in Rajasthan, India. The scarf, which retails for $100 will help 100 women in need in India. Citta is an organization that supports remote and impoverished regions of the world, and asked several creative minds who transform the way we see the world through the words they choose, to select a word that holds importance or meaning in their lives. The Himalayan women hand embroidered the select words to each scarf in Sanskrit, providing them with training for valuable skills they can use in the future and a salary that allows them to feel independence and contribute to their families.
Celebrity participants include Queen Latifah, Sting, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, Natalie Merchant, David Byrne, and Thandie Newton.
Queen Latifah chose the word “strength,” Sting is “resolve, ” Scarlett Johansson’s chosen word is “reuse,” David Bowie‘s is “funk,” and says, “Funk is your inner rhythm, your soul,” Susan Sarandon is “awake,” and chose it because, “Because that is the first step, the basic state, the least and most one can be in their life, before any thing else can be practiced. One must be awake to appreciate, to empathize, to act, to gain perspective and, most of all, to love.”
Natalie Merchant chose “silent,” because “Silent is a state of being, for a place or a creature: “the forest was dark and silent”, “we were both silent”, “the night was calm and silent”. So much meaning can be read into this word but it usually implies that this is a time and space for the cessation of chaos, movement, activity, noise, static. The place or thing that is silent may not always be benign but it is, most often, between states: preparing for activity or recovering from it. When we are in a silent moment or space we are suspended, ” David Byrne went with “dust”, and Thandie Newton selected “surrender.”
The hand-embroidered scarves are made of 100% two-ply pashmina and retail for $100 each. They are available in gray and camel and are sold exclusively on www.tonic.com. The fine cashmere wool comes from changthangi or pashmina goat, which is a special breed indigenous to the high altitudes of the Himalayas.
10% of every sale will fund the new Citta Jaisalmer Women’s Center in Rajasthan, India. There, women will have access to classes on health, hygiene and nutrition for not only themselves but for their families. Another 10% will go to The Tonic Foundation, the charitable arm of Tonic that supports causes that Tonic members and customers identify by taking action on www.tonic.com.
Of the partnership, Founder of Citta Michael Daube said, “Words can be positive, powerful tools. They can mobilize a nation to independence or relay confidence to an army winning a battle against all odds. Words can transmit love from one being to another, or convey the mysteries of life from a teacher to a student.” He continued, “I am excited to partner with Tonic on this important collaboration which uses powerful words to provide skills and economic development for the women of the Thar Desert.”
“To have this unique opportunity to partner with an organization as great as Citta and help women in need in both Nepal and India is something that Tonic is very proud to be a part of” said Pankaj Shah, Founder and CEO of Tonic. “With the help of these words that carry such significance, we hope to leave a lasting impression with the public which will, in turn, result in a massive joint effort to help those in need.”
Check out www.tonic.com today for these exclusive scarves and help benefit women in need.
