Blue Mango Trust
Thevaram Road, B. Sillaimarathupatti
Bodinayakanur, Theni District 625-582
Tamil Nadu
India
Landline: (011-91) 4546-281628
Rajakumari – Blue Mango Supervisor
Cell: (011-91) 93442-03698
Email: bluemango_ahmt@yahoo.com
Tamar DeJong
Landline: (011-91) 4546-283228
Cell: (011-91) 98429-15456
Email: tbdejong2000@yahoo.com
At this time, we do not sell our products online.
We market to boutiques within several major cities in India, and supply internationally to Fair Trade Organizations.
Several of our jewelry items are available through Ten Thousand Villages website sales outlet. In addition, they have many stores throughout the U.S. A. that sell our wider products on a regular basis.
Within India, our main retail outlets are:
INDIA:
Chennai:
Cane and Bamboo – C.T. Phillips
45/20 Ethiraj Salari Lane
Commander-in-Chief Road
Chennai 600-105
Tamil Nadu, India
Chamiers
New # 85 Chamiers Road
RA Puram, Chennai 600-028
Kodaikanal:
Re Shop
3 Sathya Complex
Seven Roads Junction
Kodaikanal 624-101
Tamil Nadu, Inida
Bangalore:
Ambara
119 (old 37) Annaswamy Mudaliar Road
(beside Foto Flash) Ulsoor
Ambara Basava
93 (Old 35 and 35/1) Kanakapura Road
Basavangudi, Bangalore 560-004
Amber
Leela Palace, Airport Road
Bangalore 560-008
Delhi:
The Shop
Connaught Place
Regal Building
MESH
5 Local Shopping Center
Uday Park
Kerala State:
CGH Group of Hotels
Coconut Lagoon - Kumakakon Kottayam
Marari Beach - Mararikulam Alleppey
The Shop - Kochi
Spice Village - Thekkady
CGH Shop - Karaigudi
CGH Om Beach - Goa
In addition, we supply products to the following Fair Trade Organizations
SWEDEN:
IM Soir
GERMANY:
Damian Versand
UNITED STATES:
Ten Thousand Villages
The Red Persimmon
Global Girlfriends
ENGLAND:
TLM
CANADA:
TLM
AUSTRALIA:
Fair Trade Shop
Perth
Blue Mango is fortunate to have received sizeable donations for major building construction and purchase of our van from Individuals, Marian Dean Foundation and Reformed Church of America. These donations have helped us speed the process of self sufficiency, meaning that we have been able to move our women into higher and fairer earnings earlier than later. Our aim is to function as a social business, but when women are living on the edge, there is no time to lose.
We are completely self sufficient on a day to day running basis. All of our material purchase, overhead costs and women’s salaries are paid for by profit from sales.
We welcome donations for specific projects. The donations will be in the name of AHM Trust – Blue Mango, since Blue Mango is legally under this NGO. For now, please send donations to Katrina Ulrich through her PayPal account http://theredpersimmon.com/ with an overhead letter to katrina@theredpersimmon.com with a copy to myself, Tamar tamarbruce@gmail.com, specifying how you want your donation to be used. We will follow up your donation with photos, updates, and a letter of receipt. Since we are located in India, we cannot get tax exempt status for the U.S.
You can also mail a check directly to AHM Trust and receive an official receipt. There is a procedure to be followed, in order to comply with the Foreign Contributions Act of India. Please email Tamar BEFORE sending your check so that all is processed correctly.
In the past, donations have been used for projects such as:
- A playground for the crèche children
- Beading tools, good quality scissors, and olfa cutters
- Noon meals subsidy
- Weaving looms
- Laptop computer
- Industrial sewing machines
- Funding major surgery for Parimala
- A bike for an AIDS affected child of one of our women
Right now, we could use donations for kiddie tables and chairs for our crèche.
The women are at a point where they are reaching out to their own community. For instance, last Divali, Rajakumari purchased new clothing for some poor neighbor kids. As the women are becoming more financially stable, they are starting to notice those who are poorer than they are. This heartens me. An attitude of gratitude and compassion for others can only strengthen Blue Mango.
In the near future we plan to start an outreach program, where the women opt to donate some of their own earnings monthly into a fund, and subsequently we will give an opportunity for donors to match this amount. The money will be used in the community for projects that the women choose themselves. Of course follow up will be available to the donors. It promises to be quite exciting but will entail some organizing. The beauty of this project is that the seed money will come from the women themselves, taking away the “charity” tone to your generous and kind donations. Instead of ‘up to down’, this project will be one of working together. So check our month newsletters to see how this is idea is progressing. If anyone of you has the time and energy to work on this project with me, let me know!
Thanks to everyone who has donated in the past!
Without enormous support from friends and well wishers, Blue Mango wouldn’t exist.
Special Thanks go to our regular volunteers:
Katrina, Susan, Chris, and Mary who have paid their own traveling expenses on one or many occasions in order to give Blue Mango a permanent boost!
To Carol Leah, and Carol Jean, for volunteering when they come to visit
To Hanna, who started the beading division
To Hans, for his magic show performances to the women and their children
To Andry, who started candle making
To Ketsa, for her beading design
To Arpita, our NID (National Institute of Design) student, who started the banana fiber division
To Tanu, a NID graduate who has worked with us for volunteer wages to help our program grow
To Geraldine and Leif, who created an artistic and top notch video clip about Blue Mango
To Jhoti, a graphic designer based out of New York, for designing our Blue Mango logo
To Dency, Rita, and Lathika for helping out with Re Shop
To the professional visiting photographers who have shared their photos with us:
Susan Johnson, Robin Mills, Dick Walls, Aaron Walls, and Charlie Kehler
To Katrina for designing and posting the original website. Thanks to Katrina for continuing to pay for our web server
To Terah and Bruce for their editing help
To Bruce for spending days upon days supervising construction and organizing accounts
To Babu Ibrahim, the Director of AHM Trust, who has believed in Blue Mango since our shaky beginnings. He has been a backbone of programmatic support during low times, and a cheerleader during good times.
BIG THANKS to Leif, for all of his long hard hours during summer vacation and weekends, staying up into wee hours of the morning creating this beautiful website.
Thanks to all of the well wishers of Blue Mango! This program has been flooded by so many people who have sent good thoughts and prayers our way.
