About Us

    

Based on Cortes Island in beautiful British Columbia, Canada, Nzuri Basket Company is a small family run business. 

Our story begins over a decade ago when we first travelled to Kenya to visit family and explore the amazing countryside.  After spending several months in the country and connecting with many wonderful local families and individuals, we returned home to start our own family. 

         

Raising two daughters in a rural environment, and striving to live in a sustainable way, (growing our own food, living local and supporting handmade)  gave us multiple opportunities to reflect on the defining moments in our lives, one of which was our time in Kenya.

Determined to give our children the experiences we had, and wanting them to build on and continue the friendships we had forged, we returned to Kenya as a family in the spring of 2020.  It was there that Nzuri Basket Company was created.  

    

We work directly with women weavers in Kenya, purchasing our baskets direct from the makers.  Wherever possible, you'll find your basket marked with the name of the woman who wove it!  Each basket we purchase is unique; hand-created by women who use their craft as a way to supplement their income from subsistence farming.  We have fostered personal relationships with the women in our cooperative, sharing laughs, meals and family stories.
We are committed to running our business with fair-trade, and environmentally friendly principles, ensuring fair prices are paid to all of the craftspeople involved in each and every baskets creation and constantly reviewing our environmental practices to find new ways to lower our impact.

 

The Director of Twende Development

We donate a minimum of 1% of our profits back to Kenya, through the grass-roots aid organization Twende Development which provides support for remote schools and communities in the form of social programming and physical projects like latrine building, and the distribution of necessary sanitation and school supplies .