By Emma Wood

Marian almost gave up on her batik shop when a thief broke in a few years ago and stole most of her hard-earned equipment. She soon found, however, that without her shop, she was struggling to support her adopted daughter. So when she heard about Global Mamas, Marian decided to return to batiking. At first she worked with another Global Mamas batiker to raise enough money to restore her shop, and was able to move back within a couple of months. Now Marian says she finally has a dependable source of income – her previous customers would often pay on bad credit or fail to pay the quoted price.

Now Marian’s fabrics have even entered the world of London fashion. Last fall, UK-based charity Tabeisa, in conjunction with the Ethical Fashion Forum, held the Design4Life competition, challenging young designers to create dresses that reflected the latest European fashions while using the traditional African batik cloth. Marian supplied the fabric for two of the winning designs, of which Top Shop, a large British clothing retailer, bought hundreds to sell in different locations.

Though Marian enjoys batiking, she dreams of opening an orphanage with the money she saves so that she can help other orphans who, unlike her daughter, she was unable to adopt.

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