Holy Land Designs has served as an outreach to physically challenged and underprivileged individuals in the Holy Land since 2001. Located in the hills of the Roman city of Philadelphia, now modern day Amman, Jordan, our Fair Trade Community Workshop currently trains and employs around 20 full-time workers.

For centuries, Holy Land artisans have expressed their creative talents through such natural media as stone, wood, and sand. Today Middle Eastern families continue to carve, weave, press, and dye a variety of articles reflecting the culturally rich, yet often harsh world of their surroundings.

 Foundational principles that we strive for are:

• Work for the good of the community
• Improve the quality of life through fair trade practices
• Train physically-challenged people who otherwise would have extremely limited work opportunities and limited economic means
• Holistic environment care with excellence                                                                    

We handle all of our workers equally in terms of treatment, salary, and opportunities, and these workers are given vocational skills, training, and a living wage. We actively pursue the hiring of women and physically-challenged people in order to create opportunities for those who have been economically and socially disadvantaged. Women make up 48% of the population, but only 17% of the workforce, so we especially seek to employ this underutilized group. We also promote a safe and healthy working environment for all employees. We do not employ any child workers and condemn children working under exploitative conditions that are detrimental to the child’s health and education. Additionally, we care for the environment by supporting the use of recycled or recyclable materials wherever possible.

 

                 

 

Commitment to Community

The Workshop fosters a family atmosphere and a spirit of community lived “from the heart.”  Meals are usually taken together, and everyone looks out for each other as they face the difficulties of daily life and other challenges.

The workshop’s goal is to train local men and women in skills such as woodworking, carving, painting and sewing that broaden their opportunity for economic stability and professional advancement. Holy Land Designs works for the good of the community, making certain that every starting salary is sufficient to provide housing, food and education for a family of four. 

Commitment to the Environment

In the Middle East, the olive tree is considered “blessed,” even holy.  No tree would be cut down simply for its wood.  Holy Land Designs celebrates this time-honored tradition and uses only olive wood from trees which have been pruned way back because they are not producing fruit, or cut down because of road construction or building.

Fortunately, these trees often produce the highest quality olive wood.  Those trees which endure harsh conditions, clinging to the side of a cliff or surviving long seasons without water, result in the truly valuable wood grain essential for our products — rich in color, intricacy, and beauty.

 

Click on the link below to see where our wood comes from!