Working directly with mothers in Villages, not factories, going mud deep to stitch positive impact into what you wear.
Website: sukkhacitta.com
Main Location: ASHTA District 8 GF 15, Jl. Senopati, RT.8/RW.3, Senayan, Kota Jakarta Selatan, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 12190, Indonesia
Network Location: Villages of Java, Indonesia
Sukkha Citta makes meaningful clothes in the Villages of Indonesia by regenerative farm to closet local production and supporting local economies. Leveraging indigenous wisdom and local culture, they work with women where they are, focusing primarily on livelihoods from agriculture, regenerative forestry and craft. They provide education, simple technologies and leverage local wisdom along the way before we connect them to market.
A Q&A with Sukkha Citta
COMMUNITY
OCM: In what ways are you a community and how do you serve its needs?
SC: In a simple yet impactful way, SukkhaCitta – a wordplay of suka cita which is Indonesian for “joy,” creates social impact by investing in the capacity building of the rural artisans, our Ibus, and ensuring that they earn a proper living wage to more than 1,500 lives. Through our audited, fair trade standards, our artisans finally know how much they should get for their hard work with an average of 60% increase of income. The result? Our Ibus feel visible and valuable, and lift up their community.
EXPRESSION
OCM: In what ways do you nurture creativity, cultures and customs relating to dress, clothing or bodily adornment within your community?
SC: At SukkhaCitta, we believe that the most sustainable clothes are actually the ones already in your closet. We put a lot of thought into the design of our pieces, creating carefully handcrafted clothes that will accompany for a long time, making it a timeless and versatile piece. We don’t believe in seasons and see overproduction as one of the root causes of fast fashion’s devastating climate impact. Thus, each piece of clothing becomes an investment not only for the artisan and the planet earth, but also as a piece to inherit from generation to generation (regeneration).
COMMON WEALTH
OCM: In what ways do you share your knowledge, skills, creativity and/or resources with others?
As a social enterprise, whatever we make gets reinvested back in our communities. Funding much-needed training and building craft schools, Rumah Sukkha Citta, to break the cycle of poverty and create long term change for artisans in villages across Indonesia. We are empowering them by providing intensive training in craft, design and business skills, before connecting them to a global market through SukkhaCitta.
PEOPLE
OCM: In what ways do you respect and care for other peoples, the significance of their cultural expression and rights to dignified livelihoods?
SC: In each SukkhaCitta piece, the first thing you realise is that there are real lives impacted through your choice. The power of this idea is vast. By not giving them aid; but instead giving them a chance to earn a wage that allows them to support their families.
The reason this is significant is that it allows these women to keep the one thing that is so often taken away from them: pride. When someone appreciates your work and you are able to make a living from it, your pride remains intact. Offering people pride leads to empowerment; and empowerment leads to real change. There’s this sense of pride because ultimately empowerment – that wasn’t there before – makes them believe in themselves.
NATURE
OCM: In what ways do you work with nature to protect and restore the living world?
SC: Big changes start small. It doesn't happen in huge leaps, but through a collection of seemingly tiny choices. Every day, what guides us is not to be bigger. But to be better stewards of the Planet.
Finding ways to not only do less harm, but how we can create clothes that impacts the world positively. Investing in regeneration and growing our own regenerative cotton. Last year, we took it one step further by being the first certified B Corporation voted Best for the World™ in Indonesia. It’s a huge deal in an industry plagued with exploitation and pollution, especially for women in the informal sector.
In the next 5 years, you can expect us to do exactly what we've done so far: Finding more problems and even better solutions. To give more than we take.
How to participate
Coming soon...