Nurturing Sustainable Youth Entrepreneurship

Founded by a young designer in the geographically isolated Pauri Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, Leeway Handicrafts began as a small social enterprise with a mission to generate sustainable employment for local youth. Recognizing its potential to build livelihoods through design-led innovation, Sarba Shanti Ayog (SSA) partnered with Leeway under its enterprise development programme. SSA provided structured capacity-building support focused on design development, sourcing systems, quality enhancement, costing, and record-keeping for transparency—laying the foundation for an accountable and growth-oriented business model.

Through continued mentoring and monitoring under SSA’s Internal Monitoring System (IMS) framework, Leeway Handicrafts gradually strengthened its operational processes and social responsibility standards. This enabled the enterprise to integrate into SSA’s sister organization Sasha’s Fair Trade network, gaining market access and exposure to ethical business practices aligned with the WFTO Guarantee System. Today, Leeway stands as an emerging example of how young rural entrepreneurs can build socially responsible, market-ready enterprises when equipped with the right ecosystem of design, compliance, and Fair Trade support—reflecting SSA’s commitment to nurturing fair, inclusive, and sustainable enterprises at the grassroots.