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Happy Towels are woven in Buldan… a typical Turkish village with yellow, white and red houses.
In Buldan they weave hamam towels. The family of our weaver, Metin, has been doing that for generations. On almost the same looms as father, mother, grandfather and grandmother worked on.
Recently, the company acquired a few automatic weaving machines. It takes some getting used to, but they weave much faster. That way Metin can better cope with the growing demand. It is no longer just Istanbul, but also Greece and Italy.
And from a small web shop in the Netherlands.
The story of Cor, the guy behind Happy Towels
My interest in Turkey started when I went on holiday there for the first time. After my umpteenth trip through this country, I decided to learn the language. In love with the country and a woman, I decided to live there. The love for the Turkish woman did not last, but the love for the country did.
Meanwhile, I live in the Netherlands again, but I visit Turkey as often as I can. Because I enjoy the country and its people so much, I would like to give something back. Especially for a weaver of traditional hamam towels, whom I met a few years ago. His name is Metin, he doesn’t speak a word across the border, but he is always cheerful and a true professional.
Together with Metin, I try to further develop the hamam towels so that they are better suited to European taste and quality. He makes them extra long (210 cm) so that they are more convenient for people in Western Europe.
Oh I nearly forgot to mention it, we now also have small guest towels for in the house. Bringing colour to your kitchen, toilet or bathroom.
Yarn made of bamboo
A few years ago we started experimenting with bamboo fibres. Before that, he only made hamam towels from cotton. At my request, he uses yarn from bamboo fibres.
Yarn made from bamboo has many advantages. It makes the hamam towels much softer, and it also increases their absorbency.
Bamboo is a sustainable plant. It grows very quickly and requires little irrigation. Cotton, on the other hand, requires an enormous amount of water. Hundreds of litres per kilo. And cotton grows in regions where water is scarce! This also applies to organic cotton.
Bamboo canes are soaked to form fibres in a similar way to the way paper is made, after which threads are spun.
Metin is the third generation towel weaver. He and his two brothers learned the trade from their mother and grandfather. The rest of the family is also closely involved in the business, such as daughter Nur-Selin.
Why we choose fair trade
Trade used to be a way of sharing knowledge, ideas and products. Happy Towels wants to help each other, learn from each other and give each other new ideas. We believe that this is the only way to make the world a little better. And that the quality of the towels will benefit too.
Our towels come from a weaver who lives in the village of Buldan in Turkey. We know our weaver personally and work together nearly every day to improve our products. As Happy Towels, we value long-term cooperation and helping each other. Only then can we strive for a more equitable world.
Give a future with Happy Towels
Contribute to the education of girls in Turkey by buying a towel.
Many girls in Turkey have difficulties to continue their education due to economic reasons. They leave school at a young age to go to work and earn money.
Because this subject is close to my heart, and because small amounts make a big difference, I donate part of my profits to daughters of families with economic difficulties.
With every towel you buy, you contribute to a girl being able to continue her education. We can give the girls a bright future by making them independent.
You can also donate directly to the “Daddy please let me go to school” campaign of the Association for the Support of Modern Life, which is active in Turkey.
Çağdaş YaşamıDestekleme Derneği
(Society for the Support of Modern Life)
Address: Yıldız Çiçeği Sokak No.:11 Etiler-Beşiktaş / Istanbul / Türkiye
IBAN : TR 8100 0670 1000 0000 6304 0492 (EUR)
SWIFT : YAPITRISXXX
Latife was 13 when her father stood at the school gate
“This was your last day at school. From now on you are going to help your mother.”
In the Turkish countryside, that is quite common. But Latife was the smartest girl in the school.
With tears in her eyes, Latife looked back one last time as her father took her hand. Her future was fixed: learning to do housework, getting married young and having children.
She dreamed of going back to school. Thanks to a grant from the Turkish charity ‘Daddy please let me go to school’, her dream came true.
Happy Towels wants to give more Latife’s that chance. That is why part of the proceeds of your hamam towel goes to this charity.
“Daddy please let me go to school” (Turkish abbreviation: BBOG) is a well-known Turkish study fund aimed at getting girls who dropped out of school due to economic reasons or family pressure to go back to school. Sometimes girls are taken out of school for traditional reasons, as is the case with Latife. But more often it is a combination of economic reasons and traditional views.
Not everyone who applies for a scholarship gets one. It is quite an honour when a girl is awarded one. That is why the scholarship ensures that the now proud father allows his daughter to go to school.
What also helps is that the scholarship makes it possible for her to buy books and pay travel expenses. Often there is no school near the village where the girl lives (large parts of Turkey are sparsely populated). With the scholarship a girl like Latife can go by bus to another village where there is a school.
Through the BBOG campaign girls can get a scholarship to go to secondary school. (In addition, BBOG provides a scholarship for girls and boys from poor families to go to university). In this way BBOG encourages girls like Latife to become educated, thoughtful and decisive individuals. And, of course, the most important thing is that women can participate in the labour process and thus obtain a stronger social position.