Back in 2007 the booktown of Hay-on-Wye took the initiative of twinning with the fabled city of Timbuktu famous for its ancient manuscripts  and Islamic scholarship situated on the very edge of the Sahara in Mali. It very soon became clear from initial visits that the Tuareg people had a fine tradition of silversmithing and leatherwork. The Hay Makers made a special relationship with one particular craft association and when a trading company and charity “Jump4Timbuktu” was set up the following year, to develop trade further, the gallery agreed to continue to sell the work at a reduced commission to support the enterprise.

Since then there have been visits from the artisan leaders who have demonstrated their skills and many of the gallery customers have been sufficiently impressed to buy a goodly amount of the work enabling us to place regular orders.

Of course unfortunately apart from the increasingly common cycle of drought and floods there has been much political disturbance with the north of the country occupied by extremist rebels for a year and still ongoing lack of security. But despite the challenges and a reduction in supply from some of the other  artisan groups we have been able to continue with the original link.

Profits and additional funds have been ploughed back into food security projects such as the creation of gardens and sinking of wells and most recently the provision of pumps to help rice production .