National Fund for the Development of Arts and Crafts

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Loom on display at the Palacio de Deportes for the annual FONART craft exhibition

The Fondo Nacional para el Fomento de las Artesanías or National Fund for the Development of Arts and Crafts (best-known as FONART) is a dependence of the Secretariat of Social Development (SEDESOL). It was established in 1974 to promote and protect traditional Mexican handcrafts.^[1][2] The agency has four main programs including artisan training, retail selling and the sponsoring of craft competitions as the local, regional and national level.^[2] FONART directly helped 26,600 artisans in 2006,^[3] but the agency has been criticized for being inefficient and not meeting the demands of national transparency laws.^[4][5] Currently, it seeks the capacity to authenticate crafts on a national and international level due to competitions from imitations from Asia.^[6]

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Smart Ghana Initiative[10]

2012 will see the launch of a campaign initiated by Trashy Bags in close cooperation with CHF International together with the French Embassy in Accra and the Australian High Commission in Ghana. The Smart Bag Project is the first project under the umbrella of a wider campaign dubbed the Smart Ghana Initiative.
The Trashy Smart Bag is a unique bag that has been designed to replace disposable plastic bags for grocery shopping and is itself made from around 70 used plastic sachets collected from the streets of Accra or as part of a local recycling programme. The Trashy Smart Bags will replace the disposable plastic bags normally given in Ghana with each purchase.

Trashy Smart Bag for shopping made of 70 recycled water sachets collected of the streets of Accra, Ghana

The programme started in 2011 with CHF International donating money to local NGOs to set up three locations in Accra which would house ‘Smart Teams’ - each consisting of ten unemployed young people, trained by Trashy Bags to make the Trashy Smart Bag. Each team has been set up as an autonomous unit that collects its own plastic sachets and processes them into Trashy Smart Bags for delivery to Trashy Bags.
Trashy Bags will be obtaining sponsorship from various organizations to purchase the bags from the Smart Teams and then distribute them to markets and supermarkets at zero cost. The retailers will sell the bags for a maximum of one Ghanaian cedi. Using this scheme it will be affordable for ordinary Ghanaians to purchase the bags and to use them whenever they do their grocery shopping. This will help to reduce the burden of plastic waste from thin plastic bags in the environment and help to reduce the number of plastic water sachets that are so ubiquitous on the streets of Accra; as well as creating employment for the youth.
An important part of the campaign will be to educate the general public in Ghana about the dangers of runaway plastic waste. To that end, Trashy Bags will be developing and printing an environmental magazine that will fit neatly in the bottom of each Smart Bag.

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Trashy Bags

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Trashy Bags

Type	Non-profit Social Enterprise
Founded	2007
Location	8 Dzorwulu Crescent Accra, Ghana, West Africa
Coordinates	5°38′04″N 0°13′23″W
Key people	Stuart Gold, Managing Director Lydia Appiah, Director
Area served	Worldwide
Employees	60+ (November 2010)
Website	http://www.trashybags.org

Trashy Bags is a registered non-governmental organization (NGO) that recycles solid plastic waste into fashionable bags and gifts.^[1] The factory and showroom are located in Accra, the capital of the Republic of Ghana in West Africa. A British architect, Stuart Gold, established the organization in 2007.
The company employs over sixty Ghanaian workers^[2][3] to collect, clean and stitch plastic trash in the form of sachets that previously contained water and other beverages. With these, they create plastic bags, accessories, school supplies, and other products.

Some of the Trashy Bags products: A shopping bag made of used plastic water sachets and a hand bag made of discarded billboards.

The plastic sachets is a problem because local recycling initiatives and waste management infrastructure is not sufficient and most Ghanaian people throw their waste on the streets.
The company has recycled approximately 20 million sachets since its start in 2007 to prevent large environmental damage. Every month nearly 200,000 plastic sachets are collected and brought to Trashy Bags by a network of collectors^[4] employed by Trashy Bags. The Trashy Bags are sold at the showroom in Dzorwulu, Accra near the Kotoka International Airport, online, and exported^[5][6] to seven countries^[7] in Europe and the United States.
In 2011, Trashy Bags started using discarded billboards to produce their collection of bags and accessories called Ad Bags. In Ghana, used billboard are often burned or disposed in other environmentally harmful way. Trashy Bags uses this material to produce unique products, each being one of its kind.

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ABC NEWS- Germs in your Handbag - Why do we need a Purse hook -

Why do we need a Purse or handbag hook?

ABC News has a horrifying article explaining how our handbags are apparently seething with nasty microorganisms which can make us really sick. Remember that book, by Richard Preston? Apparently, the bottom of our purses is like a chapter from that book. You put your purse down, it picks up E. coli or something else equally awful, then your purse becomes a "subway for germs" as it carries the little nasties from location to location.

Women rarely go anywhere without a purse, which means that if a woman enters a place full of germs, so does her bag. That could mean she ends up carrying around microbes that could make her sick all day long. Microbiologist Chuck Gerba researches where organisms that make us sick lurk and lately he says he has found that germs gather on the outside of a woman's purse, especially on the bottom. "We found fecal bacteria you normally find on the floor of restroom," he said. "We found bacteria that can cause skin infections on the bottom of purses. What's more amazing is the large numbers we find on the bottom of purses, which indicates that they can be picking up a lot of other germs like cold viruses or viruses that cause diarrhea."

Using a hand-held germ meter, Gerba demonstrated how much bacteria can grow on a woman's purse for ABC News, with results that ranged from scary to downright terrifying. Health experts worry when the meter reads over 200, which means thousands of bacteria are present. He found thousands of germs on one woman's purse. She bought her bag about a month ago and Gerba's measurements showed her purse also carried thousands of germs. ABC News is not naming the women who participated in order to protect their identities. "I'll probably just get a new one," she said.

Yet another woman has been carrying a handbag around for years and Gerba said that he found "hundreds of thousands of germs on the surface." Gerba found about half a million bacteria on the bottom of one woman's large bag. Each time ABC News and Gerba ran an instant field test and later a lab test on swabs from the outside bottom of 10 women's purses, every single one had at least some bacteria, most had tens of thousands and a few were saturated with millions. One even had 6.7 million bacteria. Half of the bags tested positive for coliform bacteria, which indicated the possible presence of human or animal waste.

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"It matters because you can move germs that can cause illness from one location to another," he said. "You can later touch that purse and get them on your hands, or you could put your purse near a food preparation area and transfer germs to areas you may touch during food preparation." Some women argued that they do not lick the bottom of their purses, so they should not be in danger of getting sick, but it is very easy to unknowingly transfer germs. For example, whatever touched the bottom of your purse touches you when you grab it. If you eat a sandwich soon after that, the germs go right into your mouth. "The purses are really becoming subways for micro organisms," Gerba said. "They're being transferred from one location to another. So it's just like germ 'public transportation.' I'm afraid to touch them. You know, I know too much. I'll never become a purse snatcher, believe me."

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Types of handbags

An 1875 Chatelaine bag, with a buckram frame and velvet body. It would have been "hooked" into the waist of the skirt.

Crocodile skin handbags in a conservation exhibit at Bristol Zoo, England

As a fashion accessory, handbags can be categorized according to the silhouette of the bag, as well as the type of handle. The current popular handbag silhouettes are (as of 2011):

• Baguette: a small, narrow, rectangular shape purse, resembling a French loaf of bread (baguette)
• Barrel: shaped like a barrel or closed tube, usually with shoulder-length straps
• Bowling bag purse: a popular 1990s "retro" style for younger women, modelled after American bags used to carry bowling balls
• Bucket bag: shaped like a bucket, medium-size or large, with shoulder straps and a drawstring closure
• Clutch: a handbag without handles, rectangular in shape, often an evening bag but used during the day as well
• Doctor's bag: modelled after a Victorian era doctor's bag for making housecalls
• Drawstring: a purse that closes with a drawstring at the top, may have wrist- or shoulder-length straps, popular as an evening bag style
• Half-moon: shaped as a half-moon
• Hobo: medium-size crescent-shaped bag with a top zipper and often a slouch or dip in the centre; a modern, casual silhouette
• Lighted: a handbag with a lighting system which has been attempted since the 1950s without success until recently when in 2011 the first successful lighted handbag was brought to market.
• Messenger bag: one long strap worn across the body, inspired by bags worn by urban messengers to deliver business mail, a modern silhouette
• Minaudière: a small rectangular evening bag, usually hard-bodied, sometimes held inside a soft fabric bag that serves as a sleeve
• Muff: a winter bag made of real or faux fur, wool or velvet that has zippered compartments and a slip opening for hands
• Pocketbook: small purse, rectangular shape
• Saddle purse: shaped like a horse saddle, may have equestrian motifs and hardware to emphasize the design
• Satchel: a soft-sided case usually of leather
• Tote: medium to large bag with two straps and an open top
• Trapezoid: shaped as a trapezoid, usually made of stiff material

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Modern Handbag

fabric or leather, and were worn by men as often as ladies; the Scottish sporran is a survival of this custom. By the late 18th century, fashions in Europe were moving towards a slender shape, inspired by the silhouettes of Ancient Greece and Rome. Women wanted purses that would not be bulky or untidy in appearance, so reticules were designed. Reticules were made of fine fabrics like silk and velvet, with wrist straps. Originally popular in France, they crossed over into Britain, where they became known as "indispensables".[2] Men, however, did not adopt the trend. They used purses and pockets, which became popular in men's trousers.[3]

The modern purse or handbag came about in England during the Industrial Revolution and the increase in travel by railway. In 1841 the Doncaster industrialist and confectionery entrepreneur Samuel Parkinson (of butterscotch fame) ordered a set of travelling cases and trunks, and insisted on a travelling case or bag for his wife's particulars. Parkinson had noticed his wife's purse was too small and made from material that would not withstand the journey. He stipulated that he wanted various hand bags for his wife, varying in size for different occasions, and asked that they be made from the same leather that was being used for his cases and trunks; this would distinguish them from the then-familiar carpetbag and other travelers' cloth bags used by members of other social classes. H. J. Cave (London) obliged and produced the first modern set of luxury handbags, as we would recognise them today, including a clutch and a tote (named as 'ladies travelling case'). These are now on display in the handbag museum in Amsterdam.[4] H. J. Cave did continue to sell and advertise the handbags, but many critics said that women did not need them, and that bags of such size and heavy material would 'break the backs of ladies'. H. J. Cave ceased to promote the bags from 1865 on, and concentrated on trunks instead, although they still make the odd handbag for Royalty, celebrities or to celebrate special occasions, the Queens 2012 Diamond Jubilee being the most recent. However, Cave's design lives on, and the use of leather has not been found to break many ladies' backs.[citation needed]

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