Good Karma
Social Responsibility, Fair Trade and Sustainable Development Goals.
To us at Heritage Knives the values of ecological, economic and social sustainability are our guiding principles for our business.
By ordering your Kukri/Knife with us at Heritage Knives you are also contributing to a positive and much needed change in Nepal and the World. Read further to understand more of what you are supporting by ordering through Heritage Knives.
Earth & Ecology.
Our earth, our home has a fragile eco-system, specially here in the Himalayas where the effects of climate change, development, modernisation has been quick and not always in the best interest of mother earth. Glaciers in the north are melting, the low lands becoming drier and warmer, cities and populated areas facing water shortage and much more.
Heritage Knives work continuously to minimise the environmental damage, to preserve our fragile ecological system and beautiful natural environment. We harvest water, compose and sort our garbage, grow vegetables and fruits locally and carefully go about using energy and materials more effectively. Products and substances that are hazardous to health are used less and less and only with proper gear, masks, glasses, uniforms as required when needed.
Bio-hazards separated from other organic waste.
At Heritage Knives we seek smart ways to care for the planet by changes in how we go about life and work daily.
We prioritize the use of reusable and recycled materials when possible, unless it is the steel for our blades, which is always new as a mark of our quality and assurance to you.
Trade Fair.
Heritage Knives is an equal opportunity employer which hires staff with the best skills and potential to grow. Most of our staff comes from disadvantaged groups and are given jobs to help them survive while refining their skills, an exchange of learning and teaching happens over time.
We under no circumstances allow child labour, we do not accept discrimination in any way. We focus on human capacity and community building with our staff through team work and respecting the environment.
To ensure these principles of fair trade and social entrepreneurship are followed we work together with a local NGO, Human Link.
Each knife or product we sell, and You buy means You are helping someone in our staff to have a better and/or more stable life and contributing to making the World more fair.
Handicraft Internship sponsorship.
The trade of black smithing and handicraft work is rapidly diminishing because it is seen as a low-level work for uneducated people, a hard work that not many want to do nowadays.
Youngsters today prefer to take loans over their heads and heels, to go abroad to work temporarily unless they have parents who can afford to pay for their higher education.
The traditional passing of knowledge and skills from a senior member of the family to a junior member is therefore diminishing and the traditional way of handicraft skills is not being passed on which was traditionally how people learnt and picked up skills of the trade.
Heritage Knives thus offer internships for youth and young adults under 25 years to learn the trade and work as an intern for two years before continuing up the proffesional ladder to another position. We welcome people and organisations interested to help and work with us in preserving and passing on traditional arts & crafts and for many a survival skill.
We currently have monthly, quarterly, half year and full year sponsorship programs. Sponsors are given a discount on all purchases made through the period and regular updates on the interns progress.
"The Sustainable Development Goals are a call for action by all countries – poor, rich and middle-income – to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection."
Social Responsibility.
Empowered staff, professional management, proper equipment, safety gear much more is needed to create a team and a good working environment which we at Heritage Knives take seriously.
We have a strong social responsibility as most of our staff are from economically and socially dis-advantaged groups and given a way out of poverty, discrimination and other social ills through working with us.
Parents working for us can send their children to school, put food on the table and have a decent life. Others by having an income, contribute to the needs of the household and by being paid a decent salary can not only survive but make life stable over time.
We like to see staff and people moving forward, not being used and abused but becomming succesful members of soceity and with dignity.
Make your own Kukri
or Knife.
If you are in Nepal and have a few days to spare, come to visit us in Dharan. Stay and live with us, while you learn how to make a Kukri/knife over the next days.
Meals are provided and accommodation on the property is available. Tours of Dharan, vicinity and Eastern Nepal can easily be combined and arranged, including Mt. Everest and the Gurkha heartlands of East Nepal.
From Tea gardens to hill stations. Zig zag country roads to waterfall, wild jungles to snow-capped mountains. Over these days you will learn more about black smithing, handicraft, east Nepal and life.
Minimum 3 days is needed of which
2-day are practical Kukri/knife making class including all materials and scabbard and 1 day for travelling.
Child & Senior Citizens Sponsorship.
If any customer is interested to sponsor a childs education or a needy pensioner/senior citizen, please do contact us for further information. We work together with the NGO Human Link and other NGO´s to help people in need around us.
Monthly sponsorship starts at 25 usd. and goes up depending on how you want to help a child in need to an education and better life.
As a Social Enterprise Heritage Knives aim is to empower minds and people to excel by providing employment and education, to be the best you can be.
