Ayacucho®, the A.S.Adventure private label in cooperations with Solid

A.S.Adventure works together closely with Solid, a Belgian development organisation that sets up projects to combat global poverty. Since 2000, Solid, with the support of the business community, has been investing in sustainable community development and in the intensive training and supervision of vulnerable groups – initially with a focus on the Peruvian Ayacucho region, but now also in Kenya and India. This allows the local residents to acquire knowledge and take control of their own lives.

A noble and sustainable project – one that A.S.Adventure is proud to be a part of. How? It’s simple. Since 2009, every product from the Ayacucho® collection that is sold generates new funds for Solid's existing projects and for new initiatives.

Every year, we try to organise an immersion trip where customers and employees can discover the projects in person. This allows them to witness the people’s conditions of life on the spot, to roll up their sleeves and to be fully immersed in the local culture. Afterwards, they can tell the story as real Ayacucho ambassadors.

Get inspired!

Whenever possible, we place an order with Solid’s workshops. This stimulates local employment, which is still of most use to the (underprivileged) poor population. These orders consist mainly of hats, gloves, scarves, and buffs for the autumn and winter collection. But summer kimonos or other ‘misfits’ can also be discussed.

Corporate social responsibility is central to Solid's projects. Their ecosystem is based on a hybrid model in which a number of economically profitable projects contribute to social assistance projects, which are subdivided into Solid Crafts and Solid Agriculture. So, every euro invested is utilised two-fold and, above all, cleverly invested.

• Manta: An artisanal craft workshop where underprivileged women and teenage mothers knit blankets, hats and scarves for export, like the hats in our Ayacucho® collection.
  
• Día: Crisis centre where underprivileged teenage girls live independently with supervision and learn to develop skills to improve their well-being.
• Montefino: Western-style dairy farm that offers goods and services for the improvement of livestock farming and of the living conditions of the farming families in Ayacucho.
• Jovem: Practical, high-quality, agricultural educational programme focusing on sustainability, which offers local youth a brighter future while stemming the tide of those same young people fleeing the countryside for the cities.
• Solid Food: Honest cooperation among the agricultural families in Ayacucho for the commercialisation of Andean crops, like quinoa.
• Familias Saludables: Intensive cooperation focussing on health, well-being and housing for exceptionally vulnerable families in the mountain communities of Ayacucho.

• Taita Traditional: Handmade, naturally dyed baskets made of sisal. This project significantly strengthens the position of the women in the Taita community.
  
• Wildlife Works: 100% organic soaps in a variety of shapes, sizes and scents, made by three women in exchange for a good wage and medical insurance.
• Hadithi: Coordinating organisation that teaches women’s groups to promote the sale of their handiwork products and to improve their living conditions.

• Paces Crafts: A sustainable handicraft workshop in the Ranchi countryside that provides local weavers and underprivileged women with training and an honest, fair income.
  
• Jaan Foundation: Protection, support and childcare for children who have been the victims of slavery and child abuse, with rehabilitation as its goal.