Here’s the thing about New Year’s resolutions. As we are making them, we really do have the best intentions of keeping them: this is the year we’ll achieve our target weight, adopt a healthy lifestyle, save lots of money, improve our relationship, and just become a better person overall. However, as the year comes to an end, and we review how far we’ve come, more often than not we wonder: what happened? Where did we lose sight of these goals we set ourselves? Somewhere along the way, we get so caught up in our day to day life that the bigger picture slips into the background. It is therefore not surprising that only 8% of us do in fact manage to achieve our New Year's goals. And before we know it, we are at it again: “This time, I swear I’ll stick with it”.

Looking back over the year, which is Schalmauer’s first year of operation, we have faced all the highs and lows you would expect from a start-up. And although we are still at the beginning of our journey, what we know for sure is that we don’t believe in making promises and resolutions which will be long forgotten by February. Instead, we want to share with you our goals which we will be striving to achieve every day this year:

 We will:

• Provide you, our Customers and Ambassadors with high quality products;
• Ensure that every scarf you wear is handmade by our talented artisans;
• Empower our artisans with income generation activities and capacity building initiatives to improve their working and living conditions;
• Provide you with first class artwork by our renowned artists;
• Work in partnership with international development practitioners to contribute towards the poverty alleviation initiatives and the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
• Contribute to increase the visibility and awareness of social enterprises particularly in the spheres of art and fashion (#FashionforDevelopment); and
• Contribute towards the movement for a more ethical fashion industry.

Above all, “Let our New Year's resolution be this: We will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.” - Goran Persson

What are your resolutions? Share a picture  on our social media platforms with #schalmauerresolutionsiwillkeep