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Toockies re-usable cleaning cloths are 100% organic cotton, no synthetic color or dyes, machine wash with any color or fabric, quality control provides a consistent knit.
The knitted texture of this product makes it possible to pick-up small crumbs, dust, and other debris that collect on the surfaces of our homes, cars, and bodies. Great for the kitchen, nursery, bathroom and on the go! Washable, re-usable and 100% organic cotton!
Toockies are soft enough to wipe your baby and tough enough to scrub your dishes without scratching.
The Story of Toockies
As a young girl I lived in a small fishing village on an island in the Azores. My mother had very few opportunities to make money because culturally she was expected to stay home and provide free labor to support the family. Her only source of income was embroidery. There was someone in the village that would provide the local ladies with embroidery materials and patterns. The finished work was exported to European countries. Mom embroidered to pay for her clothes as a single woman, her wedding dress, household needs, baby needs, and to buy each of her three daughters a gold cross necklace. I always think of her and how she was able to earn from home, when I see woman struggling to meet the need of their families.
When I married and became a homemaker myself, my mother-in-law introduced me to knitted dishcloths she received from her cousin Claudia, better known as "Toockie". I very quickly became dependent on these "Toockies" to clean my home, my kids and my car. Soon I started thinking everybody should have these amazing Toockies that lasted for years because they out performed most of the disposable cleaning products I had to keep buying every month.
I began to think about how I might start a home business, with the help of women who could use a bit of extra money like my mom did. Inspired by the Oprah show which, through the Angel Network, helped so many in sometimes very simple ways, I began to look for an organization working with women who could not only use a bit of money, but were in need of a life saving income.
A couple of years, and a few pregnancies later, I saw a documentary on the plight of young women in India who were forced into slavery and prostitution. I wonder how desperate the need to live must be, that someone would give up their child to some unknown fate for money to buy food to eat? In the documentary a group of people were trying to rescue some of these girls, but they were in need of funds to support them because they did not have any skills they could use to support themselves.
What could I do to affect change living here in the U.S.? What could I give to a family that would prevent the sale of a child?
One day my oldest step - son told me his girl friends mother worked for a nonprofit organization that helps children in India. I met with her and exchanged ideas and information about our mutual interest in the greater good. I had to build a business plan.
Today we are making a difference for women and their families in Nababpur, India using a system very similar to the embroidery system my mother belonged to. The Toockie project opens an unimaginable door of opportunity for our knitters. In Nababpur, 210 women desperate for a dignified way to earn a living, are mobilized and trained to knit Toockies. A community center is setup for these women as a central location for them to come train,knit, pick-up yarn, and drop off finished toockies. Most knitters work from home, allowing them to work flexible hours.
The Toockie project makes a difference by empowering these women to take charge of their own destiny.
In gratitude we have given our knitters a voice by having them learn how to write their names and adding them to our packaging. We have also added their photographs and their wishes to our web site so that anyone who wants to know who the name on their Toockies Brand Product belongs to, can look her up.
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