Djunta Mo Art was created in 2013 on the island of Sal with the aim of developing a sustainable market in the archipelago and in particular of enhancing Cape Verdean art and culture in all its facets: food, fashion, crafts, natural cosmetics, pictorial and plastic art.
Djunta Mo Art
is committed to helping artisans and supporting people to work in their own communities, making them economically autonomous, safeguarding local traditions and giving particular support to small artisans, women entrepreneurs, cooperatives (mainly women), young people with little training who have just entered the working world.
Djunta Mo Art pays close attention to environmental and social issues, promotes objects created with recycled material and verifies that no products have been created through the exploitation of child labor.
The shop, located in the main street of Santa Maria, is both a major distribution center of cape verdean handicrafts that a reference point for the artisans.
Cabo Verde
The archipelago consists of ten islands that are very far from each other and the transport system is not always efficient. This makes product distribution to various areas of the country very difficult. For the same reason many of the craftspeople encounter difficulties in obtaining raw materials or in networking for new contacts in order to grow personally and professionally. We give great importance to supporting them from the manufacturing stage to the final sale, and to putting them in contact with craftspeople on the other islands to promote the exchange of ideas and materials. The name (Djunta Mo means “to hold hands, cooperate, lend a helping hand” in Creole) underlines the desire and will to work together.
What we do
The objectives of the project are:
• Support the artisans, when required, throughout the production process, from creation to final sale (purchase of the material, enhancement of the product, guidance on the choice of the final price, etc.).
• Promotion and distribution of traditional products in the local and international market.
Djunta Mo Art is also the official distributor of the OMCV (Women’s Organization of Cape Verde) project “Mãos de Cabo Verde”, which comprises various women’s cooperatives and employs more than two hundred people.
Many of the employees who work for the project and in the commercial area are young women who are offered training and improvement courses in foreign languages to put them on a path of continuous professional growth.
project also provides and finances an office for the non-profit Nu Bai Association, which mainly organizes scholarships; health services for children of poor families; collects teaching and medical items and articles of clothing and works closely with the L’ICCA (Cape Verde Institute for Children and Adolescents) of Sal
