Anou Set to Paint a Future Beyond Fair Trade

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Anou's Founder, Dan Driscoll, teaches Anou's platform and computer basicsto a group of Moroccan weavers at a village's internet cafe.

Imagine the challenges artists face in order to sell their art from a rural African village: illiteracy, lack of computer skills, and minimal Internet access. Anou is designed to support artists to overcome these challenges and thrive.

Ait Bougamez, Morocco (PRWEB) June 11, 2012

Anou, an online platform designed to empower artists in the developing world to independently sell their handmade art abroad, is set to launch in Morocco this summer.

Crippled with low literacy and isolation in rural areas, artists in the developing world have long depended on middlemen and fair trade organizations to sell their art for them. Because of this, artists gained little practical business skills and only a fraction of the final selling price – frequently as low as 4% – for the hand made art they created.

“The classic artist-middleman dilemma can only be solved if artists in the developing world are able to sell their art on their own,” says Anou’s founder Dan Driscoll. “But imagine the challenges artists face in order to sell their art from a rural African village: illiteracy, lack of computer skills, and minimal Internet access. Anou is designed to support artists to overcome these challenges and thrive.”

Anou’s platform accomplishes this by creating a visual-based portal that is unique to each artist. This enables artists to post their art with minimal training and computer skills, without the use of any language. The portal is also equipped with mobile technology so artists are informed of time sensitive events, such as sales, even when Internet access is long hike away from their village. Most important, through Anou’s visual rating system, customers can interact directly with artists and provide feedback as artists create their next handmade piece of art.

Socially conscious buyers interested in learning more about Anou’s vision beyond fair trade can visit http://www.theanou.com or follow Anou on Facebook for updates as it prepares to launch this summer.

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