Product Design and Development Intern

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The dates and times of this opportunity are flexible. Commitment is approximately 6-8 weeks for 20 hours per week.

Role: Remote Internship in Product Design and Development with Aatmiya, for the artisanal communities of Nepal and India.

We Are: Aatmiya

We are AATMIYA, a social enterprise aiming to provide employment opportunities to local Nepalese women in the form of dignified, skill based jobs: hand knitting and crochet. We believe in creating an ethical manufacturing process, using local materials, and paying competitive wages.

We were founded in 2006 under the CITTA foundation with a goal to provide employment to local single women of Bhaktapur. Since then, we have expanded into the artisan district of Lalitpur as a self-sufficient company supplying top quality handmade goods to clients in the USA and Europe that desire to work with a women’s cooperative.

CITTA is a New York State registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. We focus on methods that help build and support development in some of the most economically challenged, geographically remote or marginalized communities in the world. We do this by focusing on women's empowerment, health and education projects.

The Role

We are looking for ambitious students interested in volunteering to benefit the local women artisans of India and Nepal by assisting with product development.

We are seeking contemporary designers willing to contribute their designs in developing beautiful artisanal handcrafted products using natural local materials and fibers fitted for urban consumers.

All tasks will need to be done from home, online and discussed over Zoom calls. There will be opportunities for further employment and freelancing after a course of this internship.

Our goal is to develop new handcrafted, knit products marketed for an urban lifestyle. Products developed should be for home, baby and pets.

Qualifications:

• Passion and interest working with local communities of women in developing handcrafted products
• Product design experience in artisanal, handcrafted goods is preferred, new graduates encouraged to apply
• Basic illustration and technical design know how
• Ability to suggest and make decisions with a deep understanding of the international urban product market
• Ability to seamlessly collaborate with the ground level team in Nepal, working in different time zone (GMT)
• Able to clearly articulate your design decisions

You will:

Work from home with flexible working hours 3-4 days a week. You will work directly with the ground level team of India and Nepal at timings appropriate to both the parties with respect to their time zones.

Key Functions and background:

• Design
• Art/Creative
• Marketing
• Product Design and development assistance