Celebrating Our 20 Year Journey

Dear friends,

In 2004, Sabahar was registered as an Ethiopian company. At that time, we had about 10 ‘employees’ who worked at our house. This included 2 weavers, 5 women washing and cleaning our silk scarves, 1 woman who dyed the scarves in natural dyes (in between cooking injera and shiro for our lunch), and a couple friends who pitched in whenever they could. We produced about 8 scarves a week. It was a lovely time of creativity and dreaming.

Fast forward to 2024

Now we directly employ 97 people and work with 175 additional artisans on a piece rate basis. We produce more than 600 textile pieces each week. While creativity still thrives, I can’t help but feel a little nostalgic for the quieter days of the past. 😊

The past 20 years has been filled with incredible joys and accomplishments, as well as overwhelming challenges. In other words, Sabahar’s journey reflects the everyday struggles and triumphs we all encounter in life. 

If there is one aspect of our path that stands out as exceptional, it must be the experience of facing each up and each down as a team. Sabahar is a complicated fabric of personalities and skills woven together by the desire to create the most beautiful Ethiopian textiles possible and share them with the world.

As we look forward to the future, we also remember where we have come from, with thankfulness to all our incredible friends and supporters from every corner of the globe who believe in us.