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My name is Evgeniy. I've been in the business of avoskas for 6 years now
The project ’Avoska gives hope’ is aimed at bringing avoskas back into daily use
First of all, they are really eco-friendly and useful
But the main thing is that avoskas are made by blind people
And other disabled people are employed in sales and logistics
It's a great project, and I can't leave it, I really want to do it
Once I discovered that in Soviet times avoskas were made by the blind
I watched a film called ’In the Darkness’ by Sergey Dvortsevoy
Where he depicts the life of a blind person making avoskas
It's a real human tragedy: No one needs him
Production was shut down 15 years ago
In the 80-90s
His story is just one of many similar tales
The avoska makers were simply cast aside
Avoska derives from the ancient Slavic word ’avos’.
It’s a good word, full of meaning
It means a mix of insecurity and the hope that lady luck will be smiling
Avos is something we hope for when there's nothing else
’Maybe it will turn out’… and it does
Talking about finances, we started with 200 avoska bags
made by one blind person every month
The number is based on Soviet standards
They can earn the average monthly salary in Russia
They need money even more than other people
To raise children and to live in normal conditions
Today eco-warriors are in search for a plastic bag replacement
So here it is! We've found people who are able to produce avoskas
We’ve restored the production line, and all we have to do now
is to get sales on the right track
The All-Russia Association of the Blind helped us with the first workers
Others heard about it on the grapevine
About 150 people are now employed
We used to organize our sales well
We knew how many avoska bags were sold daily and could plan further production
Today we have problems with sales outlets
Sometimes we sell avoskas at events, festivals, charity parties, design markets
The project is an important part of my life
It's not that difficult to set up. We calculate we have to employ
About 5000-6000 blind people and sell 10 mln bags a year
That would be great
Everybody would be happy then, and we'd have eco-friendly bags
Blind people would have an opportunity to earn a living
All we need is outlets. It's hard
You know, it's 50/50
We'll do our best to reach our aims
And to get you to use avoskas on a daily basis, and your readers too