Kazuri Beads

Why it matters: Kazuri means “small and beautiful” in Swahili, and it began in 1975 as Lady Susan Wood’s backyard pottery employing two local women. Today it is a World Fair Trade Organization member employing hundreds of Kenyan women, most of them single mothers, with an on-site clinic that provides free medical care to staff. The workshop tour is free and walks you through the entire cycle – raw clay hand-rolled into beads, then painted, glazed and kiln-fired in front of you – before it drops you in the shop, where the ceramic necklaces and pottery are the rare Nairobi souvenir whose maker you have actually met. Come on a weekday morning when every bench on the production floor is full; that is the whole point of coming here rather than buying the beads downtown.