HEED Handicrafts is a job creation project of HEED Bangladesh, a registered Christian, nongovernmental organization in Bangladesh. Established in 1977, HEED is involved in handicrafts as well as micro credit and fishery, agricultural projects, community health, family development, gender education and leprosy hospitals. Artisans include refugees, widows, minorities and other disadvantaged people, most of whom are illiterate. HEED also works with minority ethnic groups in northeast Bangladesh. Purchases by Ten Thousand Villages have improved the livelihood of HEED’s artisans and their families; children attend school, family nutrition is reasonable, and women are empowered by financial solvency to take their full place in society. Ten Thousand Villages has purchased products from HEED Handicrafts since 1982.