Our Story
Who are we?
Iroofia Project is a Madagascar-based social enterprise creating beautiful raffia bags and accessories through the skilled hands of women artisans. One stitch at a time, we weave from the heart of Antananarivo.
Iroofia was born from Razafindrabe Collections, a social enterprise , female founded in 2016 in Antananarivo, Madagascar. Over the years, our work grew, and so did our name. Iroofia combines ‘rofia’, the Malagasy word for raffia, and ‘roof’, because we want to be a shelter for the women artisans who weave the heart of our brand. What began as Razafindrabe evolved into Iroofia, but our mission has never changed. Only the reach has.”
Every piece we make draws on generations of Malagasy weaving and crochet tradition.
“We don’t just make accessories. We create opportunities for women, for communities, for a craft that deserves to be seen by the world.”
our vision and mission
Our Vision: A world where every artisan is equipped to build a better future, empowered with skills, dignity, and fair income to become good stewards of their families, their communities, and the earth.
Our Mission :To empower women artisans in Madagascar by transforming traditional raffia craft into dignified, flexible livelihoods; creating opportunities that strengthen families, preserve culture, and build a more just world.
Crafting Hope For Malagasy Families
Iroofia was born in the heart of Madagascar, from a simple but powerful conviction: that every woman’s hands hold a gift worth sharing with the world and that they matter.
In the villages around Antananarivo, many mothers live between two seasons. During the rice harvest, they work the fields. When the season ends, they return home, weaving and crocheting by hand, selling small crafts at the local market for very little in return. Not because their talent is small, but because the opportunity was.
These are women who cannot leave their families to work full time.
Those are women who carry the weight of their households while quietly keeping alive the craft traditions passed down through generations. Despite their skills, they still struggle to make ends meet or send their children to school.
In 2016, as we opened our doors to them, we started with a simple idea: take the skills these women already have, raise the quality, and open doors to markets they could never reach alone. We built a home-based model,so that our artisans can work at their own rhythm, close to their families, without sacrificing one for the other, while monitoring closely that there is no child labor involved.
Today, we work with over 300 women artisans across Antananarivo, transforming raffia, a natural fiber deeply rooted in Malagasy culture into handcrafted bags and hats that travel to homes around the world.
Every piece is made by hand. Every purchase supports a mother, a family, a future.
We are not just making beautiful things. We are proving that when women are given the right support, they can transform their lives and the lives of everyone around them.
A word from our founder
Craft, people, and community have always been close to my heart.
My journey with handcraft began in 2010, alongside family members, with more passion than results. It was an early lesson in humility and in perseverance. Before founding Iroofia, I spent years travelling across Africa, doing social work, immersing myself in communities, and learning from people whose lives looked very different from my own.
Those travels changed me. Everywhere I went, I saw the richness of African craft, the skill, the beauty, the culture woven into every piece. I saw its potential. But I also saw how little of that potential was being recognised or rewarded. I came home carrying a question I could not let go of.
Then one day, someone knocked at my door. A mother. She had not eaten in three days.
I asked her: What do you have? What can you do?
She said: I can make crafts.
In that moment, my answer became clear. I did not want to simply help one person I wanted to become an advocate for these women, to stand beside them and represent their work on the international stage, where it truly belongs.
I founded Razafindrabe, now Iroofia, in 2016. What followed was a journey of beautiful encounters, unexpected connections, and open doors; each one a reminder that when you walk with purpose, the right people find you.
And here we are.
We are still walking. And we are just getting started.
Jenny, Founder of Iroofia