Rugmark To Attend Western Interiors Design + Home Show

Furniture World Magazine

RugMark will educate design professionals and consumers about the prevalence of child labor in South Asia’s carpet industry at the Western Interiors Design + Home Show on October 26-28, 2007 in San Francisco. Exploitative child labor is widespread in the carpet industry, but design professionals and consumers can help eliminate this inhumane practice by demanding carpets bearing the RugMark label, the best assurance that a rug was made by adult artisans, not children. RugMark will be situated in booth 53 at the Fort Mason Center and will share the message that a rug made by children is ugly no matter what it looks like. While there are still 300,000 children working illegally in the carpet industry, RugMark’s inspection and monitoring programs in India, Nepal and Pakistan have helped to reduce the incidence of child labor by approximately two-thirds over the last decade and have provided educational opportunities to thousands of former child weavers. RugMark licensed importer Alicia Keshishian Carpets of Imagination (www.acarpets.com) will also exhibit her certified child-labor-free rugs in booth 20. “The Western Interiors Home + Design Show is a great opportunity for RugMark to inform the San Francisco design community about how their purchasing choices can foster humanitarian change in the rug industry,” says Nina Smith, Executive Director of RugMark USA. “By demanding carpets with the RugMark label, designers, architects and consumers send a message down the supply chain that child labor is unacceptable.” In 2006, RugMark launched its campaign to end child labor, The Most Beautiful Rug. The campaign objective is to steadily increase the U.S. market share of RugMark certified rugs until child labor is completely eliminated from the industry. Western Interiors + Design is a presenting sponsor of The Most Beautiful Rug and has donated advertising and exhibition space to RugMark. For more information about the Western Interiors Design + Home Show, please visit http://www.westerninteriorshomeshow.com/. About RugMark RugMark is an international nonprofit organization working to end exploitative child labor in the carpet industry and give educational opportunities to children in India, Nepal and Pakistan. The RugMark label offers the best assurance that no illegal child labor was used in the manufacture of a carpet or rug. A list of importers and retailers that sell RugMark certified rugs is available at www.RugMark.org.