WELCOME TO AMMAILA.COM
Amma Ila means ‘Mother Earth’ and ammaila means ‘for girls/women’ in my mother tongue, Telugu. Through our work, we aim to do our part for the planet, for women, and for kids in need. In 2006, I started Royal Impex with the website royaljute.com, a woman of color-owned small business, alone from my home in San Diego. In 2023, we moved from royaljute.com to ammaila.
I was born and raised in southern India and have witnessed the impacts of patriarchal norms and practices my entire life. I have seen people have hope and diligence in the face of crushing poverty. I have also witnessed the devastating impact that humanity has had on our planet, especially as we increasingly deal with the massive consequences of this devastation, including drought, pollution, plastic waste, food shortages, and grevious health impacts.
It is for this reason that I run my business like a nonprofit – I do not take a salary and I donate all of my earnings, primarily to charities that support women and girls around the world. Over the years I have offered thousands of microloans to women in developing countries through Kiva.org and I still continue to do so. I also pay for the higher education of students from low-income families in India. For many years, I have supported the education of abandoned girls in Servi Domini Orphanage. I also contribute funds to support Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi’s organization, which fights for children’s rights and rescues children sold into slavery. During the pandemic, I donated oxygen cylinders and contributed to cover the living expenses of families who lost their wages. Besides this, I have donated to plant hundreds of trees in the US and to save a few acres of rainforests in different countries. Every year, I try to support different causes that need the money most.
While supporting all of these causes, I also make sure that my own business is not negatively affecting the environment or exploiting factory workers, so the manufacturing facilities I work with in India are audited as per ISO 9001:2015, SEDEX SMETA 4-pillar, GOTS, and GRS standards and are CT-PAT compliant. I work with natural fabrics like jute, canvas, and regular, recycled, and organic cotton. I do not produce items that will result in a lot of wastage and do not compromise on the quality of the fabric or stitching, with the primary aim of maximizing the durability of my bags. I recommend bags to my customers that will not be one-time-use bags but rather multifunctional bags which will be used again and again to reduce the carbon footprint of every product. All my bags are named after names of Mother Earth and Mother Goddess in various cultures around the world.
My customers range from natural food chains to small business owners – they all believe in uplifting others while running their business. My bags come with an ’empowering women’ tag on them. For more updates please visit:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094727975610
A few of the organizations I support:
- https://www.kiva.org/portfolio/impact
- https://www.aartiforgirlsusa.org/
- https://fsspx.uk/sites/sspx/files/how_to_send_money_to_india_-_consoling_sisters.pdf
- https://satyarthi-us.org/
Sincerely,
Lakshmi Mullaguru
