Amber Chand Featured in Ode Magazine & The International Herald Tribune

January 16, 2007 - Tortus Technologies

Amber Chand, owner of The Amber Chand Collection, was recently featured in the December 2006 issue of Ode magazine. The theme of the issue was "Turning Poverty into Peace." Amber has worked with Tortus Technologies since October 2005.

Ode called Amber to tell her story-- a story Amber describes as a woman and business "rising from the ashes."  The following is an excerpt from the article.

According to Chand, each craft the company sells- so far there are six-- tells a story of peace and reconciliation. The Jerusalem Candle of Hope, for instance, represents collaboration between Israelis and Palestinians. The candles are made by Jewish immigrants from Russia in an Israeli factory and matched with bags sewn by Palestinian women.

Gayle Tzemach, a writer for the International Herald Tribune was in the audience when Amber presented at the Harvard Business School in 2006. Tzemach was especially interested in Chand's work in Darfur. The following is an excerpt from the January 5th article. The full story can be found here. 

Amber Chand was frustrated. Even before the palm grass baskets sold on her Web site arrived from Darfur to her warehouse in Massachusetts, they had sold out. And given the risks presented by a supply chain originating in the violence-shattered region of the Sudan, there was no guarantee that she would be able to fulfill her back- order list before Christmas.

A month later, she faced a 25 basket back-order after a Christmas season that saw her client base grow and her revenues top $50,000. Though delighted by the success of the baskets and committed to buying goods from Darfur, she was nervous about basing 2007 projections on sales of goods whose sourcing was so precarious.

From her networking and speaking engagements, Amber gained recognition from the national news and press community.