GoodWeave – a nonprofit organization founded in 1994 by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi – is the leading international institution working to stop child labor in global supply chains through a market-based system and holistic approach. We partner with companies and local producer communities to bring visibility to hidden supply chains; protect workers’ rights; provide assurance that products are free of child, forced and bonded labor; and restore childhoods. Over 25 years of pioneering and innovating a system that at the core harnesses market power through its work with brands and producers, GoodWeave has restored freedom to over 10,495 children, directly provided educational opportunities to more than 96,400 children, and deterred hundreds of thousands of children from entering labor. In 2023 alone, more than 117,817 workers were protected under the GoodWeave Standard. GoodWeave has expanded its work, which started in the rug industry, into home textiles, apparel, fashion jewelry and bricks where its reach and impact continue to grow. GoodWeave’s impact goes beyond reach numbers as it has been a leading voice in positively influencing societal norms and behaviors to eliminate child labor.

Our Founding Story

During a live television talk show in Germany in the early 1990s, an elderly woman called up. She had been listening to Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi talk about the scourge of child labor in South Asia’s carpet industry. And she was moved. She was convinced. She said she was going to throw out her carpet. And then she issued a challenge: “I am very old. I only have 10 years left. I can’t wait. You look young. You must do something so that I can buy a new carpet.” It’s been more than 25 years since Kailash’s idea for GoodWeave was born. Watch Kailash talk about this founding moment, which, together with many of his other initiatives to stop child labor, led to his Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.