A Carlisle pop-up is working to empower the victims of human trafficking and landmine blast survivors in Nepal and India. 

Ashagifts has been based in The Lanes Shopping Centre, opposite Muffin Break, between Monday, November 11 and Saturday, December 16, and is owned by Khandu Joseph.

Khandu, who is from Nepal, set up her business as a way to try to make a difference in her home country and in India where girls are trafficked from a young age. 

To do this she empowers trafficking survivors by giving them the tools to create their own products and businesses which she sells and endorses through Ashagifts. 

Some of the wares for sale. (Image: Supplied) At her November pop-up Ashagifts stocked handmade textiles and jewelry that were created by trafficking survivors in Nepal, orphaned children in India, and also recycled brass bombshell jewellery crafted by landmine victims in Cambodia.

At the pop-up, Khandu explained more about Ashagifts' mission and how she was inspired to try and make a change.

She said: "I came across human trafficking of young girls back in 2008, more I looked into it I realised it was happening in my own country in Nepal and India.

"I was incredibly inspired by the profiled survivors who had turned the tables.

Khandu set up a charity called 'Educate' after the 2015 earthquake.  (Image: Supplied) "I became hopeful, that there are solutions and solutions are working and I wanted to be part of that solution and change.

"I got the idea of selling products made by survivors as a way to help them earn an income and rejoin society and also raise awareness of global slavery of sex trafficking of young children and girls.

"With that dream in my heart, Ashagifts, Asha meaning hope in Hindi, my business was born.

(Image: Supplied) "Today Ashagifts is helping women to help themselves and has grown and evolved over past years.

"Ashagifts is helping social enterprises create exciting employment opportunities in jewellery, fabric, and crafts production for disadvantaged, landmine victims, stigmatised women, and survivors of human trafficking."

Alongside her own business Ashagifts, Khandu also set up the charity 'Educate', which was created following the April 2015 earthquake that killed 8,962 people and injured 21,952 across Nepal, India, China, and Bangladesh.

The rebuilt school.  (Image: Supplied) The earthquake also reduced a school in her home region to rubble, a school which she personally helped to rebuild through Educate and with the assistance of our organisations. 

Through the combined efforts of her business Ashagifts and charity Educate, Khandu is hopeful that the cycle of human trafficking can be broken.

Ashagifts is helping social enterprises in south Asia. (Image: Supplied) She said: "Ashagifts' sister project is Educate. Educate was born in 2015, following a cataclysmic earthquake in Nepal my country.

"I know firsthand the feeling of wanting to do more through learning but having this basic need far beyond my reach as I was brought up by a struggling single mum in a culture where being single is not common

"My focus is to fundraise to support the great work of organisations based in countries, providing safe places for girls to rebuild their lives and gain an education.

(Image: Supplied) "I believe that education is one of the most important things in preventing trafficking and breaking the cycle of poverty and exploitation of disadvantaged children and young girls."

Ashagifts will return to The Lanes from Monday, December 9 to Saturday, December 21.