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CRAFTS CARNIVAL 2025: CELEBRATING RESILIENCE AND ENTERPRISE
From 9–11 October 2025, IOM, through its implementing partner Prottyashi and with support from the Government of Japan, hosted the Crafts Carnival 2025 at the Laboni Hotel area in Cox’s Bazar, transforming the popular tourist destination into a vibrant marketplace of creativity and resilience. 16 partners including UN agencies, NGOs, and community-based organizations showcased handmade products crafted by Rohingya refugees and host community artisans.
The fair highlighted the entrepreneurial spirit of the women and men who have graduated from IOM’s and partner NGOs’ livelihoods programmes. Through various forms of handicraft production, artisans designed and marketed high-quality goods including bamboo and jute crafts, and handmade rugs, ensuring fair profit-sharing and economic empowerment. The Nakshikatha stall, featuring products from Bhasan Char, recorded the highest sales, reflecting strong market interest and support for Rohingya refugee producers. Sales generated by Crafts Carnival support wage-based employment and are enabling producers to directly receive profits from their products.
Crafts Carnival featured powerful testimonials from participants and received strong support from government officials, Livelihoods Support and Development Sector (LSDS) partners, and humanitarian actors, reinforcing the importance of inclusive, market-driven livelihood initiatives. Two female graduates from IOM-supported livelihoods programmes shared their inspiring journeys toward self-reliance, while 15 female beneficiaries from IOM’s programmes actively participated in the fair, serving as powerful examples of resilience for their peers.
Crafts Carnival 2025 is part of IOM’s broader efforts to build the resilience and self-reliance of Rohingya refugees and host communities, in collaboration with our partners and with the generous support of donors. This includes a soap-based livelihoods pilot, climate-resilient skills development and livelihood support, and disaster risk reduction (DRR) initiatives˜. New training sites under construction in the camps will further strengthen skills development and market access, supporting over 23,000 beneficiaries, more than 70 per cent of whom are women, on their path to self-reliance and sustainable livelihoods.