HEED Handicrafts is a job creation project of HEED Bangladesh, a registered Christian, nongovernmental organization in Bangladesh. HEED Handicrafts was established in 1977 to empower artisans to produce crafts and products made from handloomed textiles. HEED is involved in handicrafts as well as micro credit and fishery, agricultural projects, community health, family development, gender education and leprosy hospitals. Artisans include refugees, widows, minorities and other disadvantaged people, most of whom are illiterate. Artisans work at home as members of cooperatives. HEED also works with minority ethnic groups in northeast Bangladesh.

Purchases by Ten Thousand Villages have improved the livelihood of HEED’s artisans and their families; children attend school, family nutrition is reasonable, and women are empowered by financial solvency to take their full place in society.  Ten Thousand Villages purchases clay nativities, terra cotta candle holders, planters, watering sticks and lanterns, cotton tablecloths, napkins, placemats and towels from HEED Handicrafts. Ten Thousand Villages has purchased products from HEED Handicrafts since 1982.