Our mission is to help end generational poverty by employing people to produce the high quality products.
Our story began in 2009 with the Roma community in Northwest Romania where the Hungarian plain meets the Zarand mountains. We came alongside a poor and marginalized community and as we listened to their stories, we started asking: “why?” DECE means “why” in Romanian, and we wanted to understand why such generational poverty still existed.
Many families continue to live in small mud-brick houses with dirt floors and no running water, drainage, or heat to face winters that can get as low as -25 Celcius (-13 Fahrenheit). Food, basic clothing, and medication are often too expensive for families to afford. We then asked: how can we help restore and empower people living in poor communities?
2009
Dece began producing crochet hats and scarves.
2011
We added organic cotton hats and scarves to our collection.
2013
We added leather accessories to our collection.
2017
Became a guaranteed enterprise of the World Fair Trade Organization.
Discover the
Inspiring DECE Story ⸺
When you buy a DECE product, you buy into a culture of hope, where people have the freedom to become who they want to be.
Dece is part of a holistic community development program that has three pillars: Education, Empowerment, and Employment. Dece focuses on employment because we believe that giving someone a job not only provides a paycheck, but it also unlocks great potential for the individual and their family.