




2017 marked Norlha’s ten years. Though the celebration was kept deliberately small, it was a time for reflecting on the changes that had occurred since that day in November 2007 when Norlha’s then 35 employees folded the tents they used as a work space and moved into the newly built workshop. Norlha currently employs at least one member from about half the families in Ritoma, though the effect of the salary of one hundred and twenty people on the small village has had a ripple effect far beyond that of the workshop; restaurants and shops have opened, locals have begun growing vegetables to sell to families too busy to go to town, and enterprising builders have catered to those who seek to remodel their houses.
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