Bliss Herbals is founded and by Siobhan Vida Ashmole, a dynamic force for transformation and healing. Vida combines her medical knowledge of the human body, holistic healing philosophy, clinical experience in homoeopathy, interest in eco-therapy, passion for grassroots empowerment, spiritual connection to the teacher plants of the world and a grounding in permaculture principals; to facilitate a movement of healing people, communities and the environment. Through Bliss, we aim to share the joy of growing one’s own medicine and reconnecting with our natural heritage to build better relationships with oneself and the beautiful inter-connected world around us.
Hamid Khan
Hamid joined Bliss Herbals in 2018 as Executive Director and co-owner after 2 years serving as an advisor and mentor to the company. He brings with him a wealth of experience; over 20 years as an independent businessman in a range of manufacturing and high-tech agricultural fields. He is an award-winning mentor and business coach and has delivered training to hundreds of young startups through TIA (the Technology Innovation Agency) and the South African Technology Network (SATN). In Bliss Herbals, Hamid combines his excellence in business with a passion for rural development and regeneration.
Bliss’s current activities include running workshops in home herbalism and ecotherapy techniques, supplying indigenous African herbs for use as medicine and for cultivation and creating a range of home-made natural skin and cosmetic products infused with herbal healing magic.
In the future we hope to expand to become a social entrepreneurship with a difference: combating bio-piracy and misuse of indigenous knowledge, helping conserve our natural heritage and empowering rural women through setting up micro-businesses and running as a fairly-traded, organic, ethical co-operative. We see ourselves growing, teaching, researching, creating and selling incredible medicines on an Earth-to-Shelf permaculture farm; with cultivation nodes and teaching hubs run by local women who contribute to the biodiversity of our business ecosystem and build wealth for themselves and their communities.
At Bliss, we’re really into permaculture design as a way of doing business. That means working with nature, in natural patterns, flattening hierarchical power structures into co-operative webs of working together. Yes, we do business; but we also barter, crowdfund, share our surplus, and use local and alternative economies wherever possible. We support small local businesses because we know that we’re supporting real people who work hard to add real value to the world, not nebulous unaccountable corporations. We have a zero-waste policy and we aim to recycle/minimise/upcycle/compost all packaging and production products. One day soon we hope to announce that this is all done off-grid using renewable energy. For now, we live to inspire and we hope that you’ll join us. If you think you know about a way we could do business better, contact us, we’d love to hear from you.
We send products anywhere in South Africa and hope to host travelling workshops collaborating with local pioneers of wisdom and good living.
We’re excited about the future and look forward to serving you. We live in exciting times of turbulence and transformation. Come, let’s walk this path together!
In Bliss,
Vida and Hamid
