FashionABLE Scarves Create Sustainable Business
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In Ethiopia, prostitution is often linked with deep levels of generational poverty and financial hopelessness. Lacking meaningful resources and a sense of hope, many women resort to prostitution as a means of supporting themselves and their families. These women are often desperate to leave the sex industry but remain trapped by a lack of opportunity and rehabilitative support.
To rehabilitate these former sex workers, fashionABLE partnered with “Women At Risk” in an effort to create sustainable business in Africa through scarf making; instead of making women dependent on charity, they become a vital part of a developing economy.
fashionABLE optimizes the unique talents of women and resources in Africa. Each scarf is handmade from Ethiopian cotton in the capital of Addis Ababa. The cotton is collected from the field, the seeds are removed, and then it is separated for the weaving process. The thread is dyed the desired color, and then woven into unique designs.
The vision of fashionABLE is to make a new kind of fashion statement as a responsible consumer. Purchasing a scarf does far more than just create jobs, it gives the women producing them a stable and sustainable business. Scarves provide jobs; profits provide restoration. When you buy a fashionABLE scarf you are able to provide opportunities, and women in Africa are able to have a new choice.
One of the women in the program is Bezuayhu, who was forced into prostitution at just 18-years-old out of a necessity to work and provide for herself. After 8 months, she entered the Women At Risk program, looking for a better life. “I am now 19 years old. It feels so good to get up in the morning and say I am going to work. My mind is so restful now. It feels so good to have a scarf named after me. I’m so proud to be called a scarf maker.”
Another woman, Mulu, was 22 when her husband left her. “I got into prostitution in order to forget him. I felt like sleeping with different men would help me move on. It’s the most horrible, cheap, and disgusting life. Now, I have nothing to be ashamed of anymore. I have peace and rest, and I am very happy. I want my daughter to be in a good place and have the best life.”
fashionABLE is a project of Mocha Club (a division of African Leadership). Mocha Club was founded in 2005 as a new generation of activists giving up the cost of a few mochas a month to fund relief and development projects in Africa. Mocha Club works in five main project areas: Clean Water, Education, Women At Risk, Orphan Care + Vulnerable Children, and Healthcare, holistically approaching the challenges Africans face with a development mindset, working with community leaders to find solutions that create ownership and a sense of empowerment. In efforts to emphasize the quality of development work, and create sustainable opportunities for Africans, Mocha Club created fashionABLE.
More About This Charity
Region
South
Category
Charity of the Year, Human Rights
Name
African Leadership – fashionABLE
Mission
Purchasing a fashionABLE scarf creates sustainable business for women in Africa. Our commitment as a non-profit is to the development of people — fashionABLE works with women who have been exploited due to the effects of poverty. So, when you purchase a scarf you are providing jobs, and then we send the net profits back to holistically rehabilitate more women. Scarves provide jobs, profits provide restoration.
Impact
- This Achievement raised $219,444
- This charity raised $1,800,000 in the past year
- This Achievement trained 25 women
- This charity helped 300,000 people in the past year
- Sold 12,100 scarves; Created a marketplace in the West to provide jobs for women in Africa; began the process of tying Africa into the global economy.
Works In
Africa
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