Global Girls' mission is to empower African women by providing jobs for skilled artisans and by supporting the traditional crafts they make. Our Story
How it began
A crossroads in my career is where I found myself in early 2008, craving a new opportunity. I longed to marry my creative background, my love for travel and experience in fashion with a career that would enable me to make a difference i
n the world. On a crisp April night in 2008 a longtime friend invited me to see a screening of her friend’s documentary. After watching the screening about a young Kenyan woman, the audience was invited to purchase items the filmmaker had brought back from Kenya as a way to help finance her film. From first sight, I, like most other women at the screening, was enthralled with the sandals; the style, workmanship and comfort were great. When the filmmaker told me that many of the sandals were handmade by impoverished Kenyan women living with HIV/AIDS, I knew I wanted to lend a hand. My instant thought was that I could commercialize the sandals in the US in hopes of providing jobs for the women artisans, thus helping to improve their lives. The right person at the right place
As someone who’s worked both as a wardrobe stylist and as an international buyer, my livelihood has depended on my keen eye for design and a knack for recognizing exceptional items of interest. Having spent years scouring the globe for unique and marketable products in my career, I knew at once that I’d found a special product in the sandals. My gut told me other women would love these sandals, just as I did, and for the same reasons. What’s more, my ten years experience importing original Mexican folk art, handmade by artisans in a tiny rural village, gave me the confidence that I had the skills and wherewithal to do it. I’d never been to sub-Saharan Africa, but had dreamed of going my whole life. I reasoned, “this has fallen in my lap, and it doesn’t come much more up my alley, so it must be meant to be.”
My hunch about a positive market response was confirmed by the orders I took as soon as I began to show the sandals to store buyers in CA. Dream becomes a reality
Before I knew it I was off to Kenya to meet with artisans and to start organizing the process of having sandals made for export. I could not have gotten much of anything done in Kenya had it not been for my trusted, hard-working, and ever-compassionate friend Nester (Amie’s self-described “African mother”). Nester came into my world as the angel that I needed to take my idea one step further, (yet another sign that this crazy new venture was meant for me). A 30-year veteran HIV/AIDS consultant and healthcare provider, Nester sanctioned my cause and jumped in wholeheartedly without ever testing the waters. By helping connect me to her (scores of) friends and contacts in Nairobi, Global Girls went from a dream to a reality in little more than a few weeks. Most importantly, Nester fully appreciates how HIV/AIDS and poverty are closely intertwined. She and I agreed that impoverished women’s empowerment would be achieved through their own endeavor and that the sandal-making was a sure possibility to providing economic opportunity. Why artisans with HIV/AIDS ? On my tip to Kenya, I visited Africa’s second largest slum, Kibera, home to about a million people. I met with women who were living with HIV/AIDS and who received their medical care from an NGO’s clinic in the slum. The women were eager to work and yet, did not even have enough money for the bus fare required to take them to a job site. Nor could they afford child-care if away from their children or did have the money to buy lunch out. It was at this moment that I realized just how vicious the cycle of poverty really is. I quickly concluded that I needed to set up a co-op in close proximity to the slums to provide the most needy the opportunity of achieving an economic livelihood. It’s widely known that HIV/AIDS and poverty are closely intertwined; it is therefore important to develop strategies that tackle both in order to achieve real success. Mission
Global Girls seeks to improve the lives of impoverished women worldwide through the development of handicraft skills to promote empowerment and economic sustainability. Our Goals
Establish a co-op within an underserved community in which we will train impoverished women to develop handicraft skills so that they may produce goods marketable goods and gain an economic livelihood. Artisan Identification
Identify talented artisans who demonstrate need and commitment to work
Training and Design Assistance
Provide training in handicraft skills to artisans to achieve the quality of workmanship Global Girls requires
Market Connection
Promote the artisans handicrafts in the US and international market s
(Establish a co-op within an underserved community in which impoverished women to develop handicraft skills so that they may produce goods marketable goods and gain an economic livelihood. )
Our business model
Global Girls currently buys directly from many impoverished artisans in Kenya is proud to pay above- market price for the sandals. The artisans benefit by our purchasing the sandals directly from them. One advantage is that the artisans may work from home, thereby alleviating the need to spend money on bus fare, meals out and childcare. Also, selling sandals direct to a distributor/exporter like Global Girls allows the artisans to produce goods “as ordered,” as opposed to producing numerous sandals to be taken to the marketplace in hopes of selling them. Producing on an as-ordered basis means the artisans don’t waste time and money peddling their wares and they avoid accumulating stock. The result is the artisans reap greater profits since they are not saddled by unsold merchandise. The generation of income is crucial to not only achieving economic sustainability, but to the potential of growing a business. Once up and running, the co-operative will function in a micro-financed business model, where it will be conveniently located for the artisans and in which they’ll be paid fair-trade wages.
