Business & Finance
Monday, November 01, 2010Powerful Businesswomen Collaborating in Rwanda and the United States
by Jacqueline Adams, Africa.com Board of AdvisersShare this article:
“I believe in empowering women,” Ms. Miller said. “I believe in helping women help themselves and the Rwandan businesswomen and artisans are wonderful. After we picked our colors for the bracelets and created an eight-row design for the bangles, they turned around our request in just one month.”The jewelry’s beauty and workmanshipare remarkable.
The multi-colored bangles are handcrafted with “fair trade” textiles that are wrapped and tied by the 40 women who work with the sewing cooperative known as Cocoki, the Cooperative de Couture de Kicukiro, in Kigali, Rwanda.
The bracelets are createdby43 expert weavers who work in the Covanya Cooperative in Nyamata, Rwanda. In 2007, the women at Covanya began hand-crafting traditionalAgaseke baskets and they have launched a line of woven coasters and large platters. Used for centuries as African wedding gifts, the Agasekebasket now represents the reconciliation of Rwanda following its 1994 genocide; the zig-zag lines symbolize two women walking together hand-in-hand.
15 percent of Nicole Miller’slaunch party proceeds were to be donated to Indego Africa's business, literacy, and computer training award-winning programs.Here’s how the Indego Africa program works:
- Indego Africa is a non-profit social enterprise that partners with Rwandan women artisans, like those who run the Cocoki and Covanya cooperatives.
- Indego Africa sells the co-op’s accessories and home décor items online and at numerous high-end retailers in the United States.
- Indego Africa returns 100 percent of its profits to the co-ops to support training programs in business, literacy and computers. All of those programs are taught by top Rwandan university students.
- Since its first partnerships began in mid-2007, Indego Africa has spurred $50,000+ in sales revenue for more than 250 Rwandan women and their approximately 700 dependents and conducted hundreds of hours of long-term skills training programs.
- As a member of the Fair Trade Federation, Indego Africa's fair trade practices have been thoroughly vetted and found to be in compliance with the Fair Trade Federation's strict requirements. There is no higher standard for the handicraft industry and membership is reserved only for organizations that demonstrate a commitment to the long-term development of their artisan partners.
Nicole Miller has a tradition of partnering with women overseas. She sold a line of scarves created by women in Afghanistan. She sold bracelets made in Mali that had been crafted out of recycled rubber.After seeing the textiles, she believed that the Rwandan bracelets would be both eye-catching and popular. And indeed, they were. Her initial order of 1400 bracelets sold out in one evening.
“If they do well,” Ms. Miller said, “we can order more. I think they’ll be great not just in our New York store but in Miami as well.”
Good design and good works have come together again.
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