Nakate, on the other hand, is a for-profit company that works with women in Uganda—in the city of Kampala and a small village called Kakooge. Created by Shanley Knox in 2010 after spending six weeks in Uganda, Nakate buys paperbead necklaces and bracelets from Kakooge and shoes, bags, and cow horn jewelry out of Kampala. “We treat the artisans as equal business partners, and they name their price,” Knox says. “We pay more than what they could sell it for on the street in Kampala.” Knox, who also has a Ugandan partner working in the village, then sells the pieces in boutiques in California and New York and on Nakate’s website. Whether run as a nonprofit or for-profit, all of these organizations are social enterprises, working to change lives rather than maximize profits. In the short term, Indego’s French says, he’s seen women, over a three-year period, move from making under $1 per day to about $5 per day—more than a Rwandan schoolteacher makes (which, French says, “reminds you that in every culture schoolteachers are underpaid”). “I’m really inspired by [Indego Africa’s] model,” says consultant Jerryanne Heath, the founder of ConceptLink Consulting, which works with Africa-interest organizations and social entrepreneurs. (Indego Africa is not one of her clients but Heath is personal friends with the social enterprise’s founders Matthew Mitro and Benjamin Stone.) Mitro and Stone, she says, have built a really strong foundation for what can be a sustainable business model.
We purchase products from [Rwandan craftswomen] on a fairtrade basis
www.TheWorkingWardrobe.com
14