Redesign-Rebrand-Resell-Reuse

Long description

This project seeks to simultaneously address twin crises in Kenya today of teenage pregnancies and motherhood, and the crisis of disposing of used clothing. The project involves VAWOCO CBO partnering with Eseerian Organization, that provides a haven for teen mothers in order to both socio-economically empower them, as well as extend the lifecycle of secondhand clothes that dominate Kenya’s textile sector.

Kenya has the third highest teen pregnancy and motherhood rates in the world. This is more acute in informal urban settlements. Teenage pregnancies and motherhood greatly compromise the health of the mothers and children, and the teens’ prospect of securing economic opportunities, which in turn compromises Kenya’s prospect of reaping demographic dividends. Kenya also heavily relies on imported used clothing with little regard given to their lifecycle and the waste disposal problem they generate.

The empowering of the teen mothers will be done through training them in the craft of idea development, choosing fabric, designing, pattern-making, cutting, sewing, styling and fitting, dyeing, and printing. Using these skills, they will creatively redesign used clothing to make numerous useful and functional products such as babies’ small mattress, baby clothes, rugs, quilts, grocery bags, caps and hats. They will then Rebrand and resell the products at affordable prices thus earning a living, developing entrepreneurial skills, and finally extending the life of the clothing through reuse. The success of this project will be up-scaled in other similar homes in urban informal settlements.

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