stylish scarves to support sustainable business in Africa

There aren’t many deal related newsletters that I subscribe to but Social Goodies is one of them. The philosophy behind the company is to combine good deals with good deeds. Customers get to choose one of three well-known national charities that will receive 20% of their purchase as a donation. Featured products are usually fun or stylish and often based on a sustainable business model as in the cause of the non-profit fashionABLE. The mission behind the colorful and well-designed scarves by fashionABLE is to create sustainable business for women in Africa that have been exploited due to poverty such as prostitution. To help these women get off the streets fashionABLE teamed up with “Women At Risk”. The organization provides them with counseling and help to find alternate ways of income such as hand-weaving scarves through fashionABLE. Each scarf is handmade from Ethiopian cotton in the capital of Addis Ababa. The way it works is that cotton comes from the fields and is then separated for the weaving process after the seeds are removed. Next the thread is dyed and woven into unique designs named after a woman whose life has been changed through the program. My favorites are the Etanesh Stripe scarf that has a solid background with contrasting stripes and the Feleku scarf that has multiple sections of stripes and diamonds. It’s great to see how fashion can enable women. The scarves are not fair trade certified yet but fashionABLE ensures that every woman is paid a fair wage.