SSEKO Designs, UGANDA. Cartier Finalist for Sub Saharan Africa
Selected from an applicant pool of over 1000 projects, the finalists for Cartier Award 2013 come from 15 different countries. They all lead compagnies. UFFP met one of the finalists for Sub- Saharan Africa, at the press launch and lunch of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Award this past october. She did not receive the Prize, but for UFFP, she already was a winner as she gathered : fashion, commitment towards women and sustainability. More and more, UFFP is interested and unveils the stories of Cartier Women who directly have a social and ethical orientation in their projects, SSE Designs is one of them!
A story by Fériel Berraies Guigny
She is American, blond with blue eyes, what is the link with Uganda, we would think? Well, just the love and the passion and the desire to ensure women empowerment for the girls of this country.
SSEKO Designs indeed, her company is a beautiful project. Fashion with a heart, fashion with a cause!
By funding thanks to hand made local footwear, university education for girls in Uganda.
UFFP met Liz Forkin Bohannan USA/ UGANDA
Can you tell us a little about yourself? My name is Liz Forkin Bohannan and I’m the CEO of SSE designs in Uganda.
Your brand is really ethical? Yes we are an ethical fashion brand and we are primarily based in Uganda. We are expanding throughout East Africa and we are dreaming about how we could use Fashion to empower women.
Green Shops
How do you work with women? We work with high potential women that come from a background of extreme poverty. These Ugandan girls can access University but they don’t have the economic opportunity to do so. So After high school, they will come and work for SSEKO designs for nine month making our products and being trained. And in addition to that, they will be part of a comprehensive social impact program.
What do you teach them? Everything from presentation skills, to personal financing strategies, to health and wellness. Everything that we do for them, from college scholarships to our social impact program funded with the revenues of our products.
Employment product model ? Yes to help educate women and empower them.
Tell us about your roots? I was born in Missouri USA. I moved to Uganda when I was 22 and graduated from College with a journalism degree. When I moved there, I was very passionate on the effect of extreme poverty on women. I was not interested at all in fashion. I knew that there was over 70% of women in Uganda living in extreme poverty. I wanted to live there to learn more on the ground. And that is how I came to the project. It was when I met Marie Mercy and Rebecca, those were the three first SSEKO women. They were ready to graduate from High School but they could not continue onto college.
But you were determined to make a change? Yes I wanted to see these girls go to College, they were incredibly bright and driven and committed and I wanted to see them continue their education, I knew they would become leaders of their community one day.
Your difficulties? Yes there were a few, creating a culture and an infrastructure for creative designs is quite a challenge in Africa. I wanted at first to create a charity but my Ugandan friends told me they did not want another charity but needed jobs. They needed to build and economy and an industry.
Sustainable projects are harder than charities? Indeed because you need to build the infrastructure under it! We spent the last four years really putting a lot of ressources to build the culture of quality and excellence. Figuring out how to motivate our women to continue education, university and employment.
Tell us about the products? We create sandals with leather base and we implement on it the fabric straps. We do sandals that are freely customisable. You can buy one pair of sandals and for ex 12 pairs of straps.
How many employees? We have over 50 employees and 36 women have been going through our program and have been able to be trained because the majority of our work force never had a job on the formal economy. From specific job training to broader fields we are doing, is part of the program.
Where do you sell? Online its www.ssekodesigns.com and then we also have retail distribution all over North America. We are hoping to have global distribution in the next three years.
