The Women who Make our Clothes
Ledy lives just outside the capital of Tegucigalpa in a two room house with her three daughters and husband. She graduated from the Mi Esperanza sewing program in 2007. She then went to work for a few small t-shirts company as well as sewing for private clients from her home. In 2013, Ledy was trained to oversee production of our recycled t-shirt collection at the Mi Esperanza production house. From there she went on to earn her high school diploma and graduated from nursing school - which had always been a dream for her. Now she works part time with our production at Mi Esperanza. We are thankful for her attention to detail and kind spirit.
Betty has been overseeing our small production in Ghana for several years. She makes our collection made from recycled flour sacks there - if you have one of our Lucy Dresses, she probably made it. Betty has been recognized for her leadership abilities in her small network there in Ghana. Along with our production, she also sews for clients in Ghana - making school uniforms.
Dona Augustina is our seamstress in the foothills of the Andes in Bolivia. She has worked for several years for other small companies producing small runs of clothing with the high quality pima cotton that is sourced from local markets and produced in Lima. We have enjoyed working alongside this women for several years! Although she does not have a background in design and understandably gets very confused when we use terms like 7/16 an inch, she is eager to learn and get more orders so she can employ and teach her neighbors. Augustina only has only has an elementary education is now able to send her son attend university.
At age 14 Preethi had been sold to an old man three times her age. She was sold by her father to pay off a debt their family owed. She was severally abused by him - after enduring a year of abuse, she manged to escape and return to her parent's home; however, her parents sold her again to the same man. She managed to escape again, but was sent back to the man a third time. Again she escaped and found her way to the house of a human rights lawyer, who brought her to a shelter. At the shelter she received counseling, emotional support and care. She also received sewing training from our partner organization and worked there for two years. Over this time, she became a women who had an understand of herself and more importantly regained her self-respect. She met her husband during this time. Now they live in Delhi with their daughter and both work for an NGO.
We have been working for several years with Gladys who lives just outside a tourist town in Guatemala. She producers our collection made from recycled ikat and handwoven cotton ikat. Gladys has two children, the younger son had a heart problem for several years. When we met her and talked about the possibility of partnering together, show mentioned her situation and was so excited about the possibility of using the income to pay for heart surgery for her son. Her work producing for Liz Alig has allowed their family to afford the open heart surgery for him - a few summers ago he underwent the operation and is now doing well!
