- Credit: John Deputy, pulled from Globe article
A while ago, I pitched a story on this Northeastern student’s company based out of Kenya that makes and sells various accessories in order to inject money into the local economy and dramatically improve the lives of local mothers. It finally ran this morning and I couldn’t be happier!
The article, excerpted from today’s Boston Globe:
Mike Behan spends six months out of the year in Njabini, Kenya. But it’s no safari vacation. Behan, 21, is the cofounder and CEO of Njabini Apparel, a nonprofit company selling handcrafted accessories made by landless and handicapped mothers in the Kenyan settlement.
A rising senior at Northeastern University, Behan first visited Njabini in June 2010 as a volunteer with Flying Kites, a nonprofit group that supports orphaned children in Kenya. With Flying Kites’ help, Behan then started Njabini Apparel with Tom Mwangi and marketing director Erin O’Malley (both volunteers with Flying Kites) in August of that year. By October, they were selling hats and scarves. Most of Njabini Apparel’s sales are done online, or by volunteers for Njabini Apparel and Flying Kites.
“For us, these products are a means for these women to achieve something that they’ve never achieved before,” says Behan. “Each project is a tangible source of empowerment.”
Check out the full article here.
[…] sure you’ve noticed Njabini pop up on this blog a couple times (like here, here, and here, for starters). It’s one of my favorites, and well-known at Northeastern. The clothes are […]