As you may remember, during the first Ethos Kolekto Book Club chat, a big part of our conversation revolved around the idea of micro-finance and how micro-lenders (like us as individuals and small businesses) can send loans to entrepreneurs in developing nations to help them establish their own businesses can go far in raising people above life in poverty.

After this chat, I decided to start using profits from shop sales not only to re-invest in our artisan partners and to donate to charity, but to start making micro-loans to women entrepreneurs. In March, I made my first 2 loans to two women in different parts of Kenya. Elly requested a loan to help her purchase feed for her cows and at the time of the writing of this post, she has paid back 29% of her loan. Similarly, Rose, who asked for a loan to purchase seeds and fertilizer for her crops, has repaid 17% of her loan.

As a human, I am so glad to have been able to play a positive role in the lives of these women, who I will likely never meet. As a business owner, I am overjoyed that enough consumers in the developing world have jumped on board with my mission to use fair fashion to make positive change in the world and have enabled me to utilize funds in this way!