Who are Mayamiko?
We are delighted to tall you about Mayamiko – our production partner in Africa for our new transparent African range . Mayamiko is based in Malawi and is a trust set up to train local impoverished people with business skills to enable them to create and sustain livelihoods and communities. Skills that are supported include tailoring, beekeeping and selling solar lights. Mayamiko also has its own fashion label, using these skills to create beautiful and ethical clothing.
Why are we Partnering with Mayamiko?
Where Does It Come From? and Mayamiko have goals that align closely – transparency, supporting local traditional skills and communities and a drive towards ethical production and sourcing. We are delighted to be working together on this production.
Mayamiko is the word for ‘praise’ in the local Chewa language. This name was chosen to reflect that praising and supporting their creative talents and giving opportunities for development is the best way to help lift people from poverty. Paola Masperi set up the trust in 2008 after travelling extensively in Africa and seeing with her own eyes what was needed and how she could help.
Paola has worked closely with us to build our production plan for our new transparent tunics and has a starring role in our crowdfund video!
Key Mayamiko achievements (so far!) include…..
- – Over 100 Trainees successfully graduated and received a TEVET Level 1 tailoring and sewing certificate.
- – Over 100 women have benefited from the microfinance scheme and now own their own sewing machine
- – Over 100 women have benefited from the business monitoring scheme
- – 200 sanitary kits have been made ready to be dispensed to those in need
- – Over 100 women have benefited from the entrepreneurship scheme
- – A free meal for each trainee and her child every day since 2008, that’s over 20,000 meals in total
- – Their workshop is 100% sufficient from the energy of the sun
These impressive achievements as well as their core ethos and business ethics are why we believe they will be a fantastic partner for us! If you would like to find out more and sign up for our crowdfund mailing list then please visit Our Crowdfunding Page. You can now order items from this production in our Where Does It Come From? shop.