Jali is Swahili for “caring.” To care, be concerned, respect, honor, and regard with esteem.
In March 2020, Amy Galland, Founder and Principal of Empower Venture Partners, collaborated with Florence Masinde, Founder of Tushone, to manufacture and distribute masks to two communities in Nairobi.
Tushone was founded by Florence Masinde in 2000 to train and employ people living in informal settlements in Nairobi to work as tailors. The demand for cloth masks from Empower Venture Partners and others kept Tushone alive during the COVID-19 downturn, maintained livelihoods for the tailors, and provided hope for many families.
Rates paid to tailors for each mask were set by the tailors and the overall price for the masks was set by Tushone to ensure that a fair price is being paid to produce the products we sell.
The masks are made of Kitenge – a popular East African fabric. Traditionally, Kitenge is made by batik, but now it is commercially printed. In East Africa, kitenge is worn as a sarong and wrapped around as a baby sling – but is also used to embellish garments to give them a colorful flair. We selected Kitenge for the masks because of their bright, colorful prints. We felt that with a beautiful African fabric, people would be able to be both safe and stylish.
Our first project was to manufacture and deliver 800 masks to the students, families, teachers, and staff of the Hands of Love school in Kariobangi, Nairobi.
Through Hands of Love director, Sami Maina, we then provided masks to Slum Child Foundation, an organization that uses a contract-model to keep children free from substance abuse and additional masks to the Kariobangi community including vendors at the market to keep them safe while providing essential services.
We also worked with Taka Bank to provide masks to their Community Champions who are working within settlements where Taka Bank operates youth-empowering recycling initiatives in order to identify the most vulnerable in the communities; provide information in order to make the most effective interventions; share information about preventing, identifying, and managing Covid-19; and bringing resources to those in need.
You can see more about this remarkable program and our masks in action in this video.
Together, we provided 21,000 masks – funded by ourselves, our friends, our families, and caring friends of theirs.
Jali kwa dunia na vyote viumbe
Caring for the earth and all beings
Cuidando da terra e de todos os seres