Our EIC met with Bri Leever of Sseko Designs during the winter quarter. This post was contributed to Her Campus at Oregon State from the company as a result of that correspondence. We here at Her Campus at Oregon State are in love with the Sseko story, so we wanted to share it with you all! Read on to learn more about this fabulous company that is about much more than selling shoes.
Sseko Designs is an ethical fashion brand based in East Africa that uses fashion and design to send girls to college. Sseko began under a Mango Tree in Uganda with four women making sandals together.
Six years ago Liz Forkin Bohannon bought a one-way ticket to Uganda, where she became part of a greater conversation about how to empower high-potential women in Uganda to continue on to university after high school.
In Uganda there is a 9-month gap period between graduating from high school and starting college. The gap is intended to be a time for potential students to work and save enough money to go on to their first year. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Start with the 80% formal unemployment rate, add in the low perceived value of a woman’s education, and top that off with high social pressures to get married, and you arrive at less than 2% of women in Uganda going on to graduate from university.
In enters Liz. This recent college grad identified three women already accepted into university – Mary, Mercy, and Rebekah – and told them that if they agreed to make sandals during those nine months, she would pay for their first year of university.
And it WORKED! At the end of this academic year, Sseko will graduate their 60th woman from the university-bound team. In addition, Sseko employs over 50 other women from all walks of life in their workshop in Uganda, and they have expanded to work with partners in Kenya and Ethiopia.
Sseko was recently featured on ABC’s Shark Tank, where they pitched the idea that business could stand just as much for the producer as it does the consumer. Spoiler alert!… No deal. The billion-dollar investment giants made it clear if you want to help people, the best way to do it is to get rich quick, and give the money to whichever charity you want.
But Sseko is different. Sskeo is not a charity. This is an opportunity for empowerment through dignity and education using beautiful, quality, handcrafted products.
It gets better! Sseko recently launched the Sseko Fellows Program to draw impact back to the States, and specifically engage college students. This is an opportunity for women in college to connect their campus and community to a movement that seeks to inspire women to be brave. This is a movement where every woman has a dream, and every great journey begins with a small step.
For more information about the Sseko Fellows Program, check out their website.
Her Campus at Oregon State may be bringing Sseko Designs to campus this term to help spread the word and get interested students involved. Stay tuned for updates!
Images from the Sseko blog.