Creative Ways to Improve Women's Lives

Friday, January 1, 2010

( Fair Trade Federation)Ellen Dorsch, founder of Creative Women, Inc., remembers "I have always been guided by the values of equity value in my professional and personal life; when I started Creative Women, after working 40 years in the non-profit sector, I naturally embrace[d] equity as the core value of this business."

During her career in public health, Ellen's visits to Ethiopia showed her former sex workers, training to be hairdressers, only to find there were no jobs available; and, rehab centers where women were sewing and embroidering beautiful tablecloths, but the only market for their products was a small bazaar for the ex-pats in Addis Ababa. She realized that an opportunity existed to improve women's lives and to maintain a centuries-old art form by introducing the West to the beauty of Ethiopian textiles.

Since opening Creative Women in 2002, Ellen has seen how consumers contribute to making a concrete difference in the lives of women. As the business grows, more women in Ethiopia have been hired by Creative Women's suppliers in order to fill orders. They have been able to set up training programs with the Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, offering non-skilled jobs to former sex-workers, and work with the Ethiopian government to bring cocoon growing for silk worms to small villages, providing jobs in the rural areas. In Swaziland, the country with the highest incident of HIV in Africa, Creative Women's supplier can now offer free testing every three months, plus HIV/AIDS counseling and education. In addition, since most of the women live far from the workshop, Creative Women's suppliers provide housing, so that distance does not prevent women from taking a good paying job.

Thinking back over the changes she helped to bring to these communities, Ellen says "I often wonder what it must be like for these women to work in such fair and equitable businesses, where they are respected and included, rather than treated poorly by uncaring employers. For most of them, this is probably the first job they have where they are paid decently, have an employer who provides flexibility so they can meet the demands of a family, and can work in a clean and well lit space. I am constantly motivated to grow our business, because our success is doubled when new orders and jobs are created in Ethiopia and Swaziland."

For Ellen Dorsch and Creative Women, their work means that they can proud of their products and proud of their contribution to the lives of women in Ethiopia and Somalia.

As their motto says, Creative Women cares... about good design, elegant hand-woven textiles, and improving women's lives.