Instead of having a fancy brand where I do not know who has made it or
how it is made, we tried to make it as transparent as possible,
with having the name of the tailor within.
And also delivering the personal signs with the way we're switching and
their personal way of making it basically.
The bags are made at the Masanga tailor shop,
where they gather their bicycle tubes from around the community, and
sew them together with foam and African fabrics in order to make these products.
And that way both create wealth and empower themselves and
their families, but also deliver money and
basically make the Masanga Hospital sustainable from their production of bags.
We have found that people buy this bag because it is basically a personal
product, a product that they can relate to and a product that has a deep story
that is not only about that some fancy guy found out that he would like to make bags.
But basically, both have a social mission and an environmental mission.
So first off, it really empowers a local community, and
it really has these people into the products, so it can relate to them and
you can see their names, etc., throughout the product.
But also an environmental mission, in the way that we reuse the material
that is else not used, and take the trash and make it into quality products.
I got personally involved because Dr.
Peter Bo Jørgensen who started reestablishing
the hospital after the civil war, after he put for a lot of money,
equipment down there, because he couldn't use it in Denmark anymore.
He was trying to build it up, having volunteers in,
but also having money, basically, to get it running.
Some of the money came from donations, but it is really not a sustainable way of
having a cash flow, so they also tried to build up professional businesses.
One of them was Bangura Bags and I was asked whether I was interested
in coming down there and help establish the business.
We stress the social mission in the way that that is basically what
keeps this product up, what really creates value for it.
Because, of course, we focus when we talk with people
mainly on: this is a personal product they will be happy for,
that is a customer pain that we basically come in and take care of.
But a part of that is, of course, also that it has a deep story and a deep social
mission, where it creates value, not only for themselves but also for
the tailors that create these products, for the family and their community.
So, the social mission is basically what
does that I can say that it is a personal product and it is a real product.