Kipepeo goes Kenya

About Kipepeo:
Since 2008, Kipepeo-Clothing (“Butterfly” in Kiswahili) has been creating jobs and prospects in Tanzania through the production of clothing for adults, children and babies. The special feature of Kipepeo products are the motifs. All of them are created during regular school lessons at elementary schools in East Africa. The sale of these unique products supports the schools where the designs were created. Whether it is the construction of a kitchen or a computer room, you will find an overview of all realized projects here.

Kipepeo Goes Kenya
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the butterfly will fly to the neighboring country Kenya, where we will also be producing organic textiles and thereby support a school for children with special needs in Nairobi in the future. You can find an insight into our new school project, where the motifs of our first Kenya collection were created, here.

Our New Project
The Songa Mbele Na Masomo (Progress through Education) Children Center is a day care center for children and adolescents with special needs from the Mukuru slums in Nairobi, Kenya. The center hosts and teaches 49 children with physical and mental disabilities, helping them and their families to maximize their mental, physical and emotional potential. The non-profit organization accompanies children and adolescents aged 3-17 years on their way to obtaining a public school diploma and helping them to become an active and independent part of society.

The disadvantaged children face many challenges in the slums. Often, they are trapped in their home in order to protect them from crime in the slums. In addition, they lack access to activities that make them part of society. The center offers children a place of refuge and a safe environment in which they can grow up like any other child.
In addition, the center supports 39 school drop-outs aged 10-17, who are reintegrated into the state school system through training programs, free teaching aids and tutoring.

How did the motives of the new collection come about?
At regular intervals, our project partner, the StarKids Initiative, provides trips to and around Nairobi to the children and families of "Songa Mbela na Masomo". The last trip was to a safari park adjacent to Nairobi and a city tour through the capital of Kenya. Following this special day, the children captured their experiences in drawings that have now found their way onto our new Kipepeo shirts.

Where´s the new collection produced?
Our new collection is made by our partner company, Kiboko Leisure Wear, on the outskirts of Nairobi. Established 25 years ago by Sabine Huester, the WFTO (World Fair Trade Organization) certified company "Kiboko" is still a showcase for human values and ethical business leadership. The employees benefit from fair living wages, medical care and education funds for their children. This video gives you an inside view of the work at Kiboko.

When purchasing our cotton (bio) and fabrics, we use our value chain in Tanzania, which we have been using for the last 7 years. The cotton is produced by the cooperative BioSustain in Singida. Here, organic-cotton is cultivated on rain-fed fields without the use of chemicals and pesticides, that can harm people and the environment. The cotton is then ginned in Singida and shipped to Arusha, where our partner company Sunflag ltd. is spinning cotton into yarn and fabric.

Kipepeo-Clothing and our partners in Tanzania are GOTS certified. License No. 25523

You can find a detailed insight into our value chain in our movie “Safari Ya T-Sheti - the journey of a T-Shirt”.

Why hitchhiking to Tanzania?
Kipepeo-Clothing has been able to continuously evolve and grow over the past decade as the story of Kipepeo-Clothing has been shared by many. Hitchhiking to Kenya overland embodies the spirit of this project, as we focus on meeting and trusting people. The trip is made by Kipepeo founder Martin and Sam from Kipepeo-Clothing U.K, who also met in Africa exactly 10 years ago.

The costs for this journey are covered by Martin and Sam themselves.

Fair Trade not Aid. What makes Kipepeo unique?
Kipepeo Clothing is not a charity organization. Kipepeo-Clothing is a socially oriented company that creates jobs in the textile industry through local value creation and production to support local school projects through the sale of these products. Through the Kipepeo Cycle, Kipepeo Clothing has followed the fundamental principles of fairness, ecology, sustainability and social responsibility.

Kipepeo- Clothing is involved in the production of its own products on an economic and political level in all its forms. We do not buy "wholesale" products, which are subsequently printed and sold, but are actively involved in the production process. Kipepeo-Clothing encourages workers with workshops on quality requirements of the European market which are held every year on the production site and on the cotton fields.

The Kipepeo cooperation projects are based on friendly relationships at eye level, which have grown steadily over the past 10 years.

We appreciate your support and if you accompany our trip!

The goal of Kipepeo-Clothing is to use the Kipepeo Cycle in Kenya, to establish long-term jobs and support other school projects in Kenya.

Kipepeo-Clothing products are for everyone! Whether young or old, anyone who is interested in a fair-made shirt with a unique history is right with us and can be part of this unique story!

We believe in products with attitude rather than prestige and friends instead of consumers.

Kipepeo products are more than just a fashion accessory. They are full of beauty and are the proof that even the pencil drawing of a child in Africa can change the world step by step and connect people!

We appreciate any form of support! Whether it's buying a new Kipepeo product through this crowdfunding campaign, free support, or simply retelling our story!

Even after 10 years, Kipepeo- Clothing is a social enterprise that has remained true to itself and has grown slowly but steadily. We volunteered for Kipepeo for the first 7 years, in addition to a regular 40-hour week, and to this day we are 100% self-funded - which certainly was not always easy. Now Kipepeo has found its place in the world of fashion and we continue to do our best to make the fashion industry a little better. Kiipepeo-Clothing is a matter of the heart and a company that contributes to the strengthening of fair trade. In the meantime, we have grown into a small company that not only employs employees in Tanzania and Kenya but also in Germany.

We have divided our crowdfunding goal into two funding goals:

Production:
Upon successful financing of this project, the new Kipepeo Kenya collection will be produced and printed in Nairobi. The raw cotton (bio), from which later yarns and fabrics are produced, has already been sourced through the Kipepeo value chain in neighboring Tanzania, as no cotton (organic) is grown in Kenya. The assembly takes place in the WFTO certified manufactory Kiboko in Nairobi.

Social goals:
Should the first funding target be met to cover all costs of production, all additional donations will flow directly into the "Songa Mbele Donations Fund" without any deductions and will be invested in the construction of the new playground. Should more money be donated than necessary for the realization of this project, this money will be used to build another classroom.

A detailed statement of costs as well as the construction plans of this project can be found here.

Roadmap:

October 2017:

• First project visit to "Songa Mbele na Masomo"

Nov 2017- Feb 2017:

• Budget Planning and Implementation / Optimization of Textile Infrastructure in Kenya
• Selection of the new Kipepeo motifs

March April:

• Creation of patterns and pre-samples for women / men's shirts. Children and baby clothes
• Selection of new shades and production of the 180 gsm single jersey fabric at Sunflag ltd in Arusha, Tanzania

May June:

• Create pattern designs for allover prints by screen printing. [*]Creation of large format films and screens.

July:

• Creation of product samples

August:

• Production adults, children's and baby clothing

September October:

• Import to Germany

November

• Delivery of new collection

January 2019

• Start implementation project "Schoolyard" Songa Mbele na Masoma.