This blog post is part of a series to highlight contributors for our upcoming issue: Dreams to Reality.
In 2013, a small girls club in Liberia began gathering with the intent of teaching its members new and useful skills. Lessons included sewing, which the girls learned by stitching together scraps of fabric donated by local tailors. Since then, this group has transformed into Bosh Bosh Inc., a rapidly expanding social enterprise that uses fashion to empower women and girls in their local communities.
The Bosh Bosh theory of change is based on a cycle of education to empowerment to economic development. The organization, which consists of a growing number of local Liberian girls, provides its members with vocational training, access to extracurricular educational opportunities, scholarships, and employment.
Bosh Bosh Members produce and sell a variety of handmade products, such as handbags and headbands, which they create from locally sourced materials. The funds from sales are then put towards the scholarships and extracurricular programs for the girls, along with the salaries of the full-time workers.
In our upcoming issue of Memunatu, Vivanne Tengbeh, a Bosh Bosh scholar, writes a piece on an amazing woman within her own community. The woman profiled in the piece, Sis Alberta Cole, works to empower young women through education and encourages them to improve living standards for themselves and their families. By starting a local corn garden and teaching her students how to bake bread to sell, Sis Cole has helped many girls pay school fees and receive education, which could prove extremely beneficial as they begin families and establish careers.
Bosh Bosh and Sis Alberta Cole are just two of many examples of ways in which women and young girls can work to make a real difference. Thinking back to the sewing classes I took in high school and the years I spent as a child cutting up and refashioning old clothes, I could not help but marvel at the Bosh Bosh mission. This organization took something that I have always considered a fun hobby and turned it into a profitable and incredibly productive opportunity to change young women’s lives.
We are so excited to be working with Bosh Bosh Inc. in our upcoming issue, and encourage you to check out their awesome work!
Taylor Soergel
Memunatu Editorial Intern
