Behind the Label: Catrinka

We love a good story and the tale of Catrinka is a great one. It all began in 2013 when three friends from Brooklyn decided to start an ethical fashion label and social venture that would invest in women and girls around the world. Fast forward three years and Catrinka has managed to provide over 50,000 days of education and over 5000 days of employment for women in the developing world. Read on to learn how they did it.

THIS IS HOW THE CATRINKA MODEL WORKS

MAKE AND SELL FABULOUS BAGS

We make unique, beautiful, wearable bags inspired by local textile traditions around the world. Each of our products has a soul, and a story.

EMPOWER WOMEN

We work with ethical, woman-focused production groups to make our bags, contributing to our artisans’ economic empowerment, and allowing them to invest in their families and communities. Women-owned businesses face barriers: lack of training, networks and financing, and cultural obstacles that keep them from getting ahead.We also offer an Ambassadors program for individual women entrepreneurs who want to be part of our sales network. We invest in women, so they can invest in the future. Women reinvest twice as much of their income in their families and communities as men.

EDUCATE GIRLS

Every bag sold provides education and mentoring to adolescent girls at risk in the places where we work. Educating girls is the single most effective way to reduce poverty. Educate a girl and she will postpone marriage and childbirth, have fewer, healthier children and a higher chance of surviving childbirth, and reduce her vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.

EDUCATING GIRLS CAN LITERALLY CHANGE THE WORLD

66 million girls around the world are out of school.

Educating a girl grows the economy: when 1% more of a country’s girls go to school, its GDP increases by 0.3.

Educating a girl delays marriage and childbirth: when a girl in the developing world receives 7 years of education, she marries 4 years later and has 2.2 fewer children.

Educating a girl gives her a shot at supporting herself and her family: just one additional year of school increases a girl’s future wages by 10-20%.

Educating a girl keeps her and her children alive: a child born to a literate mother has a 50% less chance of dying before the age of 5.

HOW CATRINKA WORKS

The world over, a woman’s labor brings opportunities for her children. We embrace the symmetry of women making products that will allow them to send their daughters to school, and we invest in girls who do not have the same resources. We believe that the cycle of investing in women and girls who will then invest in the next generation, will create powerful, enduring change in the world. Learn more and get involved. BUY A BAG, EMPLOY A WOMAN, EDUCATE A YOUNG GIRL.

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