Our Startup Story – Starting From Scratch
As you guys know we’ve been doing Liberty Jane Gives Back projects for a couple of years now. Using funds from our Liberty Jane business to fund various charitable efforts, most specifically the orphanage & sewing project in Zambia. But that was never the full vision. LJGives Back has been an abbreviated and incomplete version of what we ultimately want to achieve. So after some recent reflection and prayer, we feel like now is the time to bring the full dream to life.
The full dream is to create a proper charity that conducts sewing & tailoring classes around the world. We are passionate about empowering seamstresses to create a better life.
Why? There are 3 reasons:
First, we know that globally 80% of the planet lives on less than $10 a day, and in many places, people live on less than $2 per day. And in communities of extreme poverty – the most negatively impacted economically are single moms – trying to raise children on their own. They have very little they can do to pull themselves out of poverty. Statistically, these ladies are commonly illiterate, or under-educated, vulnerable to sexual exploitation, and struggle to survive. They have already had a very hard life, even in their 20s or 30s. At the same time, they are moms just like moms in the U.S. and developed countries – they are trying to love & train their young children. Just like us, they are trying to figure out how to give their kids a better life. At dinner time they are the last to eat, if there is any food left. At bed-time they are the last to go to bed after everyone else is safely asleep. At the clinic they are the last to get medical attention – if there is any money left.
So how do you help a mom who might not know how to read, and is desperately poor? She has time on her hands, but no capital or training to create a home-based-business. Can you guess where we are going with this? What would a sewing machine, training and supplies mean to these moms? They could immediately start sewing & selling, and radically change the economics of their situation.
Second, we have been extremely blessed by our sewing & selling work. It sounds silly, but sewing has been very very good to us. We started Liberty Jane Clothing in 2008 and it has grown into something we couldn’t have imagined. We are doing our best to continue to grow and learn, and we feel like we are just getting started. There are tons of new ventures on the horizon for us, and as they develop, we want to make sure we have a proper charity to invest in.
Third, we’ve gotta believe that there are lots of seamstresses and crafters in the U.S. (and throughout the developed world) that want to invest their charitable giving in a way that resonates with their personal passion – for sewing! There isn’t a charity that focuses exclusively on sewing & tailoring training in the way we believe it should be done. And so for us as donors, and any other likeminded donors – we’re going to make this a reality.
In the next few days we’ll have the website launched and begin working on the legal issues related to charitable giving. We know we cannot do this without you! And we are believing that as we put together the new organization, we will find new friends and partners that share our vision.
More soon,
Jason & Cinnamon