About Ki Kati
Ki Kati is an initiative that supports women tailors of Nakawa Market in Kampala, Uganda. Although we are not are registered charity or not-for-profit organisation, we still give all of our profits to the groups that we support. We design beautiful bags and aprons from traditional African fabric and always ensure that 100% of profits go to the tailors who hand make them.
At Ki Kati, we believe that fair trade is only just the beginning. The real difference can be made by giving people training in financial skills and entrepreneurial ship so they can make lasting improvement to their businesses and the lives of their families.
When you buy a Ki Kati bag, you receive a photo and the life story of the tailor who hand made it, so you know exactly where your money goes.
These tailors have all been paid a fair price for hand-sewing the bags and a further 100% of profits are set aside for help improve the personal finance of them and their families. We provide training in business management and household budgeting to ensure that their newly increased income has a sustainable impact on their lives.
Our Aim
Our aim is to support people by providing business skills and new business opportunities. By connecting people in the developing world with those of us lucky enough to have been born in the west, we are opening up markets that would be previously inaccessible to them.
We believe that small business support is the most powerful tool in allowing the poor to lift themselves out of poverty while affording them the dignity of growing their own business.
We came up with some designs for cute and functional bags and found some beautiful wax printed Congolese cotton fabrics. The tailors all worked hard to perfect each design while we worked on a simple course of business skills, household budgeting and basic financial management to help them make a lasting difference to their lives. While fair trade is a good starting point, Ki Kati takes this a stage further by empowering the tailors with the necessary skills to improve their businesses and allow them to better manage their household finances.
Our Range - click an image to see our range
Tote bags Shoulder bags Blousy bags Small things Great Big bags Aprons Paper bead jewellery
About us
Ki Kati was founded by me, Genevieve Williams. I am an Australian who spends time each year in Uganda with my husband, Adam. We first came her to volunteer on the Kiva Fellowship program. We loved the country so much that we decided to spend time here each year and set up our own initiatives. Although I’m originally a dentist, I really enjoy sewing and now spend my time designing the Ki Kati bags. Adam is a chartered accountant and is responsible for planning and implementing the financial & business skills training for the tailors. Together we hope that we can make a real and sustainable difference to the lives of the tailors and their families.
Meet the tailors - click a photo to read their story
Tophy
Sarah
Monica
Lilian
Joyce
Charmain
Annet
Joanne
Adrine
Our Story
This venture came about when we moved to Kampala to volunteer as Kiva Fellows. Nakawa Market was where we’d buy our fruit and vegetables. While wandering around the busy market, we’d pass by a row of tailors sitting under a shelter behind their old fashioned foot treadle sewing machines. Like most Ugandans, they were always so friendly and quick to smile and say hello. “Ki kati!” they’d call out in Luganda, and wave as we walked by. But it wasn’t until we’d been living in Kampala for five or six weeks that we really spoke with the tailors. We needed a zip repaired on a bag, so we headed straight for the Nakawa tailors. The woman we spoke to was one of the kindest and most gentle people we have ever met. Her name was Tophy. She laughed her way through our first encounter and mended the zip perfectly.
In time, we came to know this group of tailors and learn about their lives. Each one has suffered such hardship and loss but still manages to laugh and smile and live life to the fullest. They work six days a week, just to get by. None of them have the comfort of electricity or running water in their homes. Saving up for a holiday is an unimagined luxury. Life is expensive in Uganda, with school fees and medical bills being most peoples’ biggest cost. We felt strongly that these wonderful people really deserved better.
So we decided that, although we were already volunteering in Uganda, we could still find something that could help this group of hard-working men and women. We drew on our experience as Kiva Fellows to come up with a business that was sustainable and would provide the tailors with so much more than just a donation.
While volunteering with Kiva, we met hundreds of small business people who were seeking loans. We spoke to them at length about their businesses and found that what they really needed was some basic training and not just access to money. Mostly, the loans merely trapped them in a cycle of debt without changing their lives in a meaningful way. So we knew that the way to improve the lives of disadvantaged Ugandans was by giving them a hand up, not a hand out. We hope that we can create an enduring change, not only for this hard working group of tailors, but for their families and their community as a whole.
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Updated 31 August 2011
