About Michelle
Michelle, an avid humanitarian stumbled across the remote rural community of Namelok, near the villages of Kibirashi and Gombero on her travels throughout Tanzania in 2011. With a vision to empower and equip the Maasai communities through education, Michelle is now a board member at Future Warriors Project, an Australian registered not-for-profit organisation.
Michelle’s aim is to raise the awareness of women and communities in developing countries through advocating the key issues to western societies all in the fight to eradicate poverty through education.
Michelle is the Founder of Wear Social and Born out of LOVE.
She is a Board Member & Marketing Director of Future Warriors Project and is leading a fundraising program to open a school for a remote rural Maasai community in Tanzania.
Future Warriors Project
Empowering young Maasai to build a strong, sustainable future for themselves, their families and their communities.
Can you give us a brief insight into who you are and what you do?
I’m an avid marketer with an innate drive to understand how people engage with brands, what motivates them and why they consumer. With over 14 years in the marketing arena working with some of Australia’s and global brands I stepped off the corporate roundabout in 2011 to embark on a bucket-list goal.
That life-long goal was Africa. As a child I had a burning desire to one day explore the adversity, challenges and improvised living of people outside my world. The foothill of Mt Kilimanjaro was my home for three and a half months where I dedicated my time as a volunteer teacher at a women’s empowerment school program. Driven to explore beyond the school environment I travelled and worked for a further three months with a remote rural Maasai community. Here I developed a love and passion for this eclectic east African tribe. In the vast open landscape of the Maasai community my heart opened, the ideas flowed and Wear Social was born. My quest was accomplished. The idea of giving back to communities was in motion.
The next step was engaging my first women’s group – Mapitu du Kuya and the range Born out of LOVE.
| ♥ MY JOURNEY TO AFRICA ♥ When I travelled to Africa earlier this year I experienced a life that is so vastly different to western society. Spending seven months in Tanzania opened my heart to the abundance of life and the humble ebb and flow that this country transcends. The people, the culture and the landscape are so rich, yet the poverty that is compounded through the lack of education, community services and government support is so prevalent it made my heart open and question what could I do to support.My home for the first 3 months in Tanzania was at the foothill of Mt Kilimanjaro where I worked as a teacher at a school offering free education. The women’s empowerment project “Give a Heart to Africa” educates and motivates women with little or no education and are struggling in a society that is predominately male centric.♥ MEETING A MAASAI ♥ Amongst many weekends traveling the vibrant and vast land of Tanzania, I discovered the diversity of communities each with a uniqueness centralized by the communities location, family structure/support, their beliefs and religion and the energy of community spirit. After meeting a Maasai Moran warrior (Kili) in Zanzibar I was drawn to and highly intrigued by his culture that was so distinctive in tradition, customs and dress. I wanted to learn about the Maasai way of life that is centred on a pastoralist’s lifestyle, an age system and how their once nomadic lifestyle has evolved over time to stabilize in one location called ‘home’. Further to this I was curious to understand how the modern world and climate change has influenced the culture, now seeing Maasai Morani warriors leaving home to find work to support their families.♥ MY JOURNEY TO A MAASAI COMMUNITY ♥ Kili, the Maasai Moran warrior invited me to his family & community at Namelok in Kibirashi – a remote rural community not a place that you would stumble across by chance. It is hours off the beaten track – definitely not on the tourist itinerary. Surrounded by majestic mountains, Kibirashi is positioned around 1200 meters above sea level and is home to approximately 7,000 people from Christian & Muslim backgrounds. A 9-hour bus journey with 60 percent spent manoeuvring dirt road pot holes, speeds at 30 kilometres per hour, all aboard a derelict bus with broken windows and people occupying every inch – standing and seated. The roads are inefficient and even a sedan vehicle would not withstand a road trip. I was living the real Africa. My journey took me past remote villages with children pointing, giggling and bellowing – “look Muzungu” (Swahili translation: “look white person!”)♥ LIVING A MASSAI LIFE ♥ I was in awe of Kibirashi, its people and the powerfully noble Maasai community that engaged with magnetism, integrity and wisdom. During my stay I lived like a Maasai: Slept in a Boma (a Maasai house), bathed in a tub under the moonlight, woke at sunrise for the daily ritual of milking cows with women and walked hours herding cattle to water greener pastures with Maasai Morani warriors and young boys. Traditionally the Maasai rely on their children to herd the livestock, leaving few children the chance for schooling. There are very few schools in remote rural areas and so for the children who do get a chance for education, they often have to walk up to 10 kilometres to get to and from school.♥ MAASAI COMMUNITY SPIRIT ♥ At Namelok 200 Maasai occupy the land and collectively as a community they are working hard to come together to identify the future of their children with the need for education and the impact that climate change of maintaining livestock. In 2010, the community formed a group called Vicarp (means: coming together) to table key issues of which education is at the top of their list. This determined community and the children captured my heart. During my stay the community was in planning stages to employee an ex teacher from the village, pooling together the little money they have to educate the children for 2-hour a day in a makeshift stick structure, the community had build as a church. I was intrigued to learn more about the school and their plans in the future.♥ ALLIANCE WITH LOCAL MAASAI NGO ♥ I met and later formed an alliance with Ereto Maasai Youth (EMAYO) a Kibirashi based not for profit organisation aiming to improve livelihoods in pastoral societies by working to harness the skills and knowledge that exist within communities. Its activities target education, water supply, human rights, and economic development because these are the issues that pastoralist’s communities are themselves raising. With a special focus on youth, children and women’s empowerment EMAYO is helping to promote a people free from poverty, living in harmony, with a recognized, productive and well governed sustainable livelihoods system. Together we are working on a project to build school classroom with facilities for children and adults at Namelok to provide a positive and educational environment for future generations. Together with EMAYO we conducted research and interviews to understand the needs, challenges, potential gaps and how we could collaboratively come together to make a difference in the Namelok Maasai Community. More on this project in a couple of months!♥ I will always treasure the time I’ve spent with the Maasai community and who have become my family and friends. Our shared experiences have taught me so much and now I feel privileged in sharing some of these stories with you ♥ Michelle |
Establishing the Women’s Group – Mapitu du Kuya
A community meeting was established with fifteen Namelok community women to discuss the idea of them forming a women’s group that would enable them to bead and create intricate jewelry. The women loved the idea, which allows them to bead at home in between their household chores and generate an income.
Open Dialogue, Community Engagement and Commitment
During the phase of meeting the women, announcing the opportunity and establishing the women’s group – the following questions were posed in an open meeting forum with an interpreter. The women speak little Swahili and no English.
What name would you like to call the women’s group and why?
I asked the group to think about a name that would identify the women’s group. A day later after consultation and a round table amongst the women they identified the name as: Mapiti du Kuya (Maa Language), which means – Let’s go ahead
Quoted by Joyce Turga
“We feel this name best represents the place in time where we (the group) is. Yesterday we did not have this opportunity. Today we are blessed and presented with an idea that will help us make some income to support the family. We see this as a moment to say to each other ‘Let’s go ahead’ and create a good life with this opportunity”.
They were very happy and appreciated this opportunity to not only create jewelry that they love to make, but the grander concept of being able to share their creations with the world and for people to understand their culture.
Given their roles within the community, women often work at home conducting day to day household chores, milking cows as the sun comes up, taking care of the children, gathering firewood, collecting water and preparing meal. Rarely do they have such an opportunity to work and create an income. This excited them.
What would you like to achieve with the income that is generated through the goods sold?
“We would really like to buy our own cows. In Maasai communities it is only the men that hold the responsibility to buy cows, sell cows and generate income for the family. Mapitu du Kuya has decided to buy and sell cows with the money in addition to what our husbands do. The money will not be a substitute for our husband’s role; it will support our children’s education. We as a community believe in education as the way for our children to have a better future. We have started to pay an ex teacher to come and teach the children in a makeshift structure. The money will help their education and ideas for the future”.
Where does the name ‘Wear Social’ come from?
Wear
To wear a beautiful garment, piece of jewelry or accessories
To wear something with love, with meaning and what it represents to you as an individual
Social
To have a sense of responsibility or concern for the problems and injustices of society
To support a socially inclusive environment and the development of humanity
Whether you advocate, promote or commit to purchasing a brand through Wear Social you are supporting not only the women that produce the items but you’ll be helping their families to engage in a livelihood that fosters empowerment, education and learning.
Wear Social is a melting pot of social-conscious consumers that desire to support by purchasing hand-made goods created by women from developing countries.
Each item is uniquely hand-made and no two items are the same. Yours is uniquely crafted.
Our Values
We are committed to respecting the human rights and social justice principles of fairness, equity, opportunity and dignity for all people.
By instilling these values we aim to ensure the satisfaction of basic needs; fair access to services and benefits in order to achieve human potential; and recognition of individual and community rights.
What made you decide to take your line in an ethical direction?
The idea and motivation for this brand is to support communities in developing countries. It’s not about generating an income to bring wealth to me as an individual. My career is full time in the marketing arena working as a Senior Marketing and Business Development Manager.
Wear Social is an ethical approach in harnessing the creativity and talent that exists in rural communities, then showcasing this to a market of social-conscious consumers. It’s raising the awareness about an ethical approach to support the artisans directly.
It’s like buying your fresh fruit and vegetables from a grower’s market on a Saturday morning. Wear Social is the environment to showcase artisans and producers.
Describe the person that would wear Wear Social
A social-conscious woman that desire to support and wear with love the unique and individually hand-made pieces created by women in communities from developing countries.
She is socially aware, understands and is conscious about the ethical issues outside of her own world. She wants to contribute to the broader community in whole. She is a networking and is driven by sharing her ideals and fashion finds with her friends and family. She’s adventurous, fun, dynamic and loves to travel to exotic and interesting places. She likes to push the boundaries and is not afraid to stand up for change. She’s an advocate and humanitarian at heart that expresses creativity in her sense of style.
She Wears Social Couture close to her heart and is proud to support women and communities at a grass roots level.
Do you think it is ever OK to buy clothes from high street stores?
I believe that every person has a choice to explore and live the life they choose. Across the globe, people are becoming far more conscious about how and what they consume. High street stores bring a unique mix to a desired market. The reality is the world continues to spin and it’s a matter of choice. I believe there is a heightened awareness about where, how and why products exist. Everything has a used by date. That’s what keeps us searching for new things to engage and stimulate our appetite. Fashion is a huge part of this desire.
What do you see for ‘Wear Social’ in the future?
A brand that fosters and enhances the skills of women in developing countries, that validates and raises the visibility of their creativity to a unique market in our society. It will be collaboration in sharing and exchanging the value of women and their skills to society through beautiful handcrafted pieces.
Check out the Wear Social range HERE.
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