The Esther Project Shop

The Esther Project Shop is a non-profit, 501c3 organization dedicated to ending human trafficking in Kenya. We do this by partnering with women artisans throughout Kenya to provide them with a sustainable income by purchasing their goods and wares at fair market value, which are then marketed online at The Esther Project Shop. Funds raised through online sales are reinvested to purchase more goods and wares, thereby providing a sustainable income for our artisan partners. Volunteers would travel to Kenya on a quarterly basis to build and sustain relationships with women artisans and the communities in which they live, coordinate orders for future shipments, and bring donated items such as sanitary napkins and clothing to local orphanages and schools.

If we were selected as a winner, funding would allow us to expand our work into neighboring countries such as Uganda and Ethiopia. The fact is that many women from these countries have immigrated to Kenya only to find similar economic hardships. We would work to establish strong relationships with these women to support them in achieving a sustainable income through partnership with The Esther Project Shop and extend our reach into their home countries to decrease their risk of trafficking.

Most women in Kenya struggle to feed their families on less than $2 a day. As a consequence of this food and economic insecurity, over 50 children are trafficked per week in Kenya. When founder of The Esther Project Shop Stacy Hollingsworth realized this, she knew she had to do something.

The inability to secure a sustainable income is not for lack of craft or effort. Many of the women Stacy worked with had skills but nowhere to market their goods except at the open-air markets in town. They would go and sit all day, sell nothing, and then return home where the workload was heavy.
 
Stacy decided to create a place for women to market their products thereby providing them with a sustainable income. The Esther Project Shop was born.
 
Today, The Esther Project Shop supports 57 families, an orphanage for children rescued from sexual abuse and/or trafficking, and a school for girls. Our mission continues to grow as we establish relationships with new artisans across Kenya. The Esther Project Shop's long-term goal is to continue growing within and beyond Kenya's borders so that we can lift families out of economic insecurity and end human trafficking. 

Human trafficking is a global problem. It is a real problem in areas with high rates of poverty and low-income areas. This is especially true in developing countries such as Kenya where the average woman tries to feed her family on less than $2 a day (and many on much less than that). The lack of a sustainable income for the Kenyan women makes them and their children prime targets for traffickers. This is evidenced by the fact that there are over 50 children a week trafficked in Kenya. And the fact that this statistic doesn't include women makes it staggering. The one thing that is known about combatting trafficking is the ability to give someone a sustainable income reduces the risk of them or their family becoming a victim of human trafficking to almost 0%. So that is exactly what The Esther Project Shop is doing. We purchase goods upfront from the artisans at a fair trade price and then market those goods in order to purchase more products. By doing this we provide the women with a sustainable income that doesn't require them to market their products on commission, thus reducing the risk of trafficking.    

Prior to starting The Esther Project Shop, founder Stacy Hollingsworth researched other companies that did similar work, marketing products of artisans. What she discovered was that all of the companies were set up on a commission basis. Meaning the artisans made their products and gave them to the companies upfront without any compensation. The companies then try and sell the products. However, the artisans didn't receive any money until their products sold. For Stacy, this wasn't a good option because it not only took valuable resources from the artisans but also provided no sustainability to the income because there was no way to predict the amount of time between sales, much like the open-air markets where they were trying to market their own goods. Because of this, The Esther Project Shop decided to pay the artisans upfront for their products. By doing this they had "money in hand" to provide for their families. They don’t have to wait for something to sell to get money and try to figure out how to feed their families in the meantime. By providing them with this sustainable income the risk of them or their families being trafficked has been disrupted.

When setting up The Esther Project Shop our main objective was to provide a sustainable income to help end human trafficking. We knew we wanted to do that by giving the artisans a place to market their products at a fair trade price. So as we began looking at artisans we started with those that were at the highest risk of trafficking. We went to Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, and that is where many of our partnerships with artisans were found. We also looked at villages and tribes that had few resources and where women held a secondary place in society. We began to work with the women in these areas and ask them to partner with younger women/girls to teach them skills that would allow them to provide for themselves.  Over the last two years, our partnerships have grown from 5 women to over 57 families, an orphanage that rescues children who are abused and/or trafficked, and a school for girls. We have developed amazing relationships and friendships with our artisans not only because we give them the opportunity to have a sustainable income but most importantly because we believe in them and their skills.