Three Baylor University students want to make and sell $500 handbags to pass an entrepreneurship course. But more importantly, they envision providing work for former prostitutes in the African nation of Rwanda, allowing them to earn a decent living.
Using $5,000 in seed money, Christen Batson, Meredith Noles and Jeffrey Sholden, all 21 years old, have launched a company called kith+kin that will market women’s hand-stitched bags online and eventually in boutiques, starting on the East and West coasts.
Starting a business is required of students who take the challenging Accelerated Ventures course at Baylor.
“Jeffrey is passionate about Africa. I’m passionate about building relationships. And Meredith is passionate about fashion. That’s why we teamed up,” said Christen Batson, a Baylor senior and Lorena High School graduate who will oversee sales and marketing.
Sholden, a senior from the Dallas suburb of Garland, visited the largest city in Rwanda — Kagali — in May and June on a Baylor-sponsored program for students wanting to travel and study abroad.
He met a pastor detemined to help desperate women who sold their bodies to survive and as a result some were infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS.
“No one else would talk to them,” he said. “A few gave their lives to Jesus, but in a month or two, they were back on the street. They had no way to support themselves.”
Touched by the experience, Sholden began to monitor the progress of the ministry and vowed to make a difference.
With $5,000 from the Baylor Angel Network, a group of investors who support start-up ventures with the intent of becoming stakeholders, he and his partners prepared the necessary legal documents to proceed with kith+kin.
They also began to craft a website and devise a market strategy, and arranged for a Texas-based source of leather and other materials to make shipments to Kagali.
Sewing machines
A church in the capital city agreed to provide a small air-conditioned work environment that included a several sewing machines.
“We now have seven women employed and a male tailor supervises the work,” Sholden said. “In a year, we would love to be shipping at least 100 bags a month and have employed all 40 women available to us (through the ministry), and be looking for more.”
As for his starting seven employees, he said, “They will move from poverty to the upper middle-class of Rwanda by making one bag a day.”
Sholden said the women, some of whom cannot work full-time because of family obligations, fully make one handbag before moving to another.
The least expensive products will retail for $500 to $700. Some could carry significantly higher prices.
Meanwhile, company overhead in Waco is practically nonexistent, Sholden said with a laugh.
“Our business address is my apartment,” he said.
Meredith Noles, a senior graphics design major from Fort Worth, has the task of giving the bags an attractive look.
“The creative process starts with sketching, formulating ideas on paper,” she said. “I make samples at home, and send them off to be produced.”
She said she has confidence in her own ability, but pursues input from colleagues and potential customers.
“I will graduate in 2014, and if this doesn’t work, we will have to shut it down and move on,” Noles said. “But we’re doing everything possible to make it a success. We want to shine a light on Baylor and Waco. We also keep in mind that these ladies need a job or they will have to revert back to their prior profession.”
On the Web
Batson, the team’s sales and marketing leader, served a summer internship in Nashville, Tenn., selling educational products door-to-door. She said she hopes to flood bloggers on fashion-related websites with information about the company, its products and the cause it champions.
“Our website will have lots of photography. We want to keep people engaged, keep them involved. And we want feedback. We want customers to become part of the story,” Batson said. “Above all, we want them to know about these women.”
The website, scheduled to launch Sunday, is at www. kithkinandco.com[1] .
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