Bebe Ravi Plans to Hire More Women in Kenya to Play It Forward

FASHION BUILDING BLOCKS: As a former model, Siamanda Chege understands the global scope of fashion and is trying to use that knowledge to help orphaned children in her homeland of Kenya. Her nine-year-old label Bebe Ravi is sold in select specialty stores with more than 10 percent of all purchases benefiting the Patrick Chege Memorial Orphanage that she started in impoverished Nakuru, Kenya. The area has an unemployment rate as high as 40 percent and many of the women are widows due to the AIDS epidemic. Bebe Ravi pays its workers a living wage and provides them with free meals. In addition to helping these sole breadwinners with access to income, the company’s strategy aims to help propel the community forward. Based in New York, she travels back to Kenya seven to 10 times a year. Nine years into the primarily knitwear business, the founder has added a cut-and-sewn woven division, which are being made by younger women between the ages of 18 and their early 30s. Many of them are young mothers whose education stopped after attending secondary schools, Chege said. Guided by her and her design team, the new recruits have learned to cut patterns and other skills necessary for

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