Until recently, we had been searching to find new project bags to sell in the shop. We strive to stock Beehive with products that are of high quality, ethically made, and available in steady supply—and ideally made locally.

 

Thankfully, we met Suzanne Dane and learned about her social enterprises Moja Boutique and One Love Africa.

Read on for details about our beautiful new project bags that support women here in Victoria as well as in Tanzania. The story behind these bags is as wonderful as the bags are beautiful, and we know you will love them as much as we do.

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Women Supporting Women

 

This past May, store manager Kate and owner Julia popped over to AfriCaFest in nearby Centennial Square. They were drawn to a particular booth filled to the brim with colourful Kitenge fabric sewn into bags, pillows, scrunchies, and more. They started chatting with the proprietor, Suzanne Dane, and were delighted to hear about how her gorgeous products came to be and what they represent.

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Suzanne's business model helps women both in Tanzania and in Canada. Her society OneLoveAfrica trains Tanzanian women to run their own businesses in soap making, bead making, and Kitenge dying. She then buys their Kitenge fabric and brings it back to Canada. 

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That's not all though! Once the fabric arrives in Canada, Suzanne teaches local women how to sew and eventually how to run their own sewing or craft businesses. She focuses on hiring and training women who have barriers to entry into work, whether it be language barriers, immigration status, or physical or intellectual disabilities. Once again, this training and income improve the lives of these women and their families as well as benefiting their wider communities.

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All Suzanne's profits from these goods, which she sells under the name Moja Boutique, are put back into the OneLoveAfrica foundation.

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We love the positive impact that her work has for the women she trains and buys from, and we knew that we had an ideal solution to our project bag quandary. We needed beautiful bags, and Suzanne needed more venues for her products to enable her to hire and train more local sewists.

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Since May, we have been working with Suzanne on developing a line of project bags for our customers, which are available in four styles. From the vivid Kitenge patterns, to the expert sewing of the bags, to the thoughtful details included in each design, we are so proud of these bags and of what they represent to the women involved at every stage.