It is with immense gratitude that we get to incorporate The Sewing Cafe and MasiCorp initiatives into our mission and vision. Robyn one of two founders of Abel Wear here to tell you more about our community partners who we hope to support as much as we can with proceeds from our sales!
MasiCorp is a larger organization that supports many social enterprises. These adult programs include The Sewing Cafe for sewing training and work, computer literacy training, MasiSports which is a sports integrated education program, and a bakery! This work takes place in Masiphumelele (Ma-see-foo-ma-lay-lay or Masi for short)
First known as Site 5, the township was renamed Masiphumelele by its residents, which is a Xhosa word meaning "let us succeed" and home to 30-50,000 people.
Walking around the campus of MasiCorp my friend who worked for parliament in Cape Town, commented, "There's so much hope here". That's exactly the feeling and the energy in and throughout the people and place of MasiCorp. So much so, that I have been visiting these organizations since 2017. When I'm there, I feel like this is the way we should organize: businesses built for the benefits of the people and communities; not for "infinite growth".
The Sewing Cafe is in many ways like Abel Wear. They do small batch manufacturing for local brands and designers as well as having their own clothing line in order to sustain their efforts to support the people and community of Masi.
The Sewing Cafe is a dream team and it’s extremely inspiring to know that their programs are working! They are growing and they are sustainably able to continue their business model while empowering the community they exist to support!
We are committed to doing whatever we can with whatever we have to nurture the relationships we've built both, in North Vancouver with our local sewing team and for our friends at MasiCorp and The Sewing Cafe! We look forward to explaining this commitment in more detail in the near future.