Visitors chat with one of the Global Mamas organizers.
Global Mamas has an interesting business model, essentially pulling together a network of women-owned cottage sewing shops to fulfill bulk orders. The order comes in and is passed out to all the sewing shops, with each shop fulfilling a part of the order.
Inside the Global Mamas Shop
It's organized around the "Fair Trade" concept, specifying a set of labor practices they pledge to follow. They specialize in what you might call artisanal apparel, with African designs, particularly popular for very small children in general, and also with the adult diaspora.
African Styles at Global Mamas
Might be hard to organize cottage shops to produce things like uniforms, where each item of apparel must be precisely the same. There's more demand in the uniform market, for example, than in the artisanal market. Volumes are much higher. Which is more likely to lift poor women in Africa out of poverty? My money's on the latter, but I still like the Global Mamas idea.
