BY STEPHANIE KASHETA
The Nomi Network is a nonprofit that creates economic opportunities for survivors and women at risk of human trafficking. Founded in 2009, the company strives to chip away at the nearly $99 billion worldwide human trafficking industry by providing sustainable support to its victims through empowerment. Nomi has helped create hundreds of jobs and foster entrepreneurs with the tools to break the cycle of poverty and exploitation ravaging their villages. The organization provides entrepreneurial, leadership and technical skills to ensure the quality of the products they produce and uses modern marketing techniques to drastically increase their employees’ access to the marketplace.
The network boasts a one-on-one mentorship program with experienced designers and product development experts in the fashion industry. The pupils receive quality control training and benefits from a specialized employee readiness curriculum designed for women who are illiterate and/or have no job experience. The program also helps to bolster the self-confidence, motivation and leadership skills of its students. Women who are in training are able to earn income from every product that they make, which equals roughly 200-250 percent above what the average daily wage would be in their regions.
In 2014, the Nomi Network helped create and sustain nearly 350 jobs in Cambodia and India in addition to providing a support network that allowed 70 children to attend school. They currently serve over 400 women through vocational and leadership training and job creation. In Bihar, the poorest state in India, the company has witnessed a 60 percent reduction in child marriage and a large increase in school enrollment.
Out of the nearly 32 million slaves worldwide about 50 percent live in India. By working in tandem with local rehabilitation homes, social enterprises and other NGOs in Cambodia in India, they have helped reduce the vulnerability of women in the most impoverished regions by transforming them into women who not only have reclaimed complete control over their bodies, but have done so as their own bosses.
Nomi has partnered with Freeset, Apne Aap, International Justice Mission, NIEA, StopStart, Rapha House, Peace Handicraft, Sauk Saum, NYEMO, to teach the next generation of fashion designers how to incorporate slave-free elements into their supply chain. By training these entrepreneurs, they are helping to transform some of the poorest places in the world into hotbeds of educated survivors with the knowledge and experience to advance training throughout the world.
There are several different ways that you can take action and aid Nomi’s cause: you can purchase bags, accessories and apparel online, you can host a bag party, you can donate, you can raise money through campaigns by trainees, you can volunteer or (for the time crunched) merely spread the word on social media. Determine which outlet is right for you and then get out and do your part to end human trafficking. Every bit helps.
Visit Nomi Network and Buy Her Bag Not Her Body to learn more.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Stephanie Kasheta is a graduate of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where she majored in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. She is currently finishing up her MFA in Fiction at Emerson College in Boston. She is a Las Vegas native who recently relocated to Cape Cod with her husband, a veteran of the US Air Force and father to an eight-year old future writer named Olivia. She is an assistant/acquiring editor to Jacquelyn Mitchard at Merit Press and on Saturdays can be found blowing glass at the Sandwich Glass Museum. Follow her on Twitter