"An opportunity to flourish does not start with a handout, it starts with a job.” These words are spoken over the images of a young woman working at a sewing table inside a small workspace in Lima, Peru. The video above, hosted up on the Krochet Kids International website, serves as an introduction into an organization focused on empowering women to rise above poverty.
Krochet Kids International is a nonprofit organization founded by three men from Spokane, Washington with a vision to create sustainable economic development programs that support holistic growth of individuals and communities living in poverty. The charities’ three founders, Kohl Crecelius, Stewart Ramsey and Travis Hartanov started by crocheting ski hats for their friends and family.
“We were encouraged to teach people in developing countries how to crochet as a means of breaking the cycle of poverty,” Crecelius explains on the nonprofit's site. “At first, I thought the world needed something more drastic than crochet, something much more profound. That was until Stewart returned home after a summer spent in Uganda."
A fashion brand with a social mission
After witnessing extreme poverty in developing nations during volunteer trips, the trio decided to teach crocheting to people in impoverished countries. After traveling to Uganda to meet with a group of women to teach them how to crochet, the trio founded Krochet Kids International, which would sell the handcrafted hats to the United States and, in turn, use proceeds to provide fair wages, training and development courses to educate women.