Through this experience, I know that I have a bright future. — Lydia (BaBa Blankets Producer)

Our African women’s collective first began sewing BaBa Blankets™ in June of 2000. We were brought together by E. Aminata Brown, an African-American woman who was a full-time resident in Ghana. When Aminata met us, we were a group of young women who shared the common experience of fleeing our rural towns and villages to become load-carriers, or “kaya yo", in Accra’s big city markets. Being a kaya yo meant long days of carrying heavy loads from dawn ‘til dusk and then sleeping under the market’s crowded pavilions at night. Aminata stumbled upon our makeshift market community through a brief encounter with a young kaya yo girl named Ayisha. It wasn’t long before Aminata realized that Ayisha was just one of thousands of kaya ye (pl.) living in the Agbogbloshie food market, Ghana’s enormous and rather chaotic agricultural trading place.

Aminata felt especially touched by the kaya ye and their experience in the market. She saw in them a deeply inspiring level of courage and determination to move forward in their lives. She admired their willingness to work hard for an opportunity when they might have easily begged for handouts instead. She felt called to do something...anything, that would better honor their efforts and their greater potential. So, Aminata and her vacationing father asked one after another, “If you could do one thing to change your life, what would that be?” Surprisingly, all of the girls gave the same answer. Each one said, “I would learn to sew.”

It seemed a wish too practical to simply push aside. Within months, a team of once load-carriers, now seamstresses-in-training, gathered and began stitching together the shared pieces of this dream. Agbogbloshie soon became the birthplace of BaBa Blankets™ and a life full of new opportunities for all.

Our mission is to create inspiring cultural works that provide sustainable income and well-deserved development opportunities for African women & girls.

BaBa Blankets™ has evolved a lot over time. After a three-year crash course in grassroots development, we took a rejuvenating hiatus from 2003-2006. Then, in July of 2006, we re-launched stronger and more exhilarated than ever. Since then, we opened our doors to an even more diverse group of economically disadvantaged Ghanaian women, both young and old, from all regions of the country and with varying levels of experience. Now thirteen women strong, we have moved outside of Agbogbloshie and into a much larger and more accommodating production studio on the outskirts of Accra. Here, we have plenty of space to spread out those huge Cal King Duvet covers, as well as bedrooms for all of us to call our own.

BaBa Blankets™ is a social enterprise. Instead of charity, we rely on proceeds from sales to fund our social development objectives. We feel that this model better reflects our entrepreneurial spirit, as well as our readiness to work in order to support ourselves and our families. Your purchases provide sustainable income and ongoing creative development opportunities for our collective. Through our trade, we continue to evolve our artistic skills and technical abilities, while also enriching an ever growing number of resources available to our collective.

While we continue to grow and evolve, we still hold dear our collective history. Our major social development objective is to help alleviate the kaya ye issue – the phenomenal migration of adolescent girls from the rural northern areas to the urban cities in search of menial jobs. We believe that the best way to do this is to help our young sisters stay in school instead of joining the workforce so long before their time. To this end, we established our SISTA Program which stands for Stay-In-School Tuition Assistance. Through this program we use proceeds from sales to help remarkable girls in Ghana’s rural northern region to complete their secondary school education. Our hope is to see these girls become fully literate, explore their true interests and graduate more equipped to manifest their dreams, as we continue to realize our own.

We ask only that you continue to support us through the purchase of BaBa Blankets™ and by spreading the word about our work. In return, we promise to continue making beautiful products that make a real difference in each other’s lives.

P.S. You are always welcome to visit us in our Accra studio! Please go to the OutReach page for more information

From our hearts to yours, we thank you for your support!