E. Aminata Brown, creator of BaBa Blankets, sits on bedding created by a collective that teaches underprivileged women in Ghana to sew. Brown sells the items in her New Orleans shop, Baba Blankets & Crafts. (Thaisi H. Da Silva/NYT Institute)

While working in Ghana in 1999, E. Aminata Brown came across a community of young girls working as load carriers, or “kaya yo.” These girls, most of them adolescents, had dropped out of school to earn money for their families. They worked from dawn to dusk — unloading trucks and carrying cargo for the shops in the local market, sometimes making less than $1 a day.

“I was really inspired by their determination, commitment to their own growth and what they were giving of themselves in order to move forward and I wanted to do something to support them,” said Brown, 38.

Brown asked them, if they could do one thing to change their lives what it would be. They all said they wanted to learn to sew.

In 2000, Brown created BaBa Blankets, named for an African term that means respect. The collective teaches Ghanian women from economically disadvantaged backgrounds how to sew. The women create bedding, dining accessories, clothes, bags and hats that are then sold in the U.S.

Brown suspended the business in 2003 to attend graduate school and relaunched BaBa Blankets in 2006. Initially, the products were sold only at special events and festivals, but after visiting New Orleans in 2007, Brown moved there and opened a store in the Garden District in 2008. The items are also sold on the BaBa Blankets website.

“It reminded me so much of Ghana. It’s a place where people are still at the center of life,” said Brown, a Detroit native. “I really yearned, after living in Ghana, to live in a place that felt very community-oriented. I felt more than anything else that New Orleans was a place that would immediately get and support BaBa Blankets. I just feel like I’m in the perfect place to incubate this enterprise.”

Today, six women work and live in the BaBa Blankets production studio in Ghana. Brown describes the effort as a social enterprise because it not only provides sustainable income for women in poor rural communities, but also allows them to learn the artistic and technical skills to become entrepreneurs. The women in the collective can make up to $400 a month, depending on how many products are sold, in a country where the poorest 20 percent earn the equivalent of $69 a year.

Handmade jewelry is sold in New Orleans shop, BaBa Blankets & Crafts. The store is owned by E. Aminata Brown, creator of collective that works with underprivileged women. (Thaisi H. Da Silva/NYT Institute)

“We’re really focusing on developing skills, entrepreneurial and technical skills that would enable women to support themselves and sustain themselves,” said Brown. “They’ve become the ones who are supporting their siblings and giving money to their parents to see them through their tough times.”

Brown said the jobs at BaBa Blankets have given the women in the collective a sense of pride.

“They are so proud of themselves,” she said. “The way that they carry themselves, the way that they present themselves to the world, there’s a real inner strength.”

Two years ago, Brown established the Stay-in-School Tuition Assistance (SISTA) program, in which a percent of profits from BaBa Blankets go to tuition for 25 girls in secondary school in Ghana. The goal, she said, is to prevent girls from dropping out of school to become load carriers, which she believes sets them on a road toward marginalization. Instead, she wants to provide them with education beyond middle school level.

“This is the level which girls are really becoming literate to a degree where they would be able to function in society,” said Brown. “Without graduating from high school, they really are not equipped to participate in mainstream society.”

Brown, who visits Ghana several times a year, said the effort can be a challenge at times, especially financially. She manages product design, production, marketing and distribution with two employees and a contractor who help with administrative work and public relations.

The economic downturn has also had an impact, but Brown, a former corporate consultant, says it’s worth it.

“It’s such a rich experience for me. It’s work that feeds my soul,” said Brown. “It’s not something that has made me a rich person by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a lot of work and it’s very challenging to hold together financially. But the wealth of it, the richness of it, is in a very different form and so that’s why I get up every day and do it.”

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