Our serial entrepreneur Gjergji is setting up a textile social business to create over 130 better paying jobs with exceptional working conditions for vulnerable women in Albania. Located in an area with some of the highest unemployment rates in Albania, Gjergji’s social business reinvests all profits to create much-needed fair jobs in the region. You can now support him on KIVA’s crowd-lending platform by lending any amount to his social business, starting with as little as 25 USD.
“The concept of a business that operates with the one goal to create profits for its owners is out-fashioned. Building a business that will contribute to a community in need, providing employment for vulnerable women and giving them the opportunity to provide revenues for their families – that is my personal goal”- Gjergji Gjika in Monitor.al, 2012
The company will not only create income-opportunities for women. It is also a commitment towards a healthy working environment, state of the art machinery and training opportunities for employees. We have seen it over and over again in the past: Invest in the women and you invest in their families. Gjergji has already supported over 20 garment factories in Albania and has been a leading advocate of better working conditions in the Garment Industry in Albania.
With the first clients already lined up to order, your support to Gjergii will help his social business grow and provide livelihoods for disadvantaged women.
Since the COVID-19 crisis began in January this year, we at Yunus Social Business have been acutely aware of the potential threat it poses to the populations we support. While governments in wealthy European countries have been subsidising employee salaries, this has not been the case for the emerging countries in which our portfolio Social Businesses operate.
Imagine that when you cook a meal, your only means of doing so is by lighting an open fire inside your kitchen. Thick plumes of black smoke fill the room where you and your family cook and eat every evening. Since this is your only means of cooking, you pay significant amounts every year to buy the fuel for it.
Yunus Social Business’s ‘Social Business Accelerators’ help corporates connect to exciting social entrepreneurs and engage their employees in unique mentoring experiences for social change.