Charlotte
1. What is your role at Ndara?
I'm the founder and the manager. I am involved with all aspects of what Ndara is, but where I focus my energy is mostly training the Ndara team. This means training in quality control, and general management such as how to do inventory, invoices, manage orders etc, but also leadership and teambuilding. I am also responsible for product development.
2. Why did you set up a company mainly focusing on female artisans?
Women are the backbone of society in the Central African Republic, in Africa in general, and actually, in most countries in the world. If you want to make a durable difference in communities you need to invest in women. They always invest back into their families and communities. Growing up here I saw how powerless girls are in planning their future, they usually become mothers at an extremely young age. They don't get education, they can't get a job so they become completely dependent on men. I wanted to give them an opportunity to shift this, for the women to become the main breadwinners of their families and communities.
3. What are your future hopes of Ndara?
I want it to be a business that the Ndara artisans can manage themselves. Because this would mean that they don’t need to depend on anyone. To achieve this doesn't mean to keep growing as much as we can, but instead it means to find the sweet spot where we can serve as many customers as possible whilst making sure we are setting up the business in such a way that the women can run it themselves with their capacities.