How designs are created and how schools and education are supported.
Designs are created in school lessons
Who hasn’t heard the story of the butterfly whose single flap of its wings sets off a storm? The flap of Kipepeo’s wings (butterfly in Kiswahili) took place in 2008 at a primary school in Tanzania, and it came in the form of a child’s drawing given to volunteer Martin by 7-year-old Abigail.
Martin printed this drawing onto a T-shirt. What was intended as a personal memento had a far greater impact. Abigail’s drawing became the foundation of a unique enterprise that manufactures T-shirts on the east coast of Africa and supports school projects in Tanzania and Kenya.
Designs from everyday school life
The designs that find their way onto Kipepeo T-shirts are part of everyday school life. For example, when ‘Animals of the Serengeti’ are discussed in nature studies lessons, the children – aged between 4 and 14 – draw the animals of their homeland. As a result, the children’s exercise books contain small pencil drawings of elephants, giraffes or rhinos, labelled with the corresponding names in English and Swahili.
Authentic drawings without outside influence
Kipepeo Clothing has no influence on the creation of the drawings. There are no ‘requested designs’, nor are they altered in style.
The drawings are provided to Kipepeo Clothing by the children’s parents and teachers.
