Congolese born Kahindo Mateene is the founder and designer of Modahnik, a fashion house with a difference. According to Kahindo, a contestant in Season 12 of Project Runway, the MODAHNIK woman is a global nomad who views fashion as a creative expression of her individuality. She is classically feminine with an edge and dares to be bold.
What is happening in her home country of the Democratic Republic of Congo is no news. This Central African country has faced unrest for so many years. The humanitarian crisis in the DR Congo seems to get worse by the minute. The women and children being the ones hit the most. In order to help out her fellow women back home, Kahindo through Modahnik has partnered with MamaAfrica, an organisation that provides healing arts programs, education and economic opportunity for women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The partnership with MamAfrica is in making clutches from repurposed fabric from previous Modahnik collections. Kahindo sees this partnership helping create educational opportunities and thus strengthening economic opportunities for Congolese women.
By selling designs created by these women Kahindo hopes to empower these women so that they can be able to afford to take their children to school, feed their families and have a chance at a better life. This Kickstarter campaign which ends on the 16th of February is asking for donations to economically uplift the women and their families in the DR Congo. Unlike other donations, every doner to the campaign gets a gift of a clutch bag which is made by Congolese women in DRC.
Modahnik Spring Summer Collection http://www.modahnik.com
Asked about the campaign, Kahindo says, ”
If I can make a difference through my fashion business that cobimes my 2 passions, Fashon and Africa, then I have done a little bit to empower the women. My late father instilled the importance of a good education in me from when I was a young girl, and the Brigham Young quote, “‘You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation,” really resonates with me and I think is the key along with creating sustainable jobs, to poverty reduction in Congo and Africa as a whole.
Modahnik Spring Summer Collection http://modahnik.com
For more information and to support this great project, see the starter kit.