KISANY… a beautiful story of women and meetings

It all began in 2002 in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While the region was devastated by ethnic conflicts, the Nyiragongo volcano erupted and wiped out a third of the city of Goma in a few hours. 300,000 people have to flee, taking only what they have on their backs…
Seven embroiderers: Anne-Marie, Kavé, Espé, Jeanette, Marianne, Emma and Vicky, seven courageous women as one should be in Africa, have nothing left but decide to raise their heads. Their priority is to rebuild the atelier where they used to work with Theodore, a talented tailor and father of a very large family.

They knocked on the door of Nicole, project coordinator of the Belgian non-profit organisation “En avant les enfants”, who lives in Goma, and unknowingly initiated the story of KISANY.
Touched by their precariousness, Nicole decides to set up a small atelier with the help of two friends, Isabelle Degryse and Manuela del Marmol. Together, they want to make a difference and allow these courageous women to regain their dignity. They started a small collection which was then called KILA SIKU. In Swahili KILA SIKU means “every day”. Every day the women regain hope by embroidering more items and every day they take better care of their families.

In 1995, one year after the Rwandan genocide, Monique Mineur created the Atelier Aprohade in KIGALI, managed by Agnes, to help Rwandan women, victims of the genocide or handicapped like her, to rebuild themselves and ensure the well-being of their families.
In 2004, Monique Mineur, who was already very old, asked the three founders of KILA SIKU to look for outlets for the Atelier Aprohade and this new collaboration enabled the collection of household linen to be expanded.

Thanks to the tenacity of the founders and a good dozen volunteers, KILA SIKU is becoming more and more known in Europe and the Atelier Agape in Goma can hire new embroiderers and aim for autonomy. It is necessary to get organised in order to respond to orders, to manage the stocks of fabrics, the work of the team and the management of salaries, and some embroiderers are proving to be real leaders.

Unfortunately, around Goma, the conflicts do not stop and the population is getting poorer and poorer. KILA SIKU welcomes more and more destitute mothers who come forward and trains them in embroidery and sewing.

A few years later, the brand had to be protected and KILA SIKU became KISANY, the official brand of this beautiful women’s adventure.

KISANY’s aim in the two ateliers is to give the embroiderers back their confidence and, above all, to make them proud of their work. Thanks to the handling of needles, these women can earn a salary and provide for their families.

In 2012, KISANY met SISLEY in Paris, and thanks to the actions set up, the cosmetics brand offered to finance various training courses for the women. The programme includes literacy, preventive health, management of daily finances, women’s rights and, of course, advanced embroidery and sewing. These are all skills that we take for granted in our own countries, but which are valuable assets in those parts of the world where women are often abused and undered. The Sisley d’Ornano Foundation has also financed the schooling of the embroiderers’ children for several years.
Today, within KISANY, more than 200 people have had access to this training programme and shared their knowledge with their families. Sisley’s help has been decisive in the history of KISANY by bringing to light the work of KISANY and has allowed this “Women’s School” to spread to other target groups of the non-profit organisation En Avant Les Enfants, within which KILA SIKU was created, thus offering training in market gardening and agro-ecology to around one hundred girl-mothers.

Since 2018, in a desire to perpetuate the project and to ensure better growth, KISANY has become a social enterprise and a young team has been recruited to accelerate and ensure the growth of the enterprise.
Still supported by a team of volunteers who handle sales and logistics, the project now has over 125 direct beneficiaries and has helped over a thousand people build a better life.

In 2022, we are proud to have given 24,478 days of work to 42 artisans in Goma and 73 artisans in Kigali through orders, custom projects and our collections, creating over 14,700 pieces. This is thanks to each of your purchases!