COVID-19 Update and Malawi Masks
Africa Bags founder, Holly Petitt, receives 2019 Joan King International Woman of Vision Award!
Mission Statement
Africa Bags is an empowerment project focused on fighting poverty in rural Malawi and reducing environmental waste in the United States and beyond. Hand crafted bags are produced by sewing groups using foot powered treadle sewing machines and sold around the world, providing a sustainable income to women at risk. Our outreach has expanded to include Africa Pads, empowering schoolgirls by providing them with reusable, hygienic pad kits, and Greening Malawi, fighting deforestation with a tree planting initiative and feeding vulnerable school children.
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“I bought my first bag from Africa Bags nearly 10 years ago when I was a freshman in college. Since then, this bag has traveled with me all throughout the USA and to other 7 countries (Canada, Iceland, Italy, France, Switzerland, Chile and Argentina). It has served as my go to bag for airplanes, a good catch all for last minute packing, and has held up during all of this. It did a lot of extensive travel with me for the four years as I worked at the Jane Goodall Institute as famed conservationist and chimpanzee expert Dr. Jane Goodall’s aid and lecture tour planner. It may be stained and discolored, have ratty handles and be a little stretched out, but it is still going strong. The best part is, every time I carry it I know that the purchase I made all those years ago had an impact on a group of people in Africa I have never met.” Jacob P, Washington DC, 2018