Samantha Milne ’15 Channels Passion for Fashion into Helping Ethiopian Women Thrive

Like many of her peers, Samantha Milne '15 is a big fan of fashion. But how many of her peers have channeled that particular passion into helping women in Africa create new and better lives for themselves?

 

Not many, to be sure.

 

This summer, Milne became the first high school student to serve as a campus representative for Live FashionABLE, an organization committed to long-term solutions to fighting poverty and creating opportunities for vulnerable women. The company's tagline: You are ABLE to provide opportunities, and women are ABLE to have a new choice.

 

"The organization is primarily working in villages and is training women to make hand-woven scarves and leather products," Milne explained. "The goal of the organization is to ensure that the women are supporting themselves and are not relying on charity for support."

 

The organization was born when founder Barrett Ward--then living in Ethiopia and working with an activism group called Mocha Club--came across Women at Risk, a group that seeks to help women who have resorted to exploiting themselves for a living. Ward discovered that gainful employment was tantamount to keeping these women off the streets--and thus, Live FashionABLE was born.

 

Milne said that each scarf created within the program comes with a handwritten note explaining how the money received from the purchase will benefit a particular woman and her family. One hundred percent of the proceeds from scarf sales goes directly back to the charity and into the hands of the women who created the fashionable pieces.

 

"I love that the organization is not just giving the villages money to support themselves," Milne said. "Instead, it is teaching these women a skill that they are able to use to train others in their village, so they can work to overcome poverty."

 

Immediately upon discovering the organization, Milne was eager for a way to become involved. She discovered the campus rep program, the goal of which is spreading the word about Live FashionABLE's mission and gathering support in order to empower the women. Milne discovered that generally, admission to the student rep program is restricted to college students--but she decided to apply anyway.

 

Earlier this summer, Milne filmed a short YouTube video explaining her passion for fashion and for Live FashionABLE (you can see it here), and after submitting an extensive application and participating in phone interviews and Google video chat interviews, her leap of faith paid off: Not only was she selected as one of eight reps from a pool of over 200 applicants, but she was selected as the first-ever high school campus rep.

 

Over the past two months, Milne has been meeting with the Live FashionABLE brass via conference calls and video chats as they formulate ways in which the company's message can be spread to her peers and throughout the Rivers community.

 

"I feel like I have so much to learn," Milne said, “but I feel so lucky to be a part of such an impactful organization."