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Consumers are more interested in the impact of their purchases now than they were before Covid-19,” Roberta Ventura said during a phone call. It was 7 years ago that Roberta founded the ethical fashion brand, SEP Jordan. Through her dedication to empower refugees, she has watched the brand grow from 20 to 500 refugee artists. She’s also noticed consumers’ focus turn farther away from fast fashion towards brands making positive and social impacts. Part of this she says is from our shared experiences with Covid-19 as ‘we go through this together’.
Our brand promise is mutual happiness- between the embroiderer and the customer.
A sense of community is what Roberta is creating when she first collaborated with refugee camps to create SEP Jordan’s first collection. “I saw that the quality of life was deteriorating despite all of the aid,” she told me. “Aid alone was never going to solve the problem and can create other problems- dependency and a loss of individuality”. Today, those 500 artists use their embroidery skills to create SEP products and financially empower their lives while continuing the art and heritage from their region. “Every product is signed by the person who embroidered it. So, that people no longer see her as a refugee receiving a handout,” Roberta shared with me her company’s main positive. “They see her as a woman who does beautiful work.”
Why is Jordan your chosen site for refugee camps?
Jordan is a politically stable country, where a foreigner can set up a business and feel assured that rule of law will always protect his/her work. Jordan is also a country where one in three inhabitants is a refugee. Refugees face hardships on many different levels. I find it rather telling, that the most commonly diagnosed illness in refugee camps is clinical depression. The UNHCR says that currently if you are a refugee, you would expect to be one for an average duration of 17 years… some of our colleagues have been refugees since 1967.
Losing your home and your country has profound implications on the individual and on the community; it leaves its mark for generations. If I could summarize what I think is one of the most tangible and painful consequences of being a refugee, it is to become a “number”, to become what your “label” says you are and to lose your humanity, your individuality.
How do you reach out to the artisans that you work with?
Since the day we started operations in 2014, we have been inundated by requests to work with us. The ladies who approach our workshop in Jerash camp [ a refugee camp in Jordan] are already embroiderers, but only after 2 months’ training, their work up to the highest international standards. Once they pass the test at the SEP-Tamari Foundation Academy, they are eligible to start working on SEP creations.
Do you only work with embroiders or other artisans?
Embroidery is really our specialization. If is a technique which has therapeutic value, allowing the artist to express herself and more importantly, it is a technique which has been passed down through generations, therefore it represents the artists’ heritage. To preserve, respect and to celebrate one’s heritage is particularly important, when one has been uprooted from one’s country, possibly years or decades ago.
Is there one story of a refugee artist that you’re willing to share with readers?
Each of the SEP Artists has an incredible story to tell; they are all stories of resilience, courage, strength as they face incredible and constant tribulations, yet always manage to find solutions and move on. Haleema is a great embroidery artists and human being: generous, witty, positive, strong. Whenever she is at the SEP workshop, she brings an incredible positive energy. She is one of the few artists, who does not mind being seen in photos, hence she often appears on our website and in our social media :)
How do you promote the health and wellness for the artisans that you collaborate with?
The whole production method is designed around the artist: she is free to work from home and just come to the workshop for regular quality control checks.The artist is paid by the piece, irrespective of the time needed to complete her creation. This allows for her to manage her own time, around her personal circumstances
We have been providing regular eye checks and found that many artists needed prescription glasses. We provide everything she needs to work, from the fabric to the needle and thread and more importantly, SEP takes on the inventory risk and she is paid as soon as her piece passes the final quality control check. The artists often ask for specific courses, which we have been organizing at the Tamari Academy in Jerash camp, such as domestic violence, nutrition, first aid. We will launch in the coming months a cultural center, situated 20 meters from our workshop, where the SEP artists will be able to drop off their pre-school kids: this will allow them more time to focus on themselves and their work.
What clean fabrics and dyes do you use?
All our creations, except for the keffiyeh, are made of natural fabrics. We love natural, un-dyed linen, which we use for home as well as for fashion accessories. When our linen or cashmere fabrics are dyed, we ask from our suppliers that they confirm in writing that they do not use any harmful chemical coloring substance. The keffiyeh is the traditional Middle Eastern headscarf, which is widely used in the desert, to protect from sun rays during the day and to protect from lower temperatures in the night. Our supplier, one of the last surviving local makers of keffiyeh, is a Jordanian textile engineer, who has designed the right mix between poly and acrylic yarns, which makes the scarf last many years and always protects the owner from both heat and cold.
What are SEP’s future sustainable goals?
Most of our work is carried out by hand – the whole idea is to create unique pieces, which machines would not be able to replicate. This means we on use as little electricity as possible and plan on continue doing so. We gather rainwater and have installed a water filter on our tap, to be able to offer drinking water to the artists at all times.
We are planning to install a solar panel to power the cultural center, although it is not a widely used technology at the camp and we have a focus on using the same materials as everyone else, so that all maintenance can be carried out by camp personnel and create indirect work.
The SEP creations are wrapped in cotton bags. We promote recycling at the workshop – generally, camp residents are used to recycling wherever possible. In the future, we would like to move towards organic cotton for our packaging and rely more and more on solar energy at the camp.
How are you sustainable in your everyday life?
When it comes to environment, I use public transport, we minimize and sort all household waste, I upcycle and re-use my clothes for as long as possible and for all household puchases, we give priority to brands which have a positive impact on society or the planet.
