Woodbridge woman sharing business expertise in Tanzania

Yorkregion.com
April 8, 2016
By Tim Kelly

A 26-year-old Woodbridge woman is spending the next few months in Tanzania, Africa, using her expertise as a chartered accountant to help young people and women reach their full potential.

Natalie Festa, a graduate of the Schulich School of Business at York University and a former student at Father Bressani Catholic High School, is working for Kauli, an organization that Festa says, “combines my passions of social businesses, the empowerment of women, and fashion into a very special niche that lights up my soul and calls me to contribute.”

She arrived in Moshi, Tanzania, in February and has plans to stay until June, acting as the interim managing director of Kauli, a company that makes bags and purses. She said Moshi is a “relatively developed town with lots of expatriots volunteering. It has a variety of restaurants, markets and shops.

“The people I work with on a daily basis are all local Tanzanians and are extremely welcoming and so talented in their craft. I have taken weekend trips to more remote villages in Tanzania and recently stayed at a house where water is fetched from a well once a week,” Festa said.

Festa explained that Kauli employs Tanzanian women at an above-market salary to design and manufacture purses and bags by hand using native textiles and leathers. She said, “their motto is that the only thing more beautiful than a Kauli bag is the lady who made it. Kauli’s mission is to teach their women invaluable entrepreneurial skills and to provide them the opportunity to in-turn give back to their communities.”

Festa is volunteering with Kauli, “to help girls and youth everywhere feel confident to have a voice - to know their opinion carries value, to let their voices be heard and to chase their dreams. I hope I can help people develop their voice.”

She also said that marketing is a big goal of hers and that she would like to get Kauli bags and purses into shops worldwide.

To check out the bags and purses, visit kauli.co