利比里亞服裝新城見聞

????利比里亞蒙羅維亞市（Monrovia）--那一瞬間，我竟然忘了我們驅車前往的目的地。映入眼簾的是一條單車道的街道，人頭攢動，汽車不得不排成一列，小心翼翼地徐徐前行。車輛不斷擠占著街道上有限的步行空間，然而老老少少全然不顧，穿梭于車輛之間，忙于清晨的生計。光著身子的嬰兒在一小桶臟水中沐浴，女人們將籃子高高頂在頭上，兜售貨品；男人們背負著沉重的物資---才不過早上8點，每個人都已經忙開了。人群盡頭是一排排望不到邊際的迷你錫棚屋，一間擠著一間，構成了成千上萬人的居所。我們拐過一個街角，停在了視野中唯一一座水泥建筑的前面。

????我的一個同伴告訴我，“接下來幾天這兒就是我們的活動主場”。我們正處在利比里亞蒙羅維亞市West Point的中心地帶，貧民窟區域，而且可以說是西非人口密度最大的貧民窟區域。我是特意前來參觀利比里亞婦女縫紉項目【the Liberian Women's Sewing Project（LWSP）】的。這家新服裝廠主要是為婦女提供就業機會，同時也是非洲第一家也是唯一一家公平貿易工廠。我很想知道“公平貿易工廠”到底是怎么回事，但我不惜長途跋涉來到此地也有我個人的原因：我和我姐姐創立了一個裙裝品牌，叫Me & the Mini（me就是mini）。當我聽到利比里亞婦女縫紉項目時，我就在想能否讓這個工廠代工我們的裙子。通過銷售這一女性專屬產品，一來工廠可以做我們的供貨商，二來也完全符合女性互幫互助的理念

????Monrovia, Liberia—For a second I forgot where the car was taking me. We emerge down an overpopulated, one-lane street, driving cautiously and single file. People of all ages shuffle around the cars, going about their morning business as if not noticing the two vehicles invading their limited walking space. Naked babies bathe in small buckets of dirty water, women sell goods from baskets perched high on their heads, men carry loads of heavy items on their backs—it's 8 am and everyone is buzzing. Beyond the masses of people lie endless rows of small tin huts closely hugging each other, homes to thousands. We pull around a corner, parking in front of what seems to be the only concrete building in sight.

????"Here is where we will spend the next few days," one of my companions tells me. We were in the heart of West Point, the slum of Monrovia, Liberia, and arguably the densest slum in all of West Africa. I had come here to visit the Liberian Women's Sewing Project (LWSP), a new garment factory aimed at employing women that was also Africa's first and only fair trade factory. I was curious to see what a 'fair trade factory' was about, but I was also motivated to make the long trip for my own reasons: I'm creating a skirt line with my older sister called Me & the Mini (me being the 'mini'). When I came across the LWSP, I thought if the factory could make our skirts, it could both be our supplier and fit well with our concept of women helping women—all through the sale of a very feminine item.

????去年12月，我見到了奇德佳?力波提，自由與公正公司（Liberty & Justice）的首席執行官和合伙創始人。該公司是利比里亞婦女縫紉項目的母公司。經過多次郵件和電話交流后，我非常高興得知這位自稱“奇德”的家伙終于來到了紐約，并準備拜訪潛在的投資商。這也給了我們面談的機會。我們在切爾西當地有名的Blossom素食餐館共進了晚餐，而且談得十分投機，比我原計劃的時間多了整整三個小時。奇德和他的家人都是在蒙羅維亞出生。在他18個月大的時候，為了躲避利比里亞日漸惡化的政治環境，全家從利比里亞逃亡至美國，最終定居在密爾沃基。25年之后，也就是2009年，奇德辭掉了在舊金山前途大好的金融工作，轉而回到利比里亞成立了自由與公正公司以及利比里亞婦女縫紉項目。

????在晚餐當中，我們漸漸聊起了公司女性員工的故事，那個時候我還真不太相信他說的都是真的——婦女們眼睜睜看著自己的家人在內戰中慘遭殺害，除了身上穿的衣服她們已是一無所有，然而得益于奇德工廠里穩定的工作崗位，這些婦女慢慢克服了心中的恐懼。奇德建議我親自去一趟利比里亞看一下工廠-----他尤其提到讓我參加并見證工廠將在4月底完工的“聯合工作室”，這個工作室將為前來工廠工作的婦女提供3天的崗前培訓。服裝廠現有30名員工，還將再招聘29名女工—--所有這些員工都必須先在這個工作室接受培訓。當時我毫不猶豫地就答應了，暗自慶幸自己原本只打算在晚餐中談談物流和產品價格后，沒想到最后還能撈著去利比里亞的機會。奇德拿走了我帶過去的裙子樣品，而且保證屆時在我訪問公司時給我準備好裙子的版型。

????16個小時的飛行結束后，等待我的蒙羅維亞之旅是將會如何，我當時一無所知。在我離開之前，我閱讀了利比里亞總統艾倫?沙立夫?強森的自傳《前途無量的孩子》（This Child will be Great）。通過該書，我多少想象了一下我的利比里亞7天之旅。了解了利比里亞的歷史，你自然就會明白為什么奇德和他的合伙人亞當?巴特蘭毅然成立該公司。亞當是奇德最好的朋友，在密爾沃基一起長大。在過去的30年中，利比里亞已飽受兩次內戰的摧殘，成千上萬的人因此而無家可歸，也無法從事經濟領域的高產出行業，再加上80%左右的失業率，整個國家陷入了貧窮的惡性循環。另外一項對婦女們極為不利的限制是：如果一個家庭只能供一個孩子上學，那么男孩往往有優先權。結果，女性只能留下來看家，前途一片渺茫。

????Last December I met with Chidegar Liberty, the CEO and co-founder of Liberty & Justice, the umbrella company that founded the Liberian Women's Sewing Project. After numerous email exchanges and a couple of phone conversations, I was thrilled that "Chid," as he calls himself, was finally in New York meeting with potential investors, thus giving us the opportunity to talk business face to face. We met at Blossom's, an iconic vegan restaurant in Chelsea for a dinner that lasted a good three hours longer than I planned. Born in Monrovia, Chid and his family fled Liberia for the United States when he was 18 months old, ultimately settling in Milwaukee, to escape the country's deteriorating political situation. 25 years later, in 2009, Chid left a burgeoning career in finance in San Francisco to return to Liberia and start Liberty & Justice and the LWSP.

????Over dinner, business talk inevitably led to stories about the women he employs, stories that seemed so unreal to me at the time—women seeing their families murdered in front of their eyes during the civil war, women left with nothing but the clothes on their back, all slowly overcoming their fears with the help of the stability of having a job at the factory. Chid suggested I come to Liberia to see the factory for myself—specifically, he recommended that I come and witness the factory's so-called 'alignment workshop' at the end of April, a three-day orientation workshop the women go through before starting their jobs. With 30 current employees, the LWSP was ready to add 29 more—all of whom would need to go through the workshop. With little hesitation, I said yes, thinking to myself I'd come to dinner wanting to talk logistics and production rates, and left with a trip to Liberia on the agenda. Chid took the sample skirt I brought to dinner, and promised to have a prototype ready when I visited.

????I really had no clue what adventures awaited me at the end of the 16-hour flight to Monrovia. Before I left, I read Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Jonhson's autobiography This Child will be Great, which helped me imagine what my week might be like. Understanding of the history of Liberia is vital to understanding why Chid and his partner, Adam Butlein—his best friend from growing up in Milwaukee—started the company in the first place. For the past three decades, Liberia has been rattled by two civil wars, forcing thousands from their homes, and isolating them from productive sectors of the economy. This, along with an unemployment rate hovering around 80%, has resulted in a vicious cycle of poverty. Women have been left at a particular disadvantage; if a family can only afford to send one child to school, the boys generally have the first go. As a result, most women are left to care for the home with little hope of a future.

????奇德和亞當于2009年建立了利比里亞婦女縫紉項目，教婦女們使用縫紉機這一簡單而實用的謀生手段，進而幫助女性從家庭走向職業崗位。利比里亞婦女縫紉項目的從業女性來自于利比里亞首都蒙羅維亞各大婦女團體，目前該公司第一批30名員工已于2010年1月底之前培訓完畢。

????我抵達工廠時，幾乎快被擁抱得喘不過氣來-----我這輩子也沒在60秒內接受過這么多次擁抱。雙方相互介紹后，女工們開始高呼口號。領頭的塔娜是公司工會主席，35歲上下，她的一句爆發力十足的“我們是女人！”響徹廠房。其他29名員工跟著高喊“非洲女人！”。此情此景著實具有感染力，不到一會功夫，我就加入了她們的行列。

????利比里亞婦女縫紉項目的女性員工不僅僅只是雇員，也是公司的股東，共同持有工廠49%的股份。工廠要求她們參加金融培訓課程“營運資產”。課程由一家當地銀行教授，該銀行是工廠的合作伙伴。除此之外，員工還必須在該銀行開立賬戶----這是利比里亞女性前所未聞的新鮮事物。同時，如果女工們的錢在賬戶里的儲蓄時間達到一年，自由與公正公司會通過旗下的非營利性分支機構在她們的賬戶里存入同等數額的錢，一分不少。

????崗前培訓的內容涉及如何節約開支和樹立工作責任意識。經過兩整天緊張的培訓之后，新手便開始與老員工一道工作，認識新同事，同時第一次接觸新工廠。對于新手來說，一切都是那么震撼人心。這次，奇德和亞當直接雇用了West Point貧民窟的一整個婦女團體。對于她們來說，從塵土飛揚、叫賣吆喝的路邊來到粉刷一新的水泥廠房，其中之差別無異于白天和黑夜。

????Chid and Adam founded the Liberian Women's Sewing Project in 2009 to try to transfer women from domestic work to formal employment by teaching a simple but meaningful trade—how to use the sewing machine. Selecting women from various women's groups around Liberia's capital, Monrovia, LWSP had its first round of 30 employees ready and trained by January 2010.

????When I arrived at the factory, I was greeted with a sea of hugs—I don't think I've ever received so many hugs in the span of 60 seconds. After introductions, the women broke into a powerful chant. Tanneh, the mid-30 year old president of the factory's union, led the way, shaking the room with her energetic shout—"we are women!"—while the 29 others chimed in with "women of Africa!" It was hard not to join in, and I soon found myself chanting along with them.

????The women of LWSP are not only employees, but also part owners, together holding a 49% stake in the factory. They are also required to enroll in a financial education program, 'Working Assets,' with a local bank the company partners with, and required to set up their own bank accounts—something virtually unheard of in Liberia for women. Through a nonprofit arm, Liberty & Justice matches, dollar for dollar, any savings they retain in their accounts for one year.

????After two intense days of various orientation workshops on topics like how to save money and understanding the responsibility of working at the factory, the trainees merged with the factory's existing employees, meeting their new coworkers and seeing the factory itself for the first time. It must have been a shock for the newcomers; this time around, Chid and Adam had hired the entire group from the slum of West Point. The change of scene from the side of the dirt road where they used to barter goods to the sunny white concrete building must have been like night and day for them.

????當幾位勇敢的女士主動站起來講述她們的故事時，我感到很震驚。杰娜，這位32歲膚色黝黑的利比里亞人，是第一個站起來的。她飽含著眼淚向我們講述了她的故事，在她還是少女的時候，他父親把她賣給了一位已有7位太太的伊斯蘭教徒。她無法從他先生那脫身----“一旦被扔進了性奴的火坑，前途一片黯淡”，她說道----聽到這里，女員工們都哭成一片。她加入了蒙羅維亞的一個婦女組織，在得知她的悲慘遭遇后，該團體立刻推選她來利比里亞婦女縫紉項目工作。這份工作讓她可以不用再回家，從此遠離暴虐的丈夫。自杰娜敞開心扉之后，又有幾位女員工自主動走到人群中間分享了她們的故事。

????奇德和亞當所創建的利比里亞婦女縫紉項目有利于利比里亞高產貿易項目的發展，同時可以幫助女性獲得其應有的權力?，F今，很多女員工都有能力養活自己、家人，還能送孩子（包括男孩、女孩）上學。隨著今夏第二輪投資的到位，奇德計劃擴大該項目，并在未來兩年內將招收女性員工的總人數增至900人。在這之后，他希望開設其他的分廠，并將業務拓展至整個西非。

????這次旅程大大加強了我與利比里亞婦女縫紉項目合作的決心?，F在，我深深地感受到了消費的強大作用----取個人之于消費，還他人之于生計是多么有意義的一件事。對于Me & the Mini品牌，我們剛完成了第一批裹身裙的打樣，用的是利比里亞當地一種叫Lappa的面料，利比里亞婦女縫紉項目將于秋天開始此裙的批量生產。有這樣一個合作伙伴，我別無他求。

????I was shocked when a couple of brave women got up to share their stories. Jennah, a 32 year-old dark Liberian, was first. In tears, she told us how her father had sold her when she was a teenager to an Islam man who had seven wives. She couldn't get out of the relationship—"once sold into sex slavery your future doesn't look so bright," she said—and soon almost all of the women were crying with her. She became apart of a women's group in Monrovia, she told the group, and they soon selected her to come and work for the Liberian Women's Sewing Project—which allowed her to leave her oppressive husband's home. Once Jennah opened up, several other women stepped to the center of the circle to share their stories, too.

????What Chid and Adam have created in the LWSP is allowing a productive trade to emerge in Liberia while helping to empower women at the same time. Many of these women are now able to provide for themselves and their families, sending their children—both girls and boys—to schools. With a second round of investments closing up this summer, Chid plans to grow the program in number to 900 women in the next two years; after that, he hopes to open other factories and expand throughout West Africa.

????My trip only reinforced my commitment to partner with the Liberian Women's Sewing Project. I realize now how powerful the consumer's dollar really is—and what a message it can send if the consumer's purchase can actually give someone the tools to thrive in their local economy. As for Me & the Mini, we just finished perfecting the first prototype of our wrap skirts, made out of lappa, a local Liberian fabric, and are going into production with the Liberian Women's Sewing Project in the fall. I couldn't imagine a better partner.