And on April 27, 2017, in Chicago, you can join an artfully inspired event hosted by ABC Chicago’s Tanja Babich and WBEZ Radio’s Jerome McDonnell, where the fourteen designers will showcase their designs. The evening at the Cultural Center will host an extremely competitive fashion show, with a catwalk displaying the dynamic collaboration of Nairobi and Chicago. Discerning judges, including designer Maria Pinto, fashion blogger Julia Dauod, and Fete Lifestyle Magazine’s own founder and editor-in-chief, D.C. Crenshaw, will vote on their favorite design, and the winner will be announced that same night. All proceeds from the event will benefit the remarkable work of Heshima Kenya.
Back in Nairobi, the girls are learning to dream again. When asked about their dreams, some say they want to be a nurse. A few say a religious leader. But many say designer or model. During the graduation celebration, they take turns walking the catwalk in the Heshima compound. Literally strutting up and down, with the most confident of smiles. Each of them a different tone of skin, spending hours weaving pallets of colors into each other’s hair and the fabrics the GEP has taught them to make. They turn the fabrics into hand-dyed scarves, using a traditional African dyeing technique that uses ties to create spaces where the dye cannot reach. Dozens of bright eyed children running around, simply being children.
Though they will always carry it with them, they are now worlds away from their horrid past.
A place where beauty, and fashion, abounds.