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Ridley Bell is a tall man who casts a long shadow. His legacy of giving back also stretches a long way.
In recent years, Mr Bell and his wife Meike have helped up to 200,000 at-risk people in Uganda. Their focus is the country’s north, home to six of Uganda’s 10 poorest per capita districts.
“We went to the north of Uganda and we fell in love with the place,” he said. “In Pardee, way up in the north, the average income for the area is around five Australian dollars a month - not a week or a day, a month.”
March 2, 2021
Gobal Sisters founder Mandy Richards (second from right) with program participants (L-R) Tegan Murdock, founder of Ngumpie Weaving; Florence Olugbemiro, founder of Designed By Florence; and Karin Lee, founder of
Florapeutic. Source: supplied.
Aussie buy-now-pay-later behemoth Afterpay has partnered with not-for-profit Global Sisters, in a bid to raise at least $50,000 per year to help open the door to entrepreneurship to more women.
An initial campaign, running throughout March in a nod to International Women’s Day on March 8, will give consumers the option to donate $1 at the checkout.
The goal is to raise a minimum of $50,000 annually.
Global Sisters founder Mandy Richards describes the not-for-profit as a “one-stop-shop” for supporting women in starting up micro-businesses that is, businesses with four employees or fewer.
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Florence Olugbemiro is busy sewing little brightly coloured headbands at her West Hoxton home in Sydney’s west.
The former computer programmer and mother of four came to Australia as a skilled migrant from Nigeria in 1998 with her husband Solomon and their three sons. She had a daughter, Shallom, soon after.
“When I first came here and I had my little baby girl, I was looking for representation dolls, and I couldn t find one,” the 54-year-old says. “So a few years ago, I thought why not introduce Australia to those beautiful, vibrant Nigerian colours through dolls?
She began making her own, with the designs inspired by her homeland.