Driving Our Economy Forward: Amani Ya Juu
It’s called Amani Ya Juu or “Peace from Above.”
It’s a fair trade non-profit gift shop selling homegoods, toys, jewelry, women’s clothing, and many more items from Kenya and Uganda.
The primary goal of this shop in Chattanooga on Willow Street is to support women in Africa.
But, Amani Chattanooga is also striving to reinvest in our local community.
We take a look at this heartwarming story in this week’s Driving Our Economy Forward…
“Welcome to Amani Ya Juu. Amani Ya Juu, the name means peace from above. We are a fair trade, non profit gift shop. And we have been here in Highland Park, on Willow street, for about 12 years since 2012. We’ve got home goods. We’ve got jewelry, bags, kids stuff… you name it, we’ve got it. All of our products come from our centers in Kenya and Uganda. We have got about 100 women who work there, who are stitches for us; many of them were refugees. And so we exist, so that we can train these women, so that we can give them power back into their lives. And then they live in community, and also earn a fair and living wage from the sale of our product,” said Jackson Clemmer, a Business Development Manager at Amani Ya Juu.
“I’m grateful uh to be here at tamani. When I came here I was just staying just at home. But now I’m able to work at a money. And I can stand on my own,” said Monica.
“So we were founded in 1996. Um our founder Becky Chinchin um was living in Liberia at the time. Um and then when the Civil War was there, um she actually, she and her family became refugees. And so uh out of that Refugee process she and a few other Refugee women started sewing place-mats. Um and that was kind of a way for them to provide for their families; to um have a a thing to do that was productive. And they found a lot of dignity in that out of that. Came the concept of um a sewing training program. Where the sales of products would kind of feed back in and it would be a sustainable business. And to help women who really need help,” said Clemmer.
“I love always popping, in cuz there always something fresh in here. I love handcrafted gifts. I think giving back is a huge part of what they do. And I love um as a mom helping other moms. And as a woman uh business owner, helping other female business owners is a big deal.”
“I think part of what sets us apart um as a a fair trade gift shop is just the quality of the work that the women do. Um we have a lot of stitches who’ve been with us for a long time. They’re well trained. They take a lot of pride in their work. And they do really good work. We partner with a lot of churches. Um and so we’ve we meet a lot of people that way. Um and then we’ve got a lot of folks from the neighborhood who um come by. A lot of them come for the Livingston Cafe which we started last year. Um and then they kind of stumble into the shop and get excited about it. Um and then we also have clientele all across the country. We’ve got got folks all over America who are excited about Amani and excited to be a part of the story here,” said Clemmer.
