Phefeni Childrenswear

“Our company was created in the spirit of contribution to children and community,” said Sallomé Hralima, the company’s owner. “Phefeni, and companies like ours, reflects a new voice of social concern and equips the average consumer with an opportunity to demonstrate they are more than spectators on the philanthropic scene. We aim to create an example for upcoming lifestyle brands to follow in which commitment to contribution guides the company’s mission.”
(Sallomé Hralima, Thursday, January 12, 2006, 3:33:12 AM)

What is (RED)?

(RED), created by Bono (U2 singer and activist) and Bobby Shriver, is a brand designed to engage business and consumer power in the fight against AIDS in Africa. (RED) works with the world's best brands to make unique (PRODUCT) RED-branded products and direct up to 50% of their gross profits to the Global Fund to invest in African AIDS programs with a focus on the health of women and children. (RED) is not a charity or "campaign". It is an economic initiative that aims to deliver a sustainable flow of private sector money to the Global Fund. (PRODUCT) RED launched on March 1, 2006 in the UK and on October 13th, 2006 in the US. Current product partners include Converse, Gap, Motorola, Emporio Armani, Apple, Hallmark, Dell, Microsoft and American Express (UK only). (Source - http://www.joinred.com/red/factsheet.asp)

This is for the children. It is the realization of a dream to combine commerce with social restoration, an apparel company created to address the needs of the world’s children. We aspire to bring undeniable transformation on global playgrounds.

Phefeni Childrenswear is an apparel company inspired by the children of Soweto, South Africa who stood up against the forced Afrikaans education. Products, ranging from newborn to size six, include onesies screened with the lyrics of Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" and bibs & burp cloths with authentic Ashanti fabric. Each piece is made to be culturally relevant with functionality in mind.

We appeal to consumers considered "conscious" and "trend-setting." This support base has a commitment (expressed or not) to contribution and a demand for brands that embody this idea of commerce and contribution. At Phefeni, we believe that daily activities like shopping for our children can function as a humanitarian effort. Phefeni customers create and sustain communities based on giving, communities inspired altruistically to action. Created with the world's little ones in mind, and partnering with Inspire Learning, beginning Summer 2009, a donation from each purchase will be made to a children’s organization. Phefeni will be a vehicle for progress within various countries where our little ones currently suffer conditions that deny them their childhood.

Nelson Mandela said, “No business concern, with an eye to future planning, can afford to ignore the plight of children as inheritors of ‘a tomorrow.’” We live in a world where the international poverty line has been set at $1.08 a day, half a million women continue to die each year during pregnancy or childbirth (almost all of them in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia), approximately 600 children under five die every day in Afghanistan due to pneumonia, poor nutrition, diarrhea and other preventable diseases, one billion children live in extreme poverty, over 115 million children do not attend school, and the number of AIDS orphans worldwide will exceed 25 million by 2010. With large corporations such as IKEA and Starbucks recognizing that social responsibility is good for business, Phefeni Childrenswear stands out as one of few companies created with a vehicle for customers to actively transform these statistics embedded in its design.