Supporting Women’s Empowerment in Liberia by Building a New Supply Chain

The Liberian Women’s Sewing Project (LWSP) is a sustainable apparel manufacturer based in Monrovia, Liberia. Established in 2009 by Liberian–American entrepreneur Chid Liberty, the company is part-owned and operated by Liberian women. The organization directs 75 percent of its profits toward community development projects. The remaining 25 percent of profits remain within the enterprise, allowing each worker to build equity over time.

Travel Journal: Root Capital visits LWSP

By William Foote, Founder and CEO

Liberia’s brutal civil conflicts over the past 20 years often made headlines; the rebuilding process has garnered far less attention. There are still over 10,000 UN troops stationed in a country where some 250,000 people were killed in civil conflict between 1990 and 2003.

Schools, hospitals, roads, and infrastructure remain in ruin across the country. Safe drinking water and electricity are generally unavailable to the population, even within the capital city of Monrovia. During the violence, people with the means to escape did – and resettled far away. Turmoil continued for the vast majority who remained and at least two generations didn’t go to school. As a result, skilled labor is in short supply.

Understandably, there’s enormous pressure on President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to succeed. Now that there is at least an uneasy peace, one of her highest priorities is to create jobs – the unemployment rate hovers around 85 percent.  

Against that sobering backdrop, we were greeted gloriously by about 50 Liberian women – belting out songs and dancing with raised hands on the outskirts of Monrovia beside the newly inaugurated factory of the Liberian Women’s Sewing Project (LWSP). “When we hot we can’t get cold!” they sang, followed by the call and response, “Women, oh women! Don’t just sit there – DO SOMETHING POSITIVE!” delivered in lyrical Liberian English.

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We were joined there by Chid Liberty, a Liberian-American entrepreneur whose family fled to Milwaukee when he was a boy. He has returned to Liberia to work with the women to create an “ethical garments” industry in his home country. Chid’s business partner and best friend from high school, Adam Butlein, hails from a multi-generational family apparel business in Wisconsin and New York. Put it all together and the women are uniquely positioned to build a brand new supply chain that’s Fair Trade and organic "from dirt to shirt," as they say. And as soon as local production is up and running, LWSP plans to source organic cotton from farmers in Liberia (it now comes from Morocco).

Root Capital got the royal treatment because we’re LWSP’s first source of outside financing. Our inaugural loan in Liberia will help establish a “Made in Liberia” sustainable apparel line that’s already being sold to folks like prAna, the yoga inspired clothing company. The business will employ, and be part owned by, women who literally led the peace movement that swept Charles Taylor and the warlords from power. Sitting in a circle of chairs beside their factory and beaming with pride, the women spoke of three revolutions. The first women’s revolution: to bring peace back to Liberia. Their second revolution: to elect the first female president in the history of Africa. The third revolution: to sustain the peace by creating employment and lasting economic development in Liberia. These women are truly inspirational.

I return from West Africa more aware than ever of the critical role that our lending and financial training can play in changing lives and bringing hope to some of the most desperate places on earth.