My name is Louisa and I co-parent two energetic and delightful (most of the time!) daughters with my husband, Tom.
It’s safe to say that as a family, we try to do our part for the planet; we venture to the beaches to pick up litter, we take our trusty bags to the shops so we don’t need the thin, plastic, break-your-heart-a-little-each-time-you-use-one and I-hope-no-one-has-noticed-that-I-picked-one-up bags, we make sure we turn lights off when we leave rooms to save the polar bears… and yet I’d not been able to escape a niggle – no, a need – to have a bigger impact. We’d been using fabrics to wrap gifts for 12 months before This Red Thread was launched (having got royally fed up with the bags of what-a-waste wrapping paper that you’re left with at the end of a birthday party or Christmas Day) and every time we did, the response to the method was amazingly positive.
It was obvious what the product should be, but where would we get it from?
Through some inspirational souls whom I was fortunate to meet when we moved Singapore late in 2019, I was introduced to Raju Sundas at The Light House Foundation; a superhero of sorts. The Light House Foundation is a non-government, non-profit organisation based in Kathmandu, Nepal, whose mission is to improve the wellbeing and futures of Nepali children who are at risk of trafficking, abuse and neglect, which they achieve through the provision of safe accommodation and education. Sadly many of the children at The Light House Foundation are from the lowest caste tiers in Nepal, meaning the opportunities they are born with were limited and the risks of mistreatment is substantial. By providing education and a safe place to live, the children can grown into young adults with dreams of futures they can dare to have.
It seemed the perfect choice to pair up our sustainability project with the bright and aspirational young women at The Light House Foundation who are yearning to carve out bright careers for themselves. They are earning whilst studying, working a few hours a week, and have autonomy over how their income is spent. Many are choosing to put the money towards higher education and we are delighted to support it. We decided to make This Red Thread ‘not-for-profit’, gifted The Light House Foundation equipment and furniture, they painted a workshop and This Red Thread was born.