Gift Focus inc Attire Accessories - Page number 44 - July/August 2021

When did you start up and why? Voice officially launched in July 2017 with the manufacture of our first ever collection handcrafted in Uganda by our highly trained artisans. We exist primarily to empower women out of poverty and into sustainable employment, offering them a platform for their creative voice to be heard. What prompted you to launch the business? After living in Uganda for a number of years and being continually exposed to high unemployment rates for women in the communities I was volunteering within, I decided something had to be done to change the realities these women were facing. I’ve always had a passion for creativity, especially jewellery, and that became our starting point. We began by training four women in jewellery skills and manufacture and since their employment they have been able to rise above the poverty line, provide for their families and begin achieving their dreams! What challenges have you overcome since the company’s launch? There are many challenges that come with running a business internationally. I live between both countries but primarily in the UK, so navigating managing a team from overseas has been a learning curve. However, like many businesses our biggest challenge has been adapting to the last 12 months in a global pandemic, keeping our team safe in both countries and still managing to maintain employment of all staff and new product launches. I have been unable to return to Uganda for almost 18 months now but this has shown the true strength and capabilities of our artisans who have continued production of new products, without any physical assistance. Tell us about your product offering. We primarily specialise in jewellery and accessories, and occasionally we do limited-edition items of clothing. Our jewellery designs most commonly combine traditional Ugandan techniques with British styles and trends. We pride ourselves on using sustainably-sourced materials within our designs, for example Ankole horn which is a by-product of the cattle industry in Uganda, enabling farmers with a second stream of income and reducing waste. We also use recycled paper bead, which are rolled from scratch, locally-sourced Rattan for weaving and most recently the switch to Ecosilver for all our silver designs. What are your most popular products? Our most popular products are our Ankole designs, particularly Promise Drops, Strength Pendant and Bravery Studs. We always stock each design in a light mix and dark mix of Ankole. The gradients on each piece are always completely unique, which is a definite attraction to our buyers, knowing that no one else has a pair like theirs. Have any styles taken you by surprise with their popularity? I think when you are a small business sometimes you do have to take the risk with designs, whenever we launch a large collection there is always a possibility that one design may not be as popular. So I’d say none have taken us by surprise, but in the last six months our most popular design without the use of Ankole has been our Brass Pinto Studs, which is why we were inspired to relaunch these as a tri-collection in Ecosilver this spring. How do you keep your designs fresh and current? Do you follow trends? Following trends is sometimes hard to do when you are a small team with quick 44