Women Leading Social Impact – Investments into women’s economic empowerment, responsible sourcing and value addition. We implement and empower woman-led social enterprises in the production of the world’s most genuine artisanal chocolate, coffee and gold products.
We’re Reinventing Sustainable Development Using 3 Core Objectives
Women's Economic Empowerment
Spearheading equitable and inclusive economic development through entrepreneurship.
Women have always contributed greatly towards the economy but remain disproportionately affected by economic discrimination and inequality. We address these inequalities by investing into women and providing tools and training so
together we may develop new opportunities and enhance their skills to participate in value addition, while receiving a living wage that can support them and their families. Project Origins is woman-led and we work towards bringing other women into the forefront so that we can transform the existing supply chains and power dynamics. Our goal is living in an equitable world, in which as women, we are not in the footnotes of development but spearheading it.
Climate Action
Made at Origin to rebuild environmental stability.
In our battle against climate change, we need to implement changes to the way we do things, and we need to do it now! From making chocolate to crafting jewelry, Project Origins is a movement that supports value addition at Origin because it means we can drastically reduce our carbon footprint by cutting out the movement of raw materials across the globe to get a finished product.
In the artisanal gold mining sector, Project Origins has implemented a complete elimination of all mercury, cyanide, chlorine gas, nitric and hydrochloric acids from the supply chains to prevent degradation of the natural ecosystem of mine sites.
The cocoa and coffee sourced is shade grown and forest friendly which helps prevent deforestation and protect the natural biodiversity in our forests. The unique manufacturing process doesn’t just happen at Origin but goes back to manual methods to reduce our energy consumption and increase our workforce for a greater economic and environmental impact.
Building Peace & Resilience
Improving and sustaining livelihoods by collaborating towards long term solutions.
Some of the communities we work with have dealt with more conflict and instability than we can ever imagine. Inspired by their fortitude, we collaborate with them to find long term solutions that can help them sustain their livelihoods to protect peace and resilience within the communities.
In Eastern DRC alone, we work with a network of 32000 small holder farmers and artisanal miners who have benefitted from our tools and training to formal route to market support. Many of the areas where the conflict-affected and high-risk communities we work with in the DRC live are in the control of the Allied Democratic Forces and having access to avenues of stability and peace are particularly important for the endurance of these communities. Our work ties into Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) as we work with former combats who have taken the initiative to restore stability and resilience within their communities.
Through Project Origins, we are diversifying economic development opportunities, encouraging the replication, and spurring of cottage industries from our work in the DRC and Kenya. Work with us to plant seeds towards fostering peace, resilience, and stability for a better future.
