“The idea of bringing her successful project to Dallas was sparked from a meeting through the George W. Bush Presidential Center.
In 2014, Underwood met Roslyn Dawson Thompson, president and CEO of the Dallas Women’s Foundation. Both women had served as mentors through the Bush Center’s Women’s Initiative Fellowship.
Thompson shared how the women’s foundation was supporting several local nonprofits that were trying to help women who had been sexually trafficked, were making their way out of prostitution, were struggling in poverty or had recently been incarcerated.
“She said, ‘Would you ever consider bringing your model here?’ So it just kind of planted that seed,” Underwood said.
They launched a pilot program for 15 women last year. Everything was moving forward, but they hit a roadblock when they wanted to pay them a living wage in the U.S. with the same price point as the jewelry made in Uganda.”
Read more at the Dallas Morning News