E.I.’s New BAM (Remba) Project

By Jim Caya

For the last 8 months, E.I. has been working to build one of our newest businesses: The Remba Project. Worked in conjunction with our Ukrainian Technology company eKreative we’re launching a Business As Mission project that ministers at many different levels.

Remba is a Swahili word that means “To make beautiful or to beautify.” Project denotes an initiative to cause a change. When combined, The Remba Project translates to a business that strives to make things beautiful by contributing to significant, life altering transformations in people through the power of Jesus Christ.

This socially-minded enterprise connecting people with a passion to change their world with products that truly make a difference. 100% of the products we offer are organic, hand-made, and fair-trade. They come from individual artisans, small businesses, non-profits, or non-government organizations in developing economies around the world. At the heart of these operations lies the common purpose to start organizations/businesses that forever change lives by providing employment and empowerment opportunities.

A number of our suppliers are in existence to combat social injustices; issues like child labor, prostitution, human trafficking, and discrimination.

Here are some of our stories:

• A local prostitute is taken off the streets of Bangkok and hired to make jewelry. In addition to her wages she is provided health care, counseling, and community with other women and girls who share similar stories.
• A victim of the sex trade, a young Cambodian woman finds freedom and rehabilitation through an organization in a local village that trains her as a seamstress to make silk garments and other fine linen products. Never again will she have to resort to selling herself to survive.

The Remba Project (and rembaproject.com) was launched as a new EI business toward the end of November, just in time provide novel, life-changing gifts for holiday shoppers. Though it is still early, the numbers seem to indicate that Remba will be a sustainable venture that is able to both partially fund missions work in inner-city Los Angeles while also providing artisans with a larger platform/market through which their products can be sold and their stories can be told.

Its early progress is promising and we are full of anticipation to see all that God has for it. The exciting part of this BAM project is the more volume we move, the more people get helped all over the world. Additionally, 100% of the profits made go towards missions work and ministry.

Want to get involved? Do you have business skills/experience that would transform this to help even more people around the world? There are many ways you can get involved such as those listed in the “Get Involved” section of our website.  These include sales, marketing and IT / flash integration.

Got another idea? You can also email us at getinvolved@rembaproject.com.