During his 2018 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Dr. Denis Mukwege described some of his first days at Panzi Hospital in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic Congo.
The very first patient: a rape survivor who had been shot in her genitals. Some time later: an 18-month-old girl who had been raped. After that: a 29-year-old woman who was taken hostage, tied to a tree and gang-raped daily after the massacre of her family. Such chilling descriptions offered only a brief glimpse into the every day horrors of the conflict that has claimed millions of lives in the DRC since 1996.
“Rape, massacres, torture, widespread insecurity and a flagrant lack of education create a spiral of unprecedented violence,” the hospital founder said in his Dec. 2018 speech, blaming the rebel factions that war over the country’s abundance of natural resources. “The human cost of this perverted, organized chaos has been hundreds of thousands of women raped, over 4 million people displaced within the country and the loss of 6 million human lives. Imagine, the equivalent of the entire population of Denmark decimated.”
Something about that speech spoke to Milain Fayulu. A DRC native and University Miami graduate, the then-27-year-old had long since known about his home country’s ongoing conflict and always wanted to help. Many people would start a foundation. Or a GoFundMe. Or maybe even a host a charity auction. Fayulu founded Congo Clothing Company.
“With fashion, you can tell stories, you can engage people in a very subtle way,” Fayulu said from the foyer of his Wynwood shop, surrounded by books about the DRC and vinyl records pasted on the walls. “More importantly, your clothes are a piece of who you are.”
A sustainable clothing brand that started online and recently opened its first brick-and-mortar on the 100 block of Northwest 25th Street, the Congo Clothing Company aims to help the people most vulnerable to the grotesque violence in the Fayulu’s home country: women. Each item – from socks to to shirts to jackets – funds sewing classes for the women undergoing care at Panzi, which Mukwege founded in 1999. Since its incorporation in 2022, the clothing brand has helped dozens of women complete roughly 11,000 days of training, according to its 2023 data.
“Our resources go specifically to upskilling women because it’s not enough to just give them money,” said Fayulu, who wants to hit the 25,000 mark by the end of 2024.
Clothing for sale at Congo Clothing Company on Friday, June 21, 2024, in Miami, Fla. Proceeds of the sales go to training Congolese women to sew. D.A. Varela dvarela@miamiherald.com
How Congo Clothing Company helps women
The hospital prides itself on its four-pillar “Panzi Model” holistic care – medical, psychological, legal and socio-economic. Congo Clothing Company assists with the latter. Although the hospital provides all kinds of opportunities for job training, sewing classes happen to be the most popular at Panzi, according to Justin Irenge, the assistant coordinator for professional workshops at the hospital’s corresponding foundation.
“It’s in high demand because it’s a practical skill that can generate revenue pretty quickly,” Irenge said in French through an interpreter, later calling the partnership with Congo Clothing Company “very beneficial.”
The ability to learn such a skill also helps mentally.
“There’s a psychologist on site that follows the women through these workshops and it’s very clear from their perspective that they can see mental improvements because they now have meaning, they have something that keeps them productive,” Irenge said.
The hospital’s website contains several testimonials of women who survived sexual violence and have been help through their programs.
“Hope comes back,” Irenge added.
That restoration of hope is woven into the very fabric of the brand. The brand’s logo – two vertical straight lines with a zigzag line down the middle – references the geometric patterns of the famous textiles that originated in the 17th century Kuba Kingdom. Many of the best selling items, like the denim jacket, pants and “Wynwood” T shirt, feature these patterns as way to merge both Western and Congolese style, according to Fayulu.
“Philosophically, it also represents tortuous journeys of these women but they’re also between straight lines which speaks to a strong foundation and if you keep moving forward, you’ll see a light at the end of the tunnel,” Fayulu said.
In just a short time, Congo Clothing Company has received some major cosigns. The brand itself was shaped as Fayulu pursued his master’s degree in political science at MIT, where he was accepted into its delta v accelerator, a rigorous entrepreneurship program. A vast majority of the companies that delta v produce, however, operate in the tech or health care space. What ultimately set Fayulu’s concept apart was the founder himself.
“We always say, ‘We pick you, we didn’t pick your project,’” said Bill Aulet, the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. Fayulu, particularly “stood out” because “he was super passionate,” Aulet said. “That means they’re doing something that’s meaningful to the world. We believe entrepreneurship at MIT is an ethical activity. You have to have a strong raison d’être.”
Even the Human Rights Foundation has taken notice of Congo Clothing Company. In February, the HRF solicited Fayulu for tote bags as the brand also has an in-house design team that can create branded apparel for other companies. The bags were such a hit that the HRF team flew Fayulu to its Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway where he set up a pop-up shop.
“When we collaborate with brands, we really make sure that there’s no ties to authoritarian regimes or even cotton from authoritarian regimes,” said Claudia Bennett, the legal and program officer for HRF. Congo Clothing Company sources its clothes from Colombia, a country trying to revive its once booming cotton industry, where contractors must sign an agreement that promises, among many other things, ethical treatment of workers and fair wages. “People get oversaturated in this field with people asking them to donate for different causes but I think when you can get such a cool piece of clothing in conjunction with it, it’s such a smart business idea but also meaningful.”
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‘Give back in a way that’s creative’
To Fayulu, Congo Clothing Company was his duty.
“It’s not enough to just be here, do work, make some money,” Fayulu said. “For me, it was like ‘What can I do to give back in a way that’s creative?’”
Although the clothes are currently made in Colombia, Fayulu hopes to eventually hire the women who benefited from the sewing classes his products funded. In the meantime, he wants to authentically grow the brand through sweat equity: walk inside the Wynwood shop and Fayulu himself is there, doing everything from interacting with customers to fixing the merchandise to working the register. Though the store does have a manager, Fayulu, more often than not, is there by himself.
“I want to build my community myself and get the feedback from the customers,” he said.
In the coming weeks, Fayulu plans to schedule events as he seeks to further expose his brand to Miami, a place he has lived on and off since 2014. As word spreads, he hopes Congo Clothing Company becomes a catalyst to help the country that birthed him.
“Every culture sells something worldwide that makes even people who have never even been there have some sort of affinity ,” he said. “Congo Clothing allows us to kind of plant our flag quite literally in Miami and say ‘Hey, our culture is cool, too.’”
IF YOU GO:
WHAT: Congo Clothing Company
WHEN: 12 p.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Sunday
WHERE: 116 NW 25th St, Miami, FL 33127
