Jared Miller, the founder of a “people-inspired fashion company” that helps emerging businesswomen and artisans in Africa, will visit RISD this Friday, October 16. He’ll talk about the philosophy behind KEZA (the company’s name means “beautiful” in Kinyarwanda, the language of the land), and discuss volunteer and internship opportunities like the one Jenny Lai ’10 AP and Lindsay Perkins ’10 AP did in Rwanda over the summer.

Building on their initial contact with KEZA last Wintersession, when the two Apparel Design majors worked here at RISD to improve designs for paper bead necklaces, Jenny and Lindsay spent the summer in Africa working on product design and development, teaching the women of Buranga to create new types of products, and offering ideas for store displays, marketing and ad campaigns. This semester they’re doing an independent study project with Jewelry + Metalsmithing faculty member Johan van Aswegen to learn more about jewelry technique and design that might be helpful in working with the female artisans who produce work for KEZA.

“I had been looking for a way to help others through my passion for design and the arts, so I am incredibly excited to have found KEZA,” Jenny says. Lindsay adds that her experiences travelling and growing up in Hong Kong and Taiwan opened her eyes “to much need in the world” and left her with “a desire to help in whatever ways I can.” The entire RISD community is invited to Friday’s 8 pm presentation at the Fleet Library at RISD, where Jared will show the work that’s helping African women to help themselves get ahead.