New York, NY (production in Rwanda & Ghana) · Est. 2007 · Founded by Matt & Tom Mitro (father & son)
Matt and Tom Mitro founded Indego Africa in 2007 after living in Rwanda and witnessing what the entrepreneurial spirit of the women around them could become with the right support. The name says it all: independence, development, governance. Today the nonprofit social enterprise partners with over 1,200 women artisans across Rwanda, Ghana, and refugee camps -- selling handcrafted baskets, home goods, and accessories designed in New York and made in Africa, and investing 100% of profits back into education programs for the women who make them.
Matt Mitro was a project finance attorney when he and his father Tom spent time in Rwanda and came home changed. They had watched women who had survived genocide, who had had their educations interrupted, who were earning less than a dollar a day -- and who were still finding ways to make beautiful things and build something for their families. In 2007, father and son founded Indego Africa, a nonprofit social enterprise whose name encodes its mission: independence, development, governance.
The model is straightforward and extraordinary. Indego designs products in New York -- woven baskets, plateau trays, home accessories, jewelry -- and partners with over 20 women-owned artisan cooperatives across Rwanda, Ghana, and refugee camps to make them by hand, using locally sourced natural materials: sweetgrass, banana leaf, bolga straw, raffia, palm leaf, recycled tin, upcycled cowhorn. Every dollar of profit from product sales goes back into education programs for the artisans -- business management, entrepreneurship, technology, literacy, and health. The brand has also built a credit union, founded by artisans themselves, that has made hundreds of micro loans across 16 cooperatives.
The work has been carried at Anthropologie, J.Crew, and Jonathan Adler. Lily Aldridge has carried their bags. The pieces are beautiful -- colorful, modern, genuinely joyful -- and every one of them carries a story that extends far beyond the object itself. On a registry, Indego Africa is the category where beauty and meaning are the same thing.
