A GLIMPSE OF HOPE. My way to start a social business. | Nathalie Schaller | TEDxTuebingen
Translator: Robert Tucker Reviewer: Nadine Hennig It's very nice to be back here again in Tübingen. I actually know Tübingen quite well, particularly from your current perspective. While in Tübingen I used to sit in the Neue Aula [New Auditorium] and listen to lectures - lectures on law. As a law student then, I never thought that I would at some time set up a fashion company, let alone give a TEDxTalk about it. But I am here today because my life has taken a turn. I am here today because I've run into a problem that I don't seem to be able to put down. I am pleased that I can tell this story today. I spent several months abroad after my exams. Actually, I just wanted to travel the world, go on adventures, have a good time, and simply see different things. I got involved with an organization that, among other things, concerns itself with socially-deprived areas. We were divided into different groups, and my group was to travel to Cambodia to care for victims of forced prostitution. Terms like "forced prostitution", "human trafficking", "modern day slavery", were a complete new territory for me then. Then I'd have linked slavery with cotton fields, America in the 18th century, but not with the enlightened times of today. I now know that the problem of slavery is greater than ever before. It is estimated that 45 million people live in slavery. That's a number equal to more than half the population of Germany. A large proportion of these slaves are held in brothels and forced to work as sex slaves. Encountering these facts, then meeting such women, turned my whole view of the world upside down. What so shocked me was to see how different my life was compared to the lives of these women. I grew up here, privileged, in a world in perfect order. These women mostly had terrible childhoods behind them. I grew up here in freedom. These women got to know little more than coercion and violence. There's a future to my life. To be honest, my biggest problem after my exams was that I didn't know what I should do with my degree. There were just too many choices. And these women had no prospects at all. Absolutely no choice whatsoever. So I looked ever more closely into the problem, and the stories I heard, they really broke my heart. Stories like Gargi's. Gargi was 12 when her mother sold her to a 50-year-old man. This man had lied to Gargi's mother that he would marry Gargi, and all would be well for her. But the truth was, the man was a human-trafficker and simply took Gargi to the next town and sold her to a brothel where Gargi had to work years as a sex slave. Or the story of - I'll just call her Linda. Linda had already been abused as a child by her stepfather. Eventually, she couldn't bear it at home any longer and ran away. She landed on the street, got picked up by a bunch of men, held in an unoccupied house, maltreated and abused over a long period of time, and eventually found half-dead by the police. And the worst is, even if these women, who may be just girls, manage to escape, or are freed by the police, they are still not free. They are traumatized, marked for life, and they don't really fit in anywhere well. I then came back home, and it was clear to me: I want to do something, I want to help women like that. I want to somehow help these women to get a future, to enable them to make a life for themselves in freedom. And the idea came to me relatively quickly that a solution might be with fashion. It got even crazier for me when, through friends in Australia, I got to know Teresa Gaby Ramsurn from Munich, who was not only with the same organization, had gained the same experience as me, had come home with the same heartfelt wish, but was also a fashion designer. We teamed up pretty quickly, and decided to work together on the problem. I also brought a man on board, a digital media designer. Today is our fourth wedding anniversary! (Applause) Yes, we were a great team. And we had a great vision. Our vision was for women to be freed from prostitution, forced prostitution, provided with training and jobs - as seamstresses - according to their capabilities, and thus provided with a future and a way back into society. Now, guess how my father reacted when I told him I didn't want to join his successful law firm, but that I'd rather start a social fashion company. Believe me, so many good and well-reasoned arguments I've seldom heard before. But don't worry, we still get on well together. How it went on? We found wonderful partners in India, the CHAIIM Foundation. The CHAIIM Foundation was able to open a sewing workshop with our support, in which the women freed from slavery were offered not just sewing lessons given by Indian and German professionals as well as jobs, but were also taught basic subjects, especially maths and English, as well as lifeskills. You have to imagine that they had been deprived for years of the means to develop themselves, that they had been left ignorant of everyday things we learn in the family - things like handling money, organizing a budget, how to brush your teeth and why one needs to clean one's teeth at all. They were taught all these sorts of things by the CHAIIM Foundation. The results are beautiful articles of clothing, which allows us here in Germany to send out a revolutionary message to the world: not "sex sells", but "love sells". Clothing made with love by people who were met with love. We launched in 2013. We were a fashion designer, a digital media designer, a lawyer, but not one of our team owned a business. All three of us were new to business, and the honest truth was that we had no idea of the fashion market. We soon got to realize that, and really learned the hard way. We had collections where many had seams coming apart, buttons coming off. Our first week-long, planned fashion show very nearly didn't get off the ground: the collection was stuck for days at customs, because none of us knew how to deal with the importation process. At the beginning, we really went from one near disaster to another. But somehow or other we made progress, eventually gaining ground. We have now arrived at our sixth collection. Our clothes are sold in around 20 stores in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and online. We are in the black. (Applause) But it's still not enough for us to support ourselves. On this point, my father had been somewhat right. But these are all facts and figures. What really counts for us, and what motivates us anew each day to carry on, are the women's stories. We are overjoyed when we hear that the women are again learning to form proper loving relationships with men, and even marrying for love and starting families of their own, and this in a country where marriages are still arranged. We are pleased when we hear women gain school leaving qualifications, which open up wholly new future possibilities for them. We are deeply moved when we hear that the women have given a part of what they earn to help other women in their situation. Or when they tell us that they'd like to become policewomen or social workers in order to help other women. Those are stories that motivate us each and every day. We were able, together with our Indian partners, to help more than a dozen women during the last 3 years. Compared to 45 million, it's maybe not so many. But it is a spark of hope. That's why we decided to call our business "Glimpse". What does "Glimpse" mean to us? In truth, a whole lot of work. A few months ago, we, therefore, established a charity, and turned our business into an undertaking. Now, a lot of people help us to spread the stories of these women and to bring human trafficking and modern day slavery into the public eye. But "Glimpse" also provides us with a great sense of joy. Earlier, for example, I was a proper shopaholic. Today, my wardrobe is full of clothes that have been made under fair and loving conditions. Before, I liked to go out and celebrate and never missed a party. Today, we celebrate each new collection these women make possible. I'm pleased, above all, that the idea was not one we just left to collect dust, but that we actually took it on, that we tried it out. Wherever we end up now, I'm simply happy and proud that we are trying. I hope that, this evening, I've also motivated you to try to do something. I think the key is to tackle problems head on. I myself needed to travel halfway around the world. But I'm quite sure that there are enough problems closer at hand to be dealt with. We have the freedom to do so, we have the freedom to take on something, to give other people a spark of hope, even if it's just a tiny glimpse. Thank you for listening. (Applause)