Some people are blessed with a bounty of energy and intellectual verve. Ellen Dorsch is clearly one of the lucky. At 60, Ellen changed careers from the non-profit public health sector to starting her own international business. She tackled a steep learning curve and overcame some interesting bumps along the way. Now, five years later, Ellen's Creative Women sells wonderful Ethiopian and Swazi textiles throughout the USA and Canada.

The Beginning

Ellen has a Masters in public health, planning and developing. Her work with a non-profit public health organization took Ellen to Africa, including Ethiopia. There she found an economy wracked by years of instability and was inspired to help even more. She quickly recognized that the wonderful people she met needed medical support but also a better means of earning a living. Ellen started to form an idea when she noticed that many talented women were economically marginalized and that Ethiopia's exquisite hand-embroidered textiles were under-marketed internationally.

Ellen's business and humanitarian idea sprang to full life when she met Menbere Alemayehu, a fashion designer who owned an established dress-making business, Menby's Designs. Both women knew that they could make a positive difference if they were able to create more employment opportunities for Ethiopian women. To meet that goal, Ellen partnered with Menbere to launch Creative Women.

The Heart

The heart of Creative Women remains Ellen’s well-founded conviction that long-lasting improvement in people’s lives results from commerce—job creation through viable business. Since its beginning five years ago, Ellen, with the support of her husband Bill, has used that humanitarian principle to grow Creative Women and its positive impact on the economic lives of African women by forming additional partnerships in Ethiopia and Swaziland.

As an example, Ellen works closely with Kathy Marshall, of Sabahar, to obtain top quality silk. Kathy previously worked in Ethiopia through Oxfam Canada and shares Ellen’s belief in the benefits of commerce. As part of her business, Kathy provides training and jobs for otherwise unemployable Ethiopian women. Eschewing imported commercial silk, Kathy employs more than 60 women under excellent pay and working conditions to tend cocoons and spin raw silk into wonderful cloth.

Ellen found yet another partner in Swaziland. Murrae Stephens operates a family-run mohair business (named Coral Stephens), employing 60 women weavers who are given excellent pay and working conditions, including daycare and other benefits. And Ellen has added and hopes to continue adding new, socially responsible African partners as Creative Women expands.

Providing wonderful new jobs for economically-needy African women is but half the Creative Women success equation. Ellen knows that economic gains cannot be sustained unless Creative Women is producing commercially viable products. So Ellen and her partners work hard to design fresh and beautiful textiles handcrafted with the highest quality, eco-friendly materials. The result is nothing short of fantastic. Creative Women has become known for its hand-woven, vibrantly-colored mohair and hand-spun silk, all made with natural dyes from flowers, roots, berries and bark.

The Highlights

Ellen Dorsch “founded Creative Women as a way to create jobs in Ethiopia and sustain an ancient art form by introducing the West to the beauty of Ethiopian textiles.” Every day she proves that everyone from producer to consumer benefits from commercial viability conducted within a “respectful relationship” that is fostered by “a socially responsible link”.

Ellen's success stories abound. We particularly liked the story of an artisan who used her Sabahar income to have long-needed dental work. Her joy and pride is plainly visible in her "success smile," pictured here.

We salute Ellen and her Creative Women partners for their humanitarian work and extraordinarily beautiful Ethiopian and Swazi textiles! We are pleased to offer several of Creative Women’s lovely products. We find that Creative Women’s hand work, high fashion designs and natural and sustainable materials combine to produce unsurpassed quality with a certain soulful, personal touch.

Gifts with style and relevance from a socially responsible small business . . .