Giving Back With PVH Employees on World Refugee Day

With 63.5 million people globally forcibly displaced from their homes, 21.3 million of whom are refugees, Nest is committed to harnessing the unifying power of craft to break down hateful stereotypes perpetuating issues of displacement; provide gainful economic employment to displaced people; and heal the personal and collective psychological pain caused by forcible displacement.

Compelled to action, Nest spent Tuesday’s World Refugee Day at the PVH headquarters in New York, joined via live Skype by Nest Artisan Guild leaders in Turkey and Kenya, who are training and employing refugee women in craft-based enterprises. Palmyra Design‘s hand embroidered clutches, totes, and necklaces, and Heshima Kenya‘s tie dyed soft-as-can be scarves were scattered upon tables and passed through hands, as PVH employees, as part of the Nest Fellowship Program, familiarized themselves with these product offerings carrying every mark of human creativity, resilience, and connectedness.

Discussions bubbled up and filled the room with reactions, insights, and inquiries to be hashed out together: how can Palymra Design and Heshima Kenya improve further upon their already very appealing product offerings and marketing materials as they seek to expand their presence in the export market, ultimately providing employment and wage growth opportunities to the refugee women they are empowering?

By the end of a full morning of brainstorming, it was clear that PVH employees were in no short supply of  answers to this question – all of which brought a fresh new perspective to the artisan business leaders dialed in from afar. For Nest, it is a privilege and source of inspiration to have partners like Steering Committee member, PVH, who are joining with Nest as agents of change in building a world in which compassion has no borders.