Be Maayee

We all have our Stories

Maayee was founded to connect diverse minds, promote inclusivity and respect for all, and give back. Our founder, Akim, a former refugee from Sierra Leone, is passionate about enabling powerful conversations that build trust and unlock creativity through fashion. He experienced firsthand the challenges of being misunderstood in a new country and the lack of opportunity to express himself and his background. Akim is aware that people reactions to situations are influenced by their perspective, language, and culture. Therefore, he created a fashion activist label that engages people from different walks of life in the creative process to give them a voice and a space to identify shared values in their differences.

To achieve that, Maayee does the following:

INCLUSIVE & INTERACTIVE DESIGN SESSIONS

People with diverse backgrounds come together in an interactive design session to connect and discuss a world matter that affects us all. During the session, participants gain an understanding of everyone’s perspectives and, together they choose a core message to send to the world, which inspires Maayee’s designs. We will also hold events that promote our aim of dialogue and diversity, such as interactive workshops, panel discussions and more.

We held our first design session in Zurich in 2019, which inspired our first t-shirt. We combined it with the message from Isatu, a female primary school student with a big heart from a village in Sierra Leone. The design stands for friendship and respect.

SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION WITH AN IMPACT

Our clothes are made in Switzerland with carbon-neutral production, and we only use organic materials to bring our designs to life, making the production process environmentally friendly. Plus, the production process is 100% documented and transparent.

Promoting Gender Equality

Every sale at Maayee has a direct impact in the lives of girls from DEC primary school in Masheri Potho village in Sierra Leone. Currently, we focus on contributing to the advancement of SDGs quality education and gender equality. For every item sold, we purchase uniforms for primary school girls whose families can’t afford them and offer mentoring sessions that inspire the girls to stay in school and keep learning. In the future, we aim to help more girls like them across different countries. We invite you to watch the short video below about Isatu and the girls of DEC primary school who are our first group of beneficiaries.

THE MAAYEE TEAM

Maayee has come a long way due to the support and involvement of like-minded individuals and organizations who have given their time and finances to bring Maayee to this point. Our core team consist of very diverse nationalities and background scattered around the world in countries such as New Zealand, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Spain and Sierra Leone to name a few.

WHY SUPPORT US:

We need your help to launch our online store!

Although we have achieved certain milestones, Maayee is still an early-stage startup and we need your support. Our new objective is to amplify our reach by developing the website and cover essential infrastructure cost to make Maayee financially self-sustainable. Your contributions will be used for:

• Developing our online store (design, writing, e-commerce website setup)

• Marketing and communication costs

• Production costs for minumum orders quantity for tshirts

• Set up costs for our next design session and events

By supporting Maayee you:

• Promote a diverse and inclusive society

• Assist less fortunate gender equality

• Support the Swiss textile industry

• Support a start up with a refugee and migrant background

Let us together spread a movement of RESPECT and SOLIDARITY for all through fashion.

Be part of our movement

Be the message

Be Maayee