We meet Rania Kinge in her jewellery and accessories shop "I love Syria" in the heart of Geneva. In this highly colourful setting, in the image of its creator, we evoke the committed career path of the energetic Swiss Syrian-Socialist entrepreneur.
S.A.E. : How did you become an entrepreneur?
R.K. : I left Syria at the age of 6 months. Following my father who was a diplomat, I lived in Switzerland, New York and Paris, where I studied in international institutions. After studying business management, I started my career with a company specializing in management systems in Geneva. While in New York, I once fell in admiration for Swarovski pearls displayed in a store. Fascinated, I bought a lot of them. And that's how I started creating my own jewellery and opened my shop in Geneva.
Then I tried to increase my production. That's when my father said to me, "Give Syria a chance. Damascus and Aleppo have very good craftsmen". He was right. In 2001, I started to collaborate with these craftsmen by exporting their products, such as Aleppo silk scarves. Then I opened my own workshop in Damascus, and hired 12 employees. My creations were sold abroad, in chic department stores like Harvey Nichols or luxury boutiques, especially in Geneva. I was reaching a very specialized niche market. Unfortunately, the differences in culture, values and business ethics in Syria eventually affected production and business relations and I decided to close the shop.
It was the war that made me resume an entrepreneurial activity in Syria and launch the "I Love Syria" brand in 2012, with the aim of helping those who had lost everything. Our creations are entirely made by women displaced by war. Eight at first, they are now 100, spread over several cities across the country. Our products are sold online on the international market. We are the first social enterprise in Syria. It is also totally independent, which is unprecedented in this country.
S.A.E. : You define yourself as a social enterprise. What is your business model?
K.R. : The social enterprise business model is gradually spreading in France, Belgium, Switzerland and the United States, but it does not exist in Syrian law. My company is therefore registered as a non-governmental organization that uses trade to finance itself (in Syria the company is registered as a limited liability company (LLC)).
Most women I work with have no previous skills or even education. We offer them a three-month training course, followed by piecework pay, based on the individual monthly production that determines the selling price. For example, for every 4 to 5 handbags made in a month, they receive $200 to $250, 4 times more than the current average wage in Syria. For sale, as any commercial transaction is currently impossible in Syria, our products are sold on the international market, thanks to e-commerce. Our objective is to be able to finance ourselves completely through sales. But we did not reach the breakeven at the moment.
S.A.E. : How did you come up with the idea of the brand "I love Syria", and why fashion accessories?
K.R. : Given the circumstances in which I wanted to operate, the production had to take place without electricity because electricity supply in Syria suffers serious problems. The manufacturing techniques also had to be simple enough to be taught in a few days. I then thought of bracelets braided and decorated with pearls and inspired by the memory of Broadway's tourist stalls covered in I love NY products, I imagined the I Love SY line. The brand would use the Syrian national flag as a logo, symbol of the unity of Syria before the war.
I presented my idea to women in a displaced persons' camp by offering them the opportunity to try, with this project, to earn enough money to leave the camp, rent an apartment, put their children back in school and resume their lives. Several of them have decided to follow me. Fearing that I would be drawn into corruption problems, I declined the proposal to share the premises of the organizations managing the camps. So I transformed my apartment in Damascus into a production workshop.
Eight women started working there, despite the difficulties of crossing the many checkpoints. It was also difficult for me because I had to interact with people who were extremely indoctrinated. But we persevered. We then rented a small workshop in the middle of the souk, where we were the only women, then an office, then a larger workshop. We even equipped it with toilets - a great novelty! - and we are very proud of it.
S.A.E. : What was your strategy to penetrate the international market?
K.R. : In 2016, I almost gave up. With the daily bombardments, the lack of water and electricity, production was suffering. And since no one was buying our products inside Syria and the company was not making any profits, I had to continuously inject funds into the project from my own pocket. That's when I discovered on the Internet the Ethical Fashion initiative of the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Geneva. It seeks to connect marginalized artisans in developing countries with international fashion houses. In February 2016, we exhibited our creations for the first time in Geneva. In the meantime, we created the Made by Women association with former colleagues of the Collège du Léman International School in Geneva and with the help of the Geneva government. Then we entered into a partnership with the ITC, funded by the Japanese government, to access e-commerce IT tools.
Since then, we have been able to export our products from Syria. And the events followed one another: sales exhibitions in Geneva, at the Palais des Nations, at the International Trade Centre, on the occasion of eComCaravan, the Week for Peace, the Christmas Market. As our sales improved, we were able to diversify our production and make the models more complex. We have also been able to start supporting other craftsmen from all over Syria, from Homs, Lattakia, Damascus, Aleppo by exporting their products. During our last exhibition, we shipped 5 tons of products to Geneva!
Today, we are present on all major social networks on which we post quality photos of our products. Many people follow us and contact us to display our products or for bulk purchases, from all over the world. We have established a network of women who share the same vision of ethical fashion, women who want to help other women living in a war zone or in poverty. We export our products to Australia, New Zealand, Germany, the United States, Spain, Switzerland, Algeria, Jordan. In Japan, we collaborate with Shibuya 109, the temple of fashion in Tokyo. A delegation from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs even visited us there and congratulated us!
S.A.E. : Is entrepreneurial success possible in a war-affected country?
K.R. : The most difficult thing is to manage the logistics dimension. Although international sanctions are not supposed to apply to non-governmental organizations and livelihood activities, this jeopardises our activities. When we are stuck, then we make use of a legal study by Georgetown University which shows clearly that as a non-governmental organisation, we should not be sanctioned. Through Made by Women, we order all our supplies from Switzerland. As for our products, they transit through Beirut and are then stored in Switzerland from where they are shipped to customers. For online sales, we have signed a contract with the YellowCube logistics service of the Swiss Post. Our items are scanned and stored in a computerized and automated order fulfillment center, linked to my online store www.raniakinge.com. We are the only company in Syria and probably in the entire Middle East to use this technology!
S.A.E. : What advice would you give to someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?
R.K. : You really have to want to do it to get started! In a situation like Syria, we must first face the stress of war, the bombs that fall. But you share these risks with everyone else and you are not alone. On the other hand, in such situation, having to tackle each aspect of the project and to manage everyday life challenges; at some point you feel alone.
In the mentality of an entrepreneur, anything is possible. In Switzerland, as a woman, if you have an idea and it meets a need, you will find support. In the Middle East, on the other hand, people with ideas are not valued. So you have to be very persistent, knock on doors over and over again. They will eventually open up. The will to do well and the intelligence of the heart are also important, especially to resist corruption. With a social enterprise, if you give in to corruption, you corrupt your entire mission, and in this case it is no longer worth it. You have to agree to take small steps forward and walk straight. And always rest on your friends!
S.A.E. : What future do you see for your company?
R.K. : My first objective was that the company should support as many women as possible. Now, it is a matter of making the company viable by generating enough profits to cover the costs and reach the break-even point. Now in our sixth year, we are almost there. In the future, I would like to replicate my model in other countries such as Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon or Turkey, from where many women are contacting us in this direction.
I believe that providing people with a livelihood is the best way to fight terrorism. We need to create more social enterprises and empower people to support themselves in their own countries and cultures.
This is my ambition for the future.
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