Young Social Impact Heroes: Why and How Caleigh Hernandez and RoHo Decided To Change Our World

An Interview With Penny Bauder

Celebrate successes. I constantly have to remind myself to celebrate successes. It’s too easy to get into the grind and not celebrate the large and small victories that have been achieved. Without the celebration though, I find myself feeling like I’m continually slogging. It’s in the celebration that I find myself slowing down, reflecting and finding energy and motivation for the next project.

As part of my series about young people who are making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Caleigh Hernandez.

Caleigh Hernandez became interested in everything RoHo in 2013 on her first trip to East Africa, while living with a host family in rural Uganda and interning for a local community-based organization. While walking through the craft markets she saw a pair of gorgeous leather sandals and was hooked. She returned to Uganda the following summer to conduct independent research on small-scale entrepreneurs while also developing her idea for RoHo. Caleigh has also worked as a Research Assistant for the Eleos Foundation, an organization that invests in market-based solutions to poverty alleviation in Africa, as well as the Center for Complex Operations, a security think-tank. Caleigh graduated cum laude from Northwestern University in 2015 with a BA in Political Science and International Studies. After graduation she moved to rural Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya through a Princeton in Africa Fellowship working for the International Rescue Committee. While attending the 2015 Clinton Global Initiative University Conference, she was named a Resolution Fellow for RoHo, which awarded her seed money and mentorship. Since then, she’s been off the ground running, as RoHo was selected as one of 50 projects featured in the united Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Youth Solutions Report and her work has been highlighted in Forbes. She’s currently working on RoHo full time.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?

Thanks for giving me an opportunity to share! Growing up in Santa Barbara, California and Park City, Utah I had a really nice childhood. My mom was successful in her career and we were financially stable. When the 2008 recession hit though, my family lost everything. While I was in high school and beyond it was a challenge for my family to get by financially. It was a time in my life that forced me to grow up quickly, adapt and reflect on what it means to have and not have.

It was at this time that I began learning about privilege and the access it affords, which impacts my work today.

You are currently leading a social impact organization. Can you tell us a bit about what you and your organization are trying to change in our world today?

That’s right, we’re working to create opportunities in areas where there are few. At RoHo, we partner with talented artisans in Kenya and sell their beautiful wares while also paying them fairly and creating educational opportunities for their children.

The RoHo ethical line includes beaded leather sandals, beaded jewelry, reusable bags and a collection of cowhide totes, clutches & journals. RoHo pays artisans wages far higher than the industry standard, ensures artisans are working in a safe environment and provides education grants to send their children to quality schools. We are committed to educating consumers on the difference between these slower fashion principles and those of fast fashion outlets.

RoHo believes that poverty is an absence of opportunity as much as a lack of material possessions. We seek to create opportunities in areas with vast amounts of artisanal talent, but amongst vulnerable populations with high unemployment rates, limited infrastructure, and poor education services. By creating new American markets for quality, artisan made products, RoHo is helping people help themselves break the cycle of poverty. Providing safe and quality jobs to skilled artisans is key in supporting community development.

In addition to our original mission, since COVID-19 has hit Kenya, many RoHo artisans are food insecure. For the past several weeks it has been our commitment to ensure our artisans and their families have access to the food and healthcare they need during this uncertain time while our supply chains are disrupted.

Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?

To be honest I never thought I’d be running a sandal and accessories company, although some may call it fate because my first words as a child were, “New Shoes”.

It started when I came across a pair of beautiful beaded leather sandals in a craft market in East Africa. These craft areas are dark, dingy, rarely have electricity and if they have concrete floors, they are cracked. I distinctly remember looking over my shoulder because something caught my eye. It was a pair of gorgeous, glittering, uniquely beaded leather sandals. I knew instantly they had incredible potential to make a meaningful difference in the lives of the artisans and the American women who would wear them.

The next year, while in Uganda conducting research, I began mapping out the East Africa sandal industry. I’d ask local shopkeepers who made the best sandals in the area. I was continually told to look for “Fat Lydia” (I want to interject by saying the term “fat” in East Africa doesn’t have a negative connotation, in fact it’s more of a compliment). In any case, I was told, “Not the skinny Lydia, she’s a big woman, the Kenyan. You’ll know her when you see her”. I was told what part of town she’d be in, so I took a motorcycle taxi and off I went. It sounded easy, but it took me hours of searching. Three different motorcycle taxis taking me to the wrong parts of the city, I was lost wondering what the heck I was doing in this foreign country, but I finally found her.

I can only imagine the sight I presented upon arrival — a disheveled, sweaty college student, trying desperately to explain to her how much I loved her shoes, wanting to learn more. And yet we clicked right away. My Swahili and Lugandan might not have been perfect and her English wasn’t great, but we made it work. Beautiful shoes are universal.

We sat on tiny wooden stools in one of her pop-up craft shops speaking for close to two hours. I explained my idea of importing her shoes to the US and creating a social business, she told me about Kenya, her background as a woman entrepreneur and single mother, the 42 artisans she works with, 36 women and six men, and the intricacies of sandal making. I think Lydia was excited by the prospect of expanding her business, even if it was with a crazy college student, and improving the lives of people in her community.

Lydia told me about the town where the sandals are made. Gorgeous sand beaches, beautiful Middle Eastern influences, a lively and fantastic people, and unemployment rates upwards of 40%. I could see there were gaps and needs in this community and knew right then and there that I could be impactful to Lydia and her artisans. Thus, the business relationship and friendship started in a slightly unorthodox, possibly stalkerish way on my part.

I stayed in contact with Lydia and started working on developing a sandal line with her that were marketable for consumers in the US. As the desire for beautiful and unique products increased in the US, RoHo fostered partnerships with three additional quality, talented and underserved artisan groups in Kenya to broaden the RoHo product line.

Yes, the sandals really got me hooked, but it was also my experiences working on the ground for various nonprofits in East Africa that solidified my passion for the area and economic development in general. To play a small part in helping someone improve their circumstances has been incredibly rewarding.

Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest it. They don’t get up and just do it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and do it? What was that final trigger?

I started RoHo, which means kindness in Swahili, in an idealistic search for a better way to create opportunities for people to help themselves. While working for nonprofits in East Africa, I was often frustrated that the scope of an organization didn’t always match the needs of people on the ground.

My “Aha Moment” happened while I was living in rural Tanzania working for a nonprofit. I was interviewing a child who was considered a success story for the project’s mission of eradicating child labor. This young boy, Evod, was attending school regularly, in fact he was top of his class, and was deemed to no longer be at risk of engaging in child labor. This was exciting, but I saw an additional threat to his success. As I interviewed him, I noticed that his eyes involuntarily shook, making it difficult for him to see far distances. Evod was forced to spend upwards of four hours a night on his schoolwork in order to remain successful, with limited electricity and using books with small print that was incredibly strenuous for his eyes.

Evod’s family did not have the ability to send him to a doctor for his condition, so we did not know how serious it was. When I spoke with our nonprofit to see if there was a possibility we could help get this child access to an optometrist to improve his quality of life. They sympathized but argued that this was out of their mandate; his eye condition did not make him more susceptible to being exploited for child labor. In the end I arranged for Evod to see a specialist, but this wasn’t a long term or effective solution. He needed longer term care that I wasn’t able to provide. I understood the nonprofit’s need to remain transparent to its donor in ensuring funds went towards child labor eradication, but I wished there was some wiggle room to address other needs of clients that threatened their success in other ways.

This experience has created a commitment at RoHo to better meet the needs of our artisans and their families as new threats to their success arise.

Many young people don’t know the steps to take to start a new organization. But you did. What are some of the things or steps you took to get your project started?

Once I solidified my relationship with the sandal workshop, I began navigating the importing and customs process as I started bringing over sandal samples and sharing with friends to get feedback. Shipping shoes from Kenya was harder than I originally thought. It was definitely a test of patience and problem solving.

My background was not in business, so I took a class from a local nonprofit supporting women business owners and developed a business plan. At the same time, I was buying coffee for everyone in my network with business experience. There was so much I didn’t know that I didn’t yet know. These coffee meetings were an enormous opportunity to pick the brains of those who had failed and been successful in their fields. Their experience proved to be invaluable and helped me to avoid some common pitfalls, although I have made many mistakes along the way as well.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?

Adding the Esiteti Women’s Cooperative to the RoHo collection has been a privilege and meeting with them on my trips to Kenya is always a highlight. These women create beaded jewelry for the RoHo line. We strive to empower this Maasai community by selling their traditional beadwork, generating Fair Trade income for the women artisans, creating the means for them to care for themselves, their families and their community while producing educational opportunities for their children and future generations.

These 280+ Maasai women and their families live just outside of Amboseli National Park in the south of Kenya. But where the park ends and the Maasai community begins there are no fences or other means to keep the animals contained. The Maasai essentially live in a national park. Because these people have grown up around these animals, they have such a special relationship with them. The way they interact with the nature around them is so harmonious and beautiful.

Every time I meet with this group, I am warned to be cognizant of time. Around 3 pm, the elephants migrate near our artisans’ homes towards better sources of water for nighttime. And it can be dangerous to have our women walking when the elephants are out. These are the things we need to be aware of and why it’s important to ensure we’re listening to our artisans about their needs.

Only in the past 10 or so years a school has been established in the area, so most of these women artisans cannot read or write. We try to prepare extensively for our meeting with the Esiteti women by coming up with all sorts of clever and unique ways to ensure quality control in sizing and colorways that don’t necessarily involve reading or writing. We indent on rulers, photoshop pictures and cut measuring tape into appropriate sizes.

The Esiteti women are incredible, vivacious, beautiful, resilient and strong and it has been an honor and a once in a lifetime experience to work with them.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson or take away you learned from that?

We’ve made many missteps along the way, and in many of them I am reminded to be patient, whether I’d like to or not. Early on while I saw establishing RoHo, I was desperate for a sandal shipment containing samples from Kenya that was already delayed. And then the Pope came. Pope Francis actually visited Nairobi for the first time in 2015 and it shut the entire city down for days. Our sandals fly out of Nairobi although they’re made on the coast, but we couldn’t get them to the airport to ship out, delaying us at least another week. It was totally out of anyone’s hands and felt almost biblical.

This lesson taught me to be more realistic with my expectations for shipment schedules, knowing what can go wrong will go wrong. Also, when we partner with a boutique or other group, we want to ensure they understand the context in which we’re working, so they have realistic expectations for delivery schedules as well.

None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?

I have been incredibly fortunate to have acquired a number of mentors along the way who keep me in check. I am in a brilliant mastermind group of women who raise me to their level, plus I have three amazing mentors I check in with on a monthly basis who both cheerlead and tell me when I need to step it up.

When COVID-19 hit, I was incredibly depressed. Our supply chains were disrupted, and 75% of our artisans and their families were food insecure, about 1,500 people. The combination of COVID-19 and a severe locust infestation has resulted in food shortages coupled with a work shutdown. But with RoHo sales down, I felt there was little I could do about the problem. That’s when I got on a phone call with a mentor of mine who essentially told me it was time to pick myself up and figure something out. It was tough love, but desperately needed. And that same day, my mom came to me and reminded me of all the African kitenge and batik fabric we’ve been gifted or have bought in our travels to East Africa. She thought we should start making masks. And that’s when I became not only an entrepreneur, but an artisan myself.

I enlisted the help of my mom and together we began turning these fabrics into face masks to sell with profits supporting food security in Kenya. My mom has some sewing experience, but I’d consider myself one of the least crafty people out there. The sample masks weren’t perfect, but the fabrics were beautiful, double-sided washable and most of all, durable.

I got my sister, a photographer, to take photographs of the masks and posted them online. We were overwhelmed with the response! In the first 24 hours, we sold nearly 60 masks (keep in mind, we had none in inventory at the time). And the orders continued to pour in. We began working tirelessly at my kitchen table to fulfill orders with a 24-hour turn-around time. I recruited my boyfriend and grandmother to begin sewing, ironing and pinning as well. We borrowed sewing machines, drove hours around southern California to secure elastic and quickly ran out of our own inventory of fabric and had to order from an African fabric distributor.

Just as orders began to slow down, a friend purchased 75 masks to be distributed to Bellevue Hospital in New York City. She had heard their volunteer staff was in need of alternative PPE and decided to gift the masks. For the sewing crew at my house, the order was a labor of love combining securing food for RoHo artisans in Kenya and sending masks to areas who desperately need them.

And that got me thinking, why not offer RoHo consumers the ability to gift masks to those in need? Within days, we created partnerships with Doctors without Walls (DWW), the MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, and Second Harvest Food Bank in New Orleans.

Doctors without Walls is an organization that provides support and healthcare services to people experiencing homelessness in Santa Barbara County. Through their weekly rounds, RoHo masks and other essential items were distributed to protect this vulnerable population.

The MD Anderson Cancer Center was desperately in need of thousands cloth masks for their non-critical care staff. They are working hard to retain their surgical and N95 masks for critical care staff and also their cancer patients.

Lastly we contacted Second Harvest Food Bank in New Orleans, an area heavily impacted by COVID-19, to distribute masks to soup kitchen and pantry volunteer staff who lack proper equipment while distributing food aid.

To date, RoHo has made nearly 1,000 masks that have been sold and donated to their partners. Through this project, we have been able to ensure our at-risk artisans and their families are food secure at least through mid-June (to date). We’ve added kid’s masks to the collection as well in order to appeal to a broader audience, and we’re only getting started.

While the sewing crew and I have done the work on this project, it wouldn’t have happened without my mentors keeping me accountable and reminding me that there are always ways forward, even in dark times.

Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?

Maimuna is a beader for our sandal workshop. She’s one of the impressive women who sews beads to leather by hand for our gorgeous sandals. She’s a single mother of three and was forced to drop out of school before reaching secondary school. Her husband left her and her family several years back, meaning she is the sole breadwinner of the family. Of all our sandal artisans, she has the fewest resources and the smallest house. But she’s remained a consistent force for good at RoHo.

Now all three of her children are in quality local schools of her choice. Her two eldest children are in secondary school at the moment and are no longer at risk of dropping out. RoHo is still new, so I don’t want to overstate the impact we have had on Maimuna and her family yet, but her increased income means that her family has more options than it ever has. Both food and education are more secure.

Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?

At RoHo we seek to assist in community development with our artisans, to build stronger, more resilient communities who have more opportunities to grow. But there are many factors that keep people in their relative positions and feed off of each other, far more than just three. Improvements in the quality of education offered is a start, but also less corruption, improved infrastructure, better healthcare and the existence of government safety net programs are desperately needed as well. Beyond this though, improved access to information and opportunities for all needs to be addressed. It’s great to have better quality education for example, but if there are no jobs available for those with a better education, then what’s the point? I wish it was a simple solution, but all these needs self-reinforce and make it difficult for a community to improve on the whole. I’m not saying things can’t be changed, but rather as a reminder there’s a lot of work to be done in the areas in which were working.

Beyond this though, increased conversations amongst communities where we sell our products about social consumerism and the ways our spending impacts global supply chains are incredibly helpful. Our consumers are those who are looking to disrupt the current status quo of fast fashion outlets and treating clothing and other products as disposable.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1. Everything is going to take longer and be more difficult than you think. That’s okay. I remember on the first day of my business class, our instructor showed us a picture of two dots, Point A & Point B. He explained how of course it would be simplest to get from Point A to B using a straight line. Then he said for entrepreneurs to get from Point A to B it would be much less straight, more zigzagged. That could not be more accurate. It’s in those pivots that I’ve learned the most.
2. Listen deeply to the needs of those you’re trying to assist. When I first started RoHo, I had an idea of addressing the systemic unemployment that existed in the coastal Kenyan town by using RoHo profits to establish a vocational school to train interested community members in marketable beading and leatherwork skills. But reviews were mixed when I discussed this with our sandal making artisans during a community meeting. They explained that the county is inundated with trainings, but it has not helped the unemployment rates in the area. So we shifted our focus to our artisans and their families because we felt like we could have a better impact if we started smaller and with a group we knew well. And again, we raised the question about how to reduce poverty to our artisans. We came to the conclusion together that in the longer term, education is key to reducing poverty, but school fees to quality local schools has proved burdensome. That’s when we began providing educational grants to our artisans’ children for quality local schooling.
3. Storytelling is incredibly powerful and important. Because not everyone travels with me to Kenya and gets to see what we’re doing firsthand, storytelling is the tool I have adopted to share our brand and message. Storytelling unlocks empathy in our brains and makes us envision ourselves in that space. Never underestimate the importance of this in a business or endeavor.
4. Make sure what you’re selling is addressing a need. In some ways I started RoHo with an obsession with beautiful footwear, not even thinking necessarily if there was a need for this product. I began hosting focus groups to ensure this was even a product people will be interested in buying. Keep doing these! Know exactly what your customer’s pain points are and how your product addresses them. Our mask project has taken off because there’s a deep need for this product right now and it is helping to keep people safe.
5. Celebrate successes. I constantly have to remind myself to celebrate successes. It’s too easy to get into the grind and not celebrate the large and small victories that have been achieved. Without the celebration though, I find myself feeling like I’m continually slogging. It’s in the celebration that I find myself slowing down, reflecting and finding energy and motivation for the next project.

If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?

I don’t necessarily think everyone should go out and partner with a community abroad if they don’t have a deep cultural understanding of that area and its people. But I do think there are ways to be impactful that play up one’s strengths. I’d suggest following your passions, listening carefully to the needs that exist, not necessarily the needs you think or want to exist. Now is the time to make a difference and live a life with purpose.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

Bill and Melissa Gates are inspiring in the ways they’re addressing global challenges. Specifically, their work to eradicate Polio and their quest to improve sanitation globally is incredibly impressive. I’d love to have a lunch with them where I ask about the ways in which they think outside the box to tackle enormous issues and have leveraged their connections to become forces for good. They are taking on some of the world’s biggest issues.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can find us at www.RoHoGoods.com or on Facebook at Instagram at @RoHoGoods

This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!

About the author:

Penny is an environmental scientist-turned-entrepreneur. She’s worked as a climate scientist, an environmental planner, and a wilderness park ranger. Motivated by a passion to raise a generation of environmental leaders, in 2010 Penny founded Green Kid Crafts, a children’s media company that provides kids around the world with convenient and eco-friendly STEAM activities. Today, it’s become a leader in the subscription industry, with over 1 million packages shipped worldwide that have exposed a generation to think about and take a leadership role in sustainability. Penny, her husband Jeff, and her children Rowan and Declan live together in San Diego, California. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Management and an M.S. in Environmental Science. Penny has over 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship, management, strategy and finance. She’s a seasoned leader, an inspiring speaker, an encouraging business mentor, and a creative writer. You can learn more about Green Kid Crafts at https://www.greenkidcrafts.com/ and follow Penny’s stories and updates at https://www.instagram.com/greenkidcrafts/ and https://twitter.com/bauderpenny.