Nicky Hayward is the first to admit she's not like a lot of year-olds. A men's fashion designer, she started her own business less than two years ago and is now combining her entrepreneurial spirit with a desire to lead African families out of poverty.
Next month she's travelling to Uganda to share her skills to help people establish manufacturing businesses which she hopes will one day enable her to import their goods to develop her own. Nicky is working on the principle of giving people a hand up rather than a hand out and, to achieve her goal, she's hoping to raise several thousand dollars to pay for her trip during a special cabaret night on November She's confident she'll have the funds to make the trip on December It's that positive outlook which has seen the ex-Tauranga Girls' College student quickly make the move from fashion school graduate to designer and business owner.
Her business, Sir Couture, targets men in the media and music industry. She has mostly Auckland-based clients, designing outfits specific to their taste and style. One day she hopes to get into retail outlets but for now, her goal is to build her business by first helping less fortunate families living in the Kampala area of Uganda. The idea grew out of a conference she attended earlier this year where she was put in touch with people from Christian-based organisations Call2All and Transformational Ventures.
Their business programmes operate in Third World countries and improve the standard of living by giving people new skills, such as sewing and jewellery-making, which they can use to make money and better care for their families. Keen to be involved, she has spent most of the year planning her trip. She will work with a team of people from the Hope Alive rehabilitation programme and live in their secure compound in Kampala. She wants to teach orphaned children how to sew school bags and work with at least two men who Nicky says could possibly manufacture clothing she designs.
Growing up, he got into tailoring and set up his own business, employing 10 people. I'd like to meet with him and see if he could make my designs. There is also a guard at the compound who could be taught how to manufacture ties that I could one day import from him and sell here. It's all about creating mutual benefit.
