Mohamed Malim pulls the bright orange lining of a life jacket from a large box, recently shipped from Greece to Minnesota. This one has “CARIBBEAN GALAXI” printed in faded capital letters. He pulls out another one with “CHILD” printed on it.
Inside the box there are 39 more. Some are torn; all are well worn. Eight of them are sized for babies, which, given that they come from refugees who made the perilous boat journey from Africa to Greece, is heartbreaking.
Malim sorts them by color, taking care not to remove traces of wear. He needs them for what he does: cutting them up and turning them into fashionable leather-lined bracelets, or labeling them on the front of a knit hat.
Each product tells a story about a refugee’s journey.
“We want to see the wear marks,” said Peng Cha, who works with Malim. “If it’s sun-worn and faded, we want that to feature in the fashion pieces to help tell the story.” This is what makes the bracelets themselves strong, namely that they are worn items. There’s dirt on it. They’ve been through a lot.
To put it another way, Malim said, “You carry someone’s journey. This is essentially saying, “I’m on your side.” »
This is the message of the company that the 23-year-old created last year, while he was a student. The company is called Epimony (epimonia.com), whose root means “perseverance” in Greek.
“When a refugee flees his country, he faces many difficulties,” Malim said. “Life jackets represent struggles and perseverance. They symbolize hope. When someone is on this boat, they only think about their survival. They arrive in a new country with hopes and a dream.
Make the difference
Born to Somali parents in Kenya’s giant Dadaab refugee complex, he moved to Minnesota at age 5.
The eldest of six children, he was often responsible for translating for his parents during doctor’s appointments, paying bills and reading mail. At school, he was a high achiever in a competitive environment filled with many students whose parents were wealthy and well-educated.
“He was one of our superstars,” said Kathleen MacLennan, access coordinator at Edina High School. “He was mature beyond his years, even in high school. He was already very polite and he really had goals.
He was also a good enough athlete in track and field to make the team at the University of St. Thomas, where he studied business and entrepreneurship.
A few years ago, he was watching the news when he saw a report about the refugee crisis in Europe. One image struck him: hundreds of life jackets scattered on the Greek coasts.
Although Malim didn’t make this dangerous journey (his family entered the country legally), he wondered how he could turn those life jackets into something good. He contacted about 50 nonprofit organizations in Greece before one agreed to ship him life jacket liners. And his business was born.
So far, he has sold about 4,000 bracelets at $40 each. Epimonia also sells other fashion items: tote bags and hats, T-shirts and caps. He has earned around $110,000 in income to date, mostly online. Its goal for 2020 is to increase its sales by entering boutiques and small stores.
Aim higher
However, his goal is bigger than just growing his business: it’s about spreading his message and continuing to support refugees.
Malim has pledged to donate half of its profits to causes common to refugees. For example, bracelets made from orange life jackets support job training, while those made from blue life jackets support scholarships.
His business helps pay for citizenship applications and he also sends donations to the nonprofit that ships him the jacket linings, Refugee4Refugees, which supports refugees seeking asylum on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Samos.
MacLennan, for his part, was not surprised by his insistence on helping others.
“It just has this value of giving back,” she said. “That whole thing about how his family got here – they got lucky and their name got taken out of the lottery – he always seemed committed to giving back.”
“If I can make a difference in the life of a refugee,” Malim said, “it’s a dream come true.”
Tell a story
Epimonia is both native to Minnesota and incredibly global.
Its small contract manufacturing facility in Maplewood is housed in one of the oldest dairy barns in the state. It was started by a Hmong refugee several decades ago.
“It’s the bond between us,” said Cha, who runs Malim’s manufacturer, Home Based Industries. Cha’s parents were Hmong refugees who came to the United States after the Vietnam War, during which his father was a soldier. “We both come from the same lineage of people who came here for a better life, for the opportunity to make something of ourselves.”
Cha and his employees cut each life jacket liner into panels. A strip of the life jackets is sewn to a strip of leather; on the other side of the group is printed the Epimonia slogan: “Building Humanity Piece by Piece”.
A political element
Malim is aware that the refugee issue has become more politically charged in recent years.
The Trump administration reduced the number of resettled refugees to 18,000 in 2020, the lowest number the United States has admitted since 1980, when Congress created the Refugee Resettlement Program. That’s down from the 110,000 refugee limit set by Barack Obama during his final year in office. This comes at a time when the global refugee population is at its highest level since World War II.
And he’s not naive enough to think that a simple neon orange bracelet will immediately change people’s minds about the United States’ role in the global refugee crisis. But he hopes it might start a conversation.
“I want a visible product, a vibrant color,” Malim said. “Having this conversation is the ultimate goal. These are people like me and you who want to contribute to society and provide a decent life for their children.
“What if you were in this boat?” What if your family had to flee a civil war? How would you feel?” He asked. “Put yourself in that situation for a second. Refugees, they didn’t choose to be refugees. For me, it was a consequence of the civil war. You don’t You can’t control this stuff.
“These bracelets are the first step to creating empathy.”
