Renata Black is one of those soon-to-be legendary women who does it all. The microfinance entrepreneur is changing the lives of women around the world with her sustainability programs, while still finding time to rollerblade on the weekends.
After travelling to India in 2004, Black realized impoverished women there didn’t need aid, but empowerment. As a result, she founded the Seven Bar Foundation, a grassroots microfinance program that grants loans to local women to help them start sustainable businesses. This venture would be the first of many for Black, who has since made it her mission to help women help themselves.
In 2012, Black launched Empowered By You, a collaborative intimates brand that aims to change perceptions of lingerie by giving confidence to its wearers. Produced in a facility in Sri Lanka that adheres to the UN’s Women’s Empowerment Principles, the Empowered By You undies also raise money for Seven Bar, contributing twenty percent of net profits to microfinance loans.
It only seems fitting that Black teamed up with Studio One Eighty Nine’s Rosario Dawson and Abrima Erwiah to launch a collaborative line. The undies, which come in three African-inspired prints, carry the slogan “Boa me na me mwoa wo” or "help me and let me help you,” Studio One Eighty Nine’s motto.
Renata, Rosario, and Abrima got together to talk about badass women in India and why saris are sometimes cooler than Victoria’s Secret.
Check back each week in April for more interviews embodying Studio One Eighty Nine’s motto “Boa me na me mwoa wo,” where Rosario Dawson and Abrima Erwiah talk with people making a difference.
Shop all Studio One Eighty Nine here
ABRIMA ERWIAH: The story of what you guys do has really touched us, which is why we decided to do the ”boa me” symbol on the panty. Who’s someone you’ve paid it forward to?
RENATA BLACK: Her name is name is Chitra. When I was cleaning villages in India, she came up to me and said, “I don’t want your money, teach me how to make it.” I had no idea because I was drowning in student loans, but she didn’t realize and that and thought that because I was American, I knew about making money. When she said that to me, I realized that I wish I did. I was watching all of this aid come in that was making people dependent on free things; these really amazing badass women were becoming beggars. I realized it wasn’t about aid—what they needed was jobs. I then took it upon myself to do some research and I found microfinance. I went and studied at the Grameen Bank under Muhammad Yunus [the microfinance pioneer who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize]. It was crazy, nobody knew who he was at that time. I studied under him and I came back and saw the woman again and said, “Look, I can do this. I can teach you now.”
I went to the people at Earth Aid, and [found out] they only gave money to credit-worthy women. The women that lived in these villages were
After travelling to India in 2004, Black realized impoverished women there didn’t need aid, but empowerment. As a result, she founded the Seven Bar Foundation, a grassroots microfinance program that grants loans to local women to help them start sustainable businesses. This venture would be the first of many for Black, who has since made it her mission to help women help themselves.
In 2012, Black launched Empowered By You, a collaborative intimates brand that aims to change perceptions of lingerie by giving confidence to its wearers. Produced in a facility in Sri Lanka that adheres to the UN’s Women’s Empowerment Principles, the Empowered By You undies also raise money for Seven Bar, contributing twenty percent of net profits to microfinance loans.
It only seems fitting that Black teamed up with Studio One Eighty Nine’s Rosario Dawson and Abrima Erwiah to launch a collaborative line. The undies, which come in three African-inspired prints, carry the slogan “Boa me na me mwoa wo” or "help me and let me help you,” Studio One Eighty Nine’s motto.
Renata, Rosario, and Abrima got together to talk about badass women in India and why saris are sometimes cooler than Victoria’s Secret.
Check back each week in April for more interviews embodying Studio One Eighty Nine’s motto “Boa me na me mwoa wo,” where Rosario Dawson and Abrima Erwiah talk with people making a difference.
Shop all Studio One Eighty Nine here
ABRIMA ERWIAH: The story of what you guys do has really touched us, which is why we decided to do the ”boa me” symbol on the panty. Who’s someone you’ve paid it forward to?
RENATA BLACK: Her name is name is Chitra. When I was cleaning villages in India, she came up to me and said, “I don’t want your money, teach me how to make it.” I had no idea because I was drowning in student loans, but she didn’t realize and that and thought that because I was American, I knew about making money. When she said that to me, I realized that I wish I did. I was watching all of this aid come in that was making people dependent on free things; these really amazing badass women were becoming beggars. I realized it wasn’t about aid—what they needed was jobs. I then took it upon myself to do some research and I found microfinance. I went and studied at the Grameen Bank under Muhammad Yunus [the microfinance pioneer who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize]. It was crazy, nobody knew who he was at that time. I studied under him and I came back and saw the woman again and said, “Look, I can do this. I can teach you now.”
I went to the people at Earth Aid, and [found out] they only gave money to credit-worthy women. The women that lived in these villages were