Kitepride

Kitepride - Meeting with Tabea Oppliger and team

Time out

After several hard years of shipbuilding and even more long, hard years of building up my publishing house and life training programme Down to EarthI was longing for a longer break.

I wanted to have free time to

  • to come to rest
  • to listen to my heart and God's heart
  • Find inspiration

The first few weeks are the more active part of the time out: Projects and people get to know them. Later comes the part about rest.

KitePride Tel Aviv

My first visit was to Tabea and Matti Opplinger, who KitePride an upcycling company that makes cool bags from old sails and parachutes. They are made by people who are victims of human trafficking or forced prostitution. The employees were in forced prostitution for between 5 and 27 years, where they were forced to have sex with other people for 12 hours a day. Most of them have a regular job for the first time in their lives.

Tabea Opplinger - Co-founder of Kitepride

Kitepride brings together many things that are important to my heart:

  • Good design: Really cool bags that are also functionally well thought out
  • Uniqueness: Each piece is unique
  • Upcycling: The items are made from old sails and parachutes
  • Manual labour: Everything is sewn by hand
  • Social: The company employs people who were victims of human trafficking and can now build a new life for themselves. 

All of this paired with trust in God, the willingness to take risks "The path is created by walking" says Tabea, and to pay for the whole thing.

The path is created by walking. - Tabea Opplinger

Tabea has written a book about her journey #nofilter, my life lived out loud, my dream lived awake which has just been published. Honest, without filters, encouraging, realistic and strong in faith.

You could do it at Amazon order or - even better - directly at Fontis your publisher - there you can also get the book with a shoulder bag from KitePride.

I'm going to write a feature about Tabea for the women's magazine JOYCE, so here's just a little insight.

Think big - act small

She thinks big. The aim of the association she founded GlowbalAct https://www.glowbalact.com/de/news/ is to abolish the trade in people who are sold as commodities. Every 30 seconds on earth, a person is sold to another person who then exploits him or her.

She acts "small". Every single woman counts. The prostitutes she used to give massages to in Switzerland to show her appreciation. The handful of women who work at Kite Pride in Tel Aviv and are thus given the opportunity to build a new life.

A drop in the ocean? Maybe. But every drop can be the beginning of rain.

An employee finalises a bag.

The perspective: Kitepride and ...

Her husband thinks the same way. In Switzerland, you have the architecture of a house completely finished before you start building. In the Middle East, you start with what you have. Then you keep building. Kitepride is the first room for Matthias, known as Mati.

He dreams of a large building complex with a wide range of different services that provide work and prospects for people who have been victims of human trafficking. Further projects in the Netherlands and other locations are in preparation or being considered.

Matthias Opplinger

The current situation

Every company has to cover its costs. The costs are there, regardless of whether you earn anything or not. This is particularly challenging for a start-up, i.e. a company in the founding phase.

At Kitepride, the costs for wages (80%), rooms, materials, machines, internet, toilet paper and cleaning materials are currently 30,000 per month.

Tabea herself does not receive a salary from the company, although she works five hours a day for Kitepride. Nevertheless, they are currently only able to generate around 60% of their running costs through bag sales.

Tabea at one of the desks in the company

The rest is currently covered by donations. But these are also meagre in the summer. At the moment, they don't know how they are going to pay the wages this month. "God is never too late" says Tabea.

I could feel her confidence, but also the strength that such a life costs at the minimum. And she talks about her longing to be able to use the donations for new visions and projects rather than for (wage) costs.

Of course, as an entrepreneur, that really touched me... I know those times when - despite all the frugality - things are super tight and looking at the bank account rarely brings a smile to your face.

  • Kitepride

I think the work that Kitepride is doing is great and I would like to do my bit to ensure that

  • enough money comes into the account quickly to pay the wages now
  • the daily 400 euro hole is plugged
  • Donations can be used for the development of further projects

Of course I did what I could: I put them in touch with potential new sales partners and also bought myself a bag. I gave a woman an hour's work, income and dignity. A good feeling.

Now it's your turn.

Do you also want to be proud of what is happening in the world through you?

Kitepride label
The label is on every bag.

So: If you like the project and want to do more than "oh, that's great" to say, then

Do not forget: Your A drop in the ocean can be the beginning of rain. Are you with us?

If you don't need any bags at all, you can also donate directly to the project. Donations are tax-deductible.

Recipient: Nehemiah Gateway Services gGmbH, Sparkasse Nürnberg

IBAN: DE52 760 50 10100 1177 7711 BIC/SWIFT: SSKNDE77

Please with VERMERK "glowbalact" provided.

What moves you about human trafficking and KitePride? I look forward to your comments.

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