Meet Angela Melfi, the Co-founder of Threads Worldwide

Sarah Beisly is a co-founder of The Loyal Workshop, a business that exists to offer alternative employment to women trapped in the sex trade in Kolkata, India. From a young age, Sarah dreamed of starting her own business. At university, she discovered the social business model, where rather than businesses existing to make the CEO rich, businesses exist for a particular positive social outcome. She lived in India for 9 years, establishing The Loyal Workshop and now resides in her home country of New Zealand. She experiences every day, that business can be a powerful tool of empowerment. Join the revolution.

Sarah was born with a natural zeal for business. She attended Massey University in New Zealand and majored in business, hoping to acquire new skills and knowledge to start her own business in the future. During her time at Massey, she discovered a certain entrepreneurial sector known as “social enterprises.” For the majority of her life, Sarah had been under the presumption that businesses were starting to benefit their CEO, but for the first time, she was introduced to the concept of socially impactful businesses. Sarah was introduced to several new economic concepts and learned how microloans and micro enterprises can alleviate economic distress. She graduated from University knowing that she wanted to expand her knowledge of social enterprises and experience first-hand how it could positively impact a community. So, Sarah embarked on a trip to Kolkata India to work at Freeset, a pioneering business made by New Zealanders that provides alternative employment for women trapped in the sex trade. The first thing Sarah noticed when arriving in Kolkata was its vibrant atmosphere and lovely citizens. When she saw the impactful work that Freeset was doing to protect and empower the women trapped in the sex trade, she knew that she needed to do something to help the situation.

Before we dive into Sarah’s work with The Loyal Workshop we need to acknowledge the dire situation that these women are in.

Let’s go to Kolkata, India.

The red light districts in Kolkata are some of the largest sectors in India, home to more than 60,000 brothel-based women and girls in prostitution in Kolkata. Each woman has a different personal narrative, some mothers depend on the economic revenue from sex work to take care of their children. Some young girls have been trafficked into the system and can’t escape due to the societal norms in the area. Some older women have been stuck in the system their whole lives. Each individual has a different important reason as to why a brothel is their home. In a brothel, there are approximately 20-24 girls and 10 rooms. Not all the girls are stable workers for the madam, some come leisurely to take on businesses whenever they need money. Even if some of the girls wanted to leave their job as a sex worker and take on a different job, they are often shunned from society and no one offers them a chance. They’re scared, trapped, and afraid to fight for themselves due to the constraints they’re under. During COVID, the red light districts in Kolkata all shut down which put a massive economic burden on the women that worked there. Kolkata continues to fight for the rights of its sex workers, many brothels are working to be made legal and to have sex work be seen as a viable profession.

Sarah noticed the positive impact that Freeset made on the women in Kolkata, not only were they providing them with alternate options for work, but they were also trying to lift them mentally and empower them. Sarah knew that this was the kind of work that she would want to continue for the rest of her life. During her time in Kolkata, she learned a lot about the sex-workers situations and wanted to stand by them. Sarah was able to empathize with the women since she was a survivor of abuse herself. Her own experiences helped her realize the urgency of the issue which led her to brainstorm and create The Loyal Workshop.

Around this time, Sarah began questioning her decisions and experienced a lot of self-doubt surrounding her capabilities. Although she faced this doubt, she kept working on overcoming these issues and worked to develop resilience.

In addition to the issues Sarah faced setting up her business, she also struggled with creating relationships with the women in the Red Light District. Women here were traditionally exploited, which is why women were hesitant to trust Sarah and Paul. This lack of trust also stems from the worker’s low level of education with many of them only having 0-2 years of schooling their entire lives. In addition, some of these women are victims of child marriage, their husbands sent them off, or their fathers passed away. Many of these women come from areas of high exploitation, where it is common to be trafficked, especially near the Bangladesh border. Once they are trafficked, women are usually physically abused, raped, and subjected to psychological violence to the point where many of them believe their life is worthless. Even women in their 20s believe their lives are over and many become a part of the untouchable cast, meaning that they are outcasts. This societal position means they could not get other forms of labor, which is why they are forced into the trade.

Once they first enter the system, the madam has full ownership of the women, claiming all of the profits. As they get older, women are commonly resold to a different city, where they may be a part of a 50-50 system, and can have half of their profit. Once they reach 30, these women get fewer customers, which can be dangerous, as they need to pay rent to their madam, which forces some women into harmful economic positions, and some even become madams themselves, reinforcing the cycle in a different area.

After spending time in the red light district and trying to build relationships with the workers for two years, Sarah was able to recruit a few women to start working for the Loyal Workshop. Before giving them tasks, Sarah worked on building a strong relationship of trust and started by asking about their lives. It started small, like things about their lunch and the weather. Sarah also learned to be mindful of their body language when speaking to them. If the workers looked unsafe or uncomfortable, such as if their madam was watching them, Sarah knew it was time to stop the conversation. All the interactions Sarah was having helped her empathize more and provide emotional support when the workers were contemplating leaving the sex trade. Sarah assured them that they were supported and she knew that the women had to choose for themselves when they were ready. She told them that The Loyal Workshop would be there to help them untangle themselves from their relationships and the situation they were trapped in. Due to this, Sarah started providing group therapy and mentorship to help guide the women out of their situations and to help them realize their worth as humans. These mentorship sessions helped the women realize their worth, and some of them would return to the sex trade to wrap up any unfinished business before fully joining The Loyal Workshop full-time. This experience can truly be a traumatic one as it’s not easy to leave a place you’ve spent your whole life in. The first set of women to join were extremely brave since at the time, The Loyal Workshop was not fully set up, so the women were putting their trust into Sarah and blindly joining.

In addition to emotional support when leaving these situations, the Loyal Workshop provides support for the women in other ways as well. For the first 6 months, the women get group therapy and talk about their emotions and what safe relationships look like. Overall they work to find their voice and move to one and one counseling if needed. In addition, they learn how to make the Loyal Workshop bags, as well as work on developing confidence in themselves and the work they do. They also receive math classes, Bengali classes for writing, and English classes. Some women continue these classes after the first 6 months as well. Women also receive comprehensive checkups and get their first eye checkups, with many of them receiving glasses. If they have an unstable home environment or need extra help, they may also receive an interest-free loan.

Younger women have a tougher time leaving. When they are younger, they are more valuable to the madam, so they make it difficult to leave. Older women still face their share of troubles. They fear new experiences and have what is known as “power people” or people who have immense influence in their life, such as their husbands or boyfriend, which they have to ask permission for to leave.

After years of building up The Loyal Workshop, Sarah and Paul realized that it was time to transfer ownership to the loyal people in Kolkata. The business is currently in its 3-year succession plan, as Sarah and Paul have moved back to New Zealand. Their succession planning team, local leadership, and foreign partners are all working hard to make the transfer successful. During COVID, the team learned to run smoothly without much oversight from Paul and Sarah, and they felt like it was right to continue on that path.

Sarah boldly believes in going for what you want. She expresses that we should all live for something bigger than ourselves and follow the passions that ignite our love for life and keep us alive instead of just working for money. We should dream bigger than what society tells us and try to do things that help each other. When you feel doubt about pursuing something new, seek out like-minded individuals and take baby steps towards conquering your fears.

You can support Sarah’s mission to help the girls in Kolkata by buying their amazing handmade leather products on their website and getting the word out to those around you about the dire sex-trafficking situation in India. We urge you to share this information with friends and family around you and purchase your leather bags from The Loyal Workshop to show your support for the women that make them. Right now, there are thousands of young girls being forced to join the sex trade, they need our help, your purchasing habits truly make a difference.

The next time you buy a product of leather, make sure it’s from The Loyal Workshop, and help one more girl escape the cycle of violence they’re stuck in currently.

Thank you for reading our post!