Boutique supports African orphans
By John Joyce
Published in News on February 4, 2017 3:58 PM
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Lilian Danieli, left, and Crystal Flowers hold a hand beaded necklace made by the women of the Masai tribe. Flowers purchased the necklace today at the soft opening of Nashona, a store that Danieli founded, whose purpose is to sell global products while contributing to the Shalom orphanage in Karatu, Tanzania among other global charities.
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Jovane Marie, center, brand ambassador for Nashona, greets guests at the soft opening of the store this afternoon.
"Karibu, welcome to Nashona."
Patrons were greeted in Swahili as they entered historic downtown Goldsboro's newest retail outlet Saturday.
Tanzania, Africa, is home to the loud, African-print textiles now on sale in Lillian Danieli's Nashona Boutique, located at 119 N. Center St.
Wait staff circulated throughout the store offering hors d'oeuvres to customers parsing through the colorful prints ---- shirts, jackets, dresses, accessories ---- and vendor items including bath soaps and lotions.
"The register is ringing," Danieli said.
The months, weeks, days and hours leading up to Saturday's soft-opening were spent wading through inventory, obtaining racks, tables, mirrors, erecting walls and having floors painted at the 11th hour.
In a few weeks, Danieli is off to her native Tanzania to secure the Nashona Spring/Summer line to have back in time for the store's grand opening, March 25.
But she is also going back to fulfill one of the clothing line's key purposes ---- to hand over a hefty portion of the profits to the Shalom orphanage in Karatu, Tanzania, for which Nashona raises money year round.
Nashona, another Swahili term, neans "to sew." The items aren't cheap, but inherent in their value ---- aside from the fact the clothes are mostly hand-made, imported directly from Tanzania and of the highest quality ---- is the education the line provides both to the kids at the orphanage and to the people who purchase them.
A former client-turned Nashona model, Jovane Marie said she first fell in love with colors and the patterns contained in the fabrics.
She is now the line's brand ambassador.
"So this soft-opening was just to open the doors, not a whole lot of fan fare," she said.
That will come with the grand opening in March, which will give Goldsboro, already somewhat familiar with the line as it has been sold locally in other downtown retail outlets over the last two years, a chance to delve into the Tanzanian culture from which the line is born.
"We'll have Tanzanian music, Tanzanian food, one of the items that we carry is a cookbook by a very popular Tanzanian chef, so we will be making some of those dishes," Marie said.
She said the best part about shopping at the boutique is that customers learn to appreciate the culture.
"And that can be a common misconception, toeing that line between appropriation and appreciation. But the great thing about this line is that when people come here, no matter their race, their size, their gender, whatever, we are able to help them appreciate this fabric and where it comes from," she said.
And they do. People of all races, ages, sizes and genders wear Nashona, both locally and across the country. The line is sold at festivals and events and as a vendor item in other retailers as far off as New York.
Here in Goldsboro, one of the line's youngest customers is a teenager, Marie said. Another certainly isn't.
"We have had 16 year olds come in and buy something, and one of our best customers is an 81-year-old white woman," she said. "She comes in here and she rocks this stuff."
Danieli, Nashona's founder and C.E.O., was born and raised on Tanzania. But vendors from Ethiopia and Mali also send her items to retail as well, and other vendors are in the works.
That, along with working on the Spring/Summer line, will be part of her upcoming trip to Tanzania. But she is mostly looking forward to her visit with the children of the orphanage she supports.
"I am going to go see the children," she said. "It is time for me to bring them something."
The 65 children housed at the orphanage range in age from 6 months to 17 years old.
"They are all form different regions, here you call it states but there we call it regions And they come from all different backgrounds," Danieli said.
For her, education is the most important thing the orphanage provides. Besides food, clothing and shelter, the education the children receive allow them options in adulthood they might not have otherwise had.
"Most of them, they will decide what they want to do. But to me, as long as they have something to do with their lives, that is the biggest thing."
She said were it not for the orphanage, the children might be left to the worst possible fates.
"My goodness. Especially for girls, you know, sex trafficking and things like that. Really, really bad. They will just fall into anything," Danieli said.
"So I am happy that, at least if they get educated the can go on to have jobs and, you know, life goes on."
Nashona customers can stop by the new location anytime, Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. There are Facebook, Instagram (@Nashona_) and Twitter (@Nashonastyle) accounts and a monthly web-based newsletters to which they can also subscribe, Marie said.
For those who still might be a little afraid of the color, a little afraid of the print, she recommends they stop in and take a look. At the very least, even if they don't buy something or find something they like, they will still walk away having learned something about Tanzania and about African culture.
"When you come here, you're not just getting the clothing, you are getting the full immersion into the culture," Marie said.
And each customer is thanked as they leave the same way they were greeted when they entered, in Swahili.
"Asante Sana," Marie said, " means 'thank you very much.'"