

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tania Laden.
Tania, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Los Angeles but I’ve been traveling internationally since I was very young to visit family in the Philippines every year. So moving to Kenya to start a social enterprise was definitely an adventure, but I was well prepared for life in a developing country. Our goal was to create jobs for unemployed youth in Nairobi slums through door to door sales. I had some experience in sales, working for LA Fitness and Morgan Stanley in Los Angeles and was able to apply that training to last-mile distribution in slums.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The biggest challenge has been being so far away from my friends, family, and all of our donors and supporters. We generate revenue through sales but our training program and overheads are subsidized with grant funding, mostly from donors in the US. Fundraising is hard because you’re competing with domestic causes that are much closes to people’s everyday lives. It’s hard to get people to imagine what life in African slums is like and why they should care when there are so many great organizations that they could support in their own communities. I travel frequently between Kenya and the US, always using LA as a base to recharge and reconnect with my support base. Social media is also really helpful for connecting with people all over the world and sharing our stories in a really personal way.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
LivelyHoods is a registered 501c3 non-profit whose mission is to create livelihoods for youth in urban slums. We train unemployed youth and women in Kenya to sell life-changing products in slum communities so they can earn an honest living. They sell products like solar lamps and clean-burning cookstoves that improve the quality of life in their communities while also positively impacting the environment by preventing deforestation and carbon dioxide pollution. Not only do they earn a living, but they also gain valuable skills, such as professionalism, team work, sales, and customer service, for a lifetime of employment. Through a daily consignment model, we provide a risk-free opportunity to gain professional skills and work experience.
What were you like growing up?
I was always entrepreneurial as a kid. I always looked for things to sell and ways to make money so it wasn’t a big stretch for me to think about starting a company. I also always wanted to help people and did a lot of volunteering in high school so a non-profit company has been a perfect fit.
Pricing:
- For every $1 donated, we generate $3 in income for our sales agents and over $7,000 in cost-savings for our customers through reduced fuel costs from our clean-energy products.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.livelyhoods.org
- Email: info@livelyhhods.org
- Facebook: facebook.com/livelyhoods/
- Twitter: @livelyhoodsorg
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.