About
OVERVIEW
Founder's story
Glenn and Rebecca Fadner are both on their second careers. Rebecca left her job as a private school administrator in July 2005, and Glenn left his at IBM in March 2006. We had both been interested in other cultures and travel for years, and have always had a deep desire to help others.
We were introduced to Hagar International in late 2004 when a friend of ours came back from a trip to Cambodia and encouraged us to consider starting a business that would import their products into the US. We saw this as an opportunity to build something that we could do together after we "retired".
Our mission
"KVI exists to make the benefits of the global economy available to the world's economically deprived."
One way we do that is to open markets for products produced by those who are "outside" the global economy. It's not an issue of making "them" like "us", but of making it possible for people and cultures to flourish with their own unique distinctives.
Our philosophy
The types of products we sell
We sell handbags and accessories of silk and cotton fabrics as well as a range of items manufactured from recycled rice and feed bags.
Where the producers live and work
All our items are manufactured in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Hagar International provides both a sheltered and semi-sheltered environment for women with children who have been rescued out of trafficking and abusive situations. Their goal is to see all the women who go through their program become self-sufficient, productive members of society. Establishing for-profit businesses to employ many of the least-employable is one approach they use to achieve this goal.
Projects we support
We work closely with Hagar International, which is the parent NGO of the Hagar Design label. We're closely linked with Hagar USA, which is a non-profit fund-raising entity in the US for Hagar International, and occasionally co-sponsor events with them to bring both the non-profit and profit "sides" of Hagar before people.
How we select what we sell
We work directly with Hagar Design to determine what products to produce for us. We exchange emails and picture to attempt to guage the market as well as the ability to manufacture.
What makes us unique
We are the official importer of the Hagar Design label into North America
More information about us
I spent 32 years with Kodak and IBM as a systems programmer and between travel with both companies and opportunities through our church have been to a lot of places and met many interesting people. Seeing some of the desperate poverty and horribly dehumanizing conditions in the world has impressed upon me the responsibility that we as those who are privileged to possess some degree of wealth have to those who don't.
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