Meet Amy Brewer | Founder Elizabeth’s Voice

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amy Brewer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amy, how do you think about risk?
When I was in third grade – my family had gone to see a friend participate in a track meet. There was an event that required men and women to compete in a different way – making it easier for the women. I was a mad 8 year old girl – arguing with my dad about how in the world they could treat women so poorly. The discussion ended when I screamed at my dad “you know there was a time when women couldn’t vote???!!”

That interaction is my career in a nutshell. It has taken a complete direction that I originally thought, but my goal of supporting women has never changed. I went to college to be a nurse and specialized in labor and delivery – I loved that job and wanted to use the skills to work in midwifery clinics somewhere in Africa. I did that in South Sudan and Mozambique, but the women coming to the clinics needed more than just someone to help them through labor. They needed a job. I started praying and working towards a way to provide women dignified jobs – what I didn’t know was I was praying for my future business partner. Now, I help women by providing them a job and education for their children by selling their products stateside. Going from nurse to running an international business/nonprofit has been a huge risk, but so worth it to be where I am now helping the women in front of me.

What should our readers know about your business?
Our business motto is ‘We are changing the world with dignified jobs for moms in Uganda and education for their children’. We sell primarily handwoven baskets made by a group of 50+ women. Then we reinvest that back into them by placing more orders, provide healthy breakfast and lunches on workdays and medical assistance. We are also a nonprofit and raise money to partner with the women to send their children to school. We have 119 children in school preschool – university age. This business is not easy – from importing products, cultural differences, quality control, exchange rates – it is difficult to manage. Overcoming the challenges have been manageable because I have the best business partner.

Evelyn Achieng is my business partner and she is the reason we have made it through everything these last eight years. When I met her – she was employing women in her community by selling the baskets and jewelry – but could not find a market in Uganda for it to be sustainable. She is the perfect person to run things on the ground in Uganda, while I handle the business side in the states. But, both of our favorite times is when I’m in Uganda and we can handle it all together!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would take my best friend to dinner at my favorite place – Mexican Inn – and order the chicken and rice. Then I would take them to a drive in movie at Coyote Drive In. The next day we could walk around the stockyards in Fort Worth and maybe go into FleaStyle to design our own hats. For dinner I would take them to Woody Creek for Barbecue. If we had time we could squeeze in brunch at Esperanzas.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to shoutout my mom who has loved and supported me more than anyone else on this wild ride. She has listened to all the struggles, traveled with me to Uganda many times, cared for me when I got a brain injury and just been by side the whole time. She is just simply the best.

Website: elizabethsvoice.org

Instagram: @elizabethsvoice

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