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Project Três founder Carla and Farida hug and laugh

Our Story

After graduating as a fashion designer, Project Três founder Carla Maria de Souza worked for more than six years at some of Brazil’s top fashion brands. As she moved up in the fashion industry, by the age of 23, she began to realize its limitations, especially those related to social and environmental sustainability. Carla gave up her stable career and took a sabbatical year in California.

Our Women

Our work allows women with limited education and experience to become financially stable, foster positive social networks, care for their children and improve their quality of life. In India, we call them our Ladies and in Kenya, they are Mamas. They are family to us. They are mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends. They are women coming from domestic violence, divorce, acid attacks, limited education, refugees, and housewives.

Women in Kenya helped by Project Três hug and smile at the camera
Joined hands from women in the project, wearing Project Três artisanal bracelets

Be involved

At Project Três, we are devoted to empowering women. We want to continue making a big impact for as long as we can, but we cannot do this without help from our partners, volunteers, and donors. There are a few ways besides purchasing our products that you can support our women's dreams.

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Carla meets Farida

Farida used to work 18 hours a day and raise her 4 kids by herself. After witnessing Farida's living conditions and because of her own struggle with domestic violence, Carla saw the need to support women and promote equality. She lived for one month with Farida and her family to identify what improvements could be done. Farida worked as a babysitter in a local casino and had a dream of starting her own babysitting business. Raising money through a crowdfunding campaign and finding sponsors for the children’s tuition, Carla was able to support Farida during the transition to becoming a private business owner. The financial support in combination with mentorship from Carla teaching Farida business acumen and money management she was able to successfully make the shift to owning her own business.

Farida is now the president of the NGO in India managing the project with ease and has also grown her babysitting business enough to employ other women. Farida is a symbol of empowerment in her community and the world.

Collaborating with women in Kenya

In 2017, in partnership with education NGO, Hai Africa, the project expanded to Nairobi, Kenya. The partnership was born out of a need to help the mothers to provide a more stable home environment so that their children’s education could be supported within the home as well. This is because most families were living in extreme poverty, without a safe source of income the mothers were not able to focus on supporting their children’s education. Instead of focusing their attention on meeting their basic needs such as clean water, food, and providing a roof over their heads. 
We began our activities with 14 women, all mothers of children involved in Hai Africa's program, offering training and work opportunities that were non-existent until then.
Today, women have become skilled artisans with their work being sold across the globe.

Women from Project Três in Kenya smile while making soapstone
Project Tres founder Carla sits in a circle with the women from the project

How we work

Currently, Project Três provides jobs for 31 artisans in India and in Kenya, and through education and community training, has collaborated with over 100 women since the beginning of the project. We have 30 people volunteering with us, being 90% of women. We are located in 11 different cities and 7 different countries.

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+49 177 546 1903

Project Tres gUG is a nonprofit organization that supports women artisans through education and skills training in India and Kenya. We believe that providing education on fair trade and self-sustainability is the key to creating new life-changing economic and social opportunities.

©2025 by Project Tres

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