Ellie Fun Day designs baby blankets that change the lives of marginalized women in India.
OUR PASSION is designing beautifully luxurious baby blankets
made with natural and/or organic materials.
OUR CHALLENGE is providing a fair wage and a dignified living
by employing marginalized and under-resourced women.
OUR HEART is to change the world one blankie at a time.
“I’ve always loved my baby blanket. My blanket had an elephant print on it and I called it “elephant-pei” (“pei” meaning blanket in Chinese). That’s where Ellie Fun Day came from – it’s an alliteration in honor of my beloved baby blanket! I really LOVED my blanket and it gave me a sense of warmth and security in a scary and unassuming world. When I was a kid, my mom would wash it, hang it on the line and I would go outside, grab the corner of the blankie and wait for it to dry. That’s how attached I was to my “ellie-fun-pei”!
In recent years, I’ve been dreaming of designing a product that would be a pathway for empowering under-resourced people. I didn’t want to just contribute to the endless sea of consumer products; I wanted to design something that I loved and a product that would make a lasting change in the world. I thought of my baby blanket, but I didn’t know how it would be a pathway for change.
Two years ago my husband and I were in India, serving with an organization that worked among marginalized untouchable caste people. One day we were touring the organization’s facility and noticed that they had a room full of sewing and embroidery machines. As we learned about their desire to start a work program for local untouchable women, we knew our being in India was no coincidence.
It was then that the dream became more of a reality and I could see how my “ellie-fun-pei” could change the lives of under-resourced people around the world.
The population that we serve is the lowest of the low, “untouchables/Dalit” is what they are called. They are often marginalized, trafficked and mostly get menial jobs due to their “status” in the caste system. When Dalits become Christians, they loose the benefits of Reservation (affirmative action ) in Government Jobs. Our hope is to help our brothers and sisters break out of this cycle through redemption on both levels. By providing a fair wage, and dignified employment and also a bigger redemption through helping them receive Jesus as the ultimate redeemer.
Just being available to teach basic skills to the Dalits is a huge win. Few upper caste Indians would want to try and uplift the lower caste because many believe that they deserve to be in that position due to actions in their previous life. Sadly, we’ve even seen Indian Christians play by this societal norm. By physically being there and befriending them means that we say that they ARE worth it and that they have a place in the kingdom of God. Foreigners have a high status in India, so when a foreigner sets foot into a Dalit community it means a lot to them. We have also seen many other believers rally behind our project. He’s connected us to many different types of people that we needed to get this project going. Even though we are still in the early phase of this, we know that God’s hand is there because all the pieces of the puzzle are coming together.
Brett and Lyn have adopted us like family. The moment we stepped into their home, we felt loved. We were a bit lonely in our journey as entrepreneurs and we were looking for like-minded kingdom people that just “got-it”. Everything that rep taught about Convergence was exactly what has been in our hearts for a long time. We are also using the 10 Ps and the scorecard to keep our company in check as we go plan. To have people champion us along the way has been a huge blessing.”