The Better Scholarship

Sylven New York Founder Casey Dworkin was designing her Autumn/Winter 2019 collection when she met Kenyan native Lian Kariuki. Lian, advocating at the United Nations, founded Loocid Global, a platform connecting local Kenyan artisan brands to international markets. Lian approached Casey originally to be a partner for her sustainable retail concept "The Better Shop". They quickly began discussing additional opportunities, and the idea for a partnership for custom Kenyan made hardware for the new Sylven New York collection began to unfurl.

To date, they have established a hardware manufacturing initiative providing Kenyan families with steady income for skill-based creative jobs. But they knew there were additional initiatives they wanted to implement.

Together, the two female founders are launching The Better Scholarship - a program formed from a portion of proceeds from the Lake and Almasi styles using the hardware handmade in Kenya. Partnering with Kenyan community development initiative Kasavai, The Better Scholarship will put funds towards the support of education for youth and children in low income areas of Kenya.