From a young age, Nurayn Khan experienced an fascination in vogue and developing her possess line of modest and organic and natural garments.

The 16-calendar year-aged Barrington Higher University senior started looking into how rapid style is developed and realized a ton of garments manufacturers and businesses outsourced their labor abroad to factories in China, Taiwan, India, Bangladesh and other countries with low labor benchmarks.

“It was actually appalling to me,” Nurayn mentioned. “It was really emotional and heartbreaking.”

Nurayn determined she needed to be component of the alternative, not the trouble made by the industrial speedy-vogue industry. She channeled her passion, and compassion, into launching a nonprofit outfits enterprise — with the support of her mother, Shazia — that educates and employs refugee Muslim girls as seamstresses. Developing garments in a socially dependable way grew to become her emphasis rather than building revenue.

The South Barrington mother-daughter duo commenced All Kinds Natural and organic in 2019. It aims to empower refugee females and girls “just one sew at a time,” supporting them obtain fiscal independence by means of a sewing coaching system. The females generate modest stylish clothes for teenager ladies “incorporating a company product devoted to good trade and sustainable practices,” the company’s internet site reads.



Nurayn Khan, 16, of South Barrington is a senior at Barrington High School who started a nonprofit to help educate and employ refugee women as seamstresses. They make aprons, oven mitts, blankets and hats made of yarn, along with skirts seen here with Nurayn.

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Nurayn Khan, 16, of South Barrington is a senior at Barrington Large School who began a nonprofit to assist educate and utilize refugee gals as seamstresses. They make aprons, oven mitts, blankets and hats created of yarn, alongside with skirts viewed in this article with Nurayn.&#13
– Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer&#13

Nurayn experienced been volunteering at a refugee aid heart and foods pantry in downtown Chicago when she recognized how several of people girls required work because they had develop into the family’s principal breadwinner.

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“As I started out seriously obtaining to know the girls and hearing their definitely emotional stories about how they still left everything they understood, almost everything they experienced again at home just for a fresh new start off in The us and a far better potential for their small children, I understood that I needed to concentrate much more on assisting the women of all ages than I did on my manner layouts,” Nurayn mentioned.

The refugee girls she is effective with appear from Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Myanmar, Syria and other nations around the world. They are taught to crochet and sew at Glendale Heights-primarily based ICNA Relief’s middle in Chicago and make a selection of products and solutions, like hats, blankets, pillow situations, tunics, aprons, potholders, masks and ornamental area mats. Community customers and regional companies donated bolts of material for the products and the Khans raised revenue to buy sewing devices for the females to be in a position to operate from household.

“It truly is an essential way to aid the tricky work that refugee girls are putting in (for) their path towards independence in a new region,” reported Shazia Khan, an Indian American main care doctor with Loyola Healthcare Heart in Oak Brook. “We coach about six to 10 females at a time. We have by now experienced two graduated courses and now we have a 3rd round (of students).”



Nurayn Khan, 16, of South Barrington is a senior at Barrington High School. Her nonprofit, All Sorts Organic, helps educate and employ refugee women as seamstresses.

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Nurayn Khan, 16, of South Barrington is a senior at Barrington Higher School. Her nonprofit, All Types Natural and organic, helps teach and utilize refugee ladies as seamstresses.&#13
– Mark Welsh | Employees Photographer&#13

        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        

 

At present, 20 ladies are participating in sewing lessons each individual Saturday. Numerous women of all ages who have graduated from the program have discovered employment stitching for Chicago-region corporations. 6 girls frequently sew merchandise for All Sorts.

“All of them have been presented some style of gainful work,” Khan reported. “The kinds who have been proficient, we essentially were able to associate with yet another Muslim woman who life in Kildeer. She started promoting health care caps when the pandemic took place (and) hired 8 of our ladies to sew her caps at their possess homes. She was sending (caps) to distinct hospitals.”

Through the summer season, Khan and Nurayn have been selling All Kinds goods at farmers marketplaces in Barrington and Batavia and by their Etsy web-site. The duo will be selling things at Batavia’s MainStreet Winterfest Art Industry in downtown, Dec. 10-12.

“We are often wanting for regional markets to promote at,” Khan explained. “We are acquiring this sort of an inflow of individuals coming and donating income, acquiring things. We are hoping to attain out to the Muslim group so they can see what (these) Muslim girls have been accomplishing.”

All proceeds from product sales go immediately towards instruction and supporting the gals.

Nurayn reported she hopes to keep on managing the nonprofit even following she graduates from superior school and heads to college or university. She ideas to big in sustainability, focusing on sustainable style, environmental scientific studies and general public plan.

“We have essentially been selecting sewing instructors … I nevertheless plan on building and … holding in touch with the ladies, as effectively,” she explained.

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