Cindy Livingston shares with us about Time To Give and Safe House Ethiopia
Recently our sister site Dollymix had the wonderful opportunity to interview Cindy Livingston, the President and CEO of Sequel AG, a new company that was created to to handle the growing European Union and booming international business of Guess Watches and Gc Watches. As well as being a successful and admirable businesswoman, Cindy Livingston is quite the humanitarian. One of Cindy's first priorities as the President and CEO of Sequeal AG was to to include philanthropy as part of its new Mission Statement, saying, “We have an opportunity and responsibility to expand upon all of the positive elements that have made our company and our brands respected around the world.”
The President of Interasia, Victor Ozeri, introduced Cindy to Safe House Ethiopia, which is a non-profit, walled compound in Addis Ababa that serves as a sanctuary for the poverty stricken children of the area. While there are little boys living at the Safe Horizons house, most of their guests are young girls, as it's not uncommon for a girl to quit school as early as 7 years old and be sent out to beg or engage in child labor for her family. It's incredibly dangerous for this young girls out on the streets, as many of the girls are even forced into child prostitution.
Safe House Ethiopia also stands for SHE, Self Esteem, Hope and Excitement, as beyond the essentials such as food, water, and clean living conditions, Safe House Ethiopia also concentrates on giving their guests joy. They are given very effective emotional and educational support, and are given the skill sets to work and higher their self esteem. For many of these children, it will be the first time that they will be able to act like a child, free of the cruel adult responsibilities that were put upon them at such a young age.
In a spin off of the company’s recent successful Faces to Watch global marketing campaign, Cindy Livingston proposed a new philanthropic foundation called Time To Give. Livingston appointed seven of of Sequels’ distributor partners around the world to a committee that will act as the coordination arm for all of the company’s yearly philanthropic efforts. Time To Give will include all 60 of the Guess watch distributors from around the world who will raise money in conjunction with Sequel for a specific charity each year based around the “Health, Education and Welfare of Children”.
However, one of the most exciting aspects of Time To Give is that there is a specific Time To Give watch where 100% of the proceeds of Sequel’s sales to their distributors will be given charity.
Cindy Livinginston was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule to talk to us about Safe House Ethiopia, Time To Give, and about being a successful business woman.
What was it about Safe House Ethiopia that makes it the perfect match for Time to Give?
Our company has built a big business selling watches to young people around the world. When we started “Time to Give,” we thought it would be appropriate to always have our company’s charitable efforts based around the health, education, and welfare of children.
Was there a specific incident that caused you to start organizing Time To Give? Or was it just a natural “next step” for Guess?
When we opened our new company, Sequel, which solely supports the Guess business for watches and jewellery, we had a clean slate to write and formulate our company’s future and mission statement. Everyone in our company is very passionate about our business which revolves around time-keeping – but we all knew there are other dimensions around “time” – and actually giving of our employees’ time to support philanthropic efforts was what initially started the concept of “Time to Give.”
Tell us about the actual Time To Give watch. What was the inspiration behind the design?
The inspiration behind the Time to Give watch was simply around a fashionable theme that utilizes animal prints – something that we thought married with a theme for our first charity in Ethiopia – which happens to be in Africa.
What are your goals for Time to Give and the Safe House Ethiopia?
Our goal is to pick one children’s charity per year in some part of the world where we can make a lasting difference in children’s lives. For Safe House Ethiopia, we will be building a “SAFE” (Shelter – Aid – Food – Education) that can service and feed 500 children from the inner city of Addis Ababa. It will include a cafeteria, playground, classrooms for special types of schooling, computer labs, and international library to start with. The compound will act as a safe haven for the children, and also work to involve the parents into their activities. We will also support the children with clothing, and take care of their school tuition.
Have you had the chance to visit the Safe Horizons house yet?
Yes, I was there on my initial visit this past spring, and am returning in January. Once you visit the kids, there’s no turning back.
Safe House Ethiopia’s initials also stand for Self Esteem, Hope and Excitement. What are the ways in which Safe House Ethiopia helps young girls bring these aspects into their lives?
When you’re no longer hungry, and you have proper clothes and hygiene – coupled with a place to play and learn safely – it doesn’t take long to improve your self-esteem. The teenagers that are part of our program grew up begging on the streets – and now, they’re beautiful girls, going to school, being real teenagers. They’re fabulous – and now they take care of the little girls – so that part is a bonus!
The Safe House Ethiopia is open to both girls and boys, but it seems that its guests are mostly girls, due to the social structure in Addis Ababa. Are there ever any boys that come to Safe Horizons?
Yes, there are little boys in the program also. The original program was primarily based around young girls and teenage girls who were begging on the streets to support their families, but now the younger group of children who start around age 5, and who we are sending to school, are both boys and girls.
You’re an extremely hard working woman who has helped make the Guess watch business what it is today. Traveling around the world and visiting so many other cultures, do you ever find that some of the people you meet with are intimidated by the fact that you’re a highly successful businesswoman?
Believe me; no one is intimidated by me – EVER! It’s not who I am about. The one gift that has been given to me in my career – and the only one that counts as far as I’m concerned – is the fact that I got to work in the international marketplace. The fact that I have had the opportunity to work with different people and cultures, travel the world, and now be able to call so many of those people my friends, is a privilege that is worth more than anything else to me. It’s been an exciting adventure – and it just keeps getting better and better.
For more information on Safe House Ethiopia, please visit their website.
**This was originally posted on Dollymix**
