Ming-Ming Tung-Edelman

I started the nonprofit Refugee Artisan Initiative (RAI) in 2017 to help immigrant and refugee women professionalize their sewing talents and transform them into viable businesses that can thrive in the US economy. To date, we have served 40 artisans from countries including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Morocco, and Hong Kong.

The problem I’m trying to solve​

Language barriers and cultural differences create challenges for refugee and immigrant women to apply their skills to create work opportunities.

Sewing is a universal language. At Refugee Artisan Initiative (RAI), we help women use and improve the sewing and handcraft skills that many have already developed in their home country. The majority of RAI artisans are mothers with two to six children. RAI assists in connecting them with job opportunities to help support their families. In many cases, we help women receive their first personal paycheck in the U.S.

RAI welcomes women to the U.S. by providing training, a job with a living wage ($20 an hour), flexible hours and the ability to work from home. We are supporting women who face racial and gender barriers and/or may be targeted for exploitative jobs. RAI provides tools and support to help women develop microbusinesses that can grow. We provide support to each woman, from getting their business licenses and helping them set up bank accounts to connecting them with English classes and other services.

RAI also believes that social, racial and environmental justice go hand in hand, so we are committed to practices that support sustainability. We make many of our products from donated items, training women to use upcycled and recycled materials and paying them as they learn to create and refine product lines. ​Their sewing skills were critical during the COVID pandemic, when they made over 80,000 masks from clean, unused Amazon bedsheets to keep our community safe.​

The moment that sparked my passion

​As a child growing up in Taiwan, I was greatly influenced by my grandmother, who had no education but was able to support her children with her sewing skills after my grandfather died. Her resilience had a profound effect on my life, and I still have clothes she made for me 50 years ago. I learned that everyone needs to wear clothes and sewing is a critical skill for people in many countries, often out of necessity.

From firsthand experience, I know it can be very intimidating for refugee and immigrant women to come to the U.S., not knowing how to speak English or use a computer. Yet many of these women already know how to make clothing, which is something many Americans do not know how to do.