Women’s Best Friend

Never thought you'd accessorize your dog with designer doggy duds?

You just might think again after you read the story of one pooch's mom, Hattie Elliot, a young entrepreneur in Cape Town, South Africa. These dog collars and leashes will make your dog hipper and more socially conscious.

Hattie Elliot's innovative new company, Socially Conscious Companion (SOCOCO), sells Good Dog Good Karma collars and leashes for your pets. Every time you buy one, 10 percent of the proceeds directly benefit Baphumelele Children's Home, an orphanage in South Africa. Many of the children suffer from AIDS.
According to ladieswholaunch.com, Hattie Elliot's story began in high school in New York, where as a student Hattie got the opportunity to travel on an exchange program to South Africa. She couldn't forget her time there. Her experiences changed her forever.

Later, while living in New York and walking her dog, Gilles, a black French bulldog, Hattie couldn't help noticing the care and love her fellow New Yorkers had for their pets. In addition, she had always been very committed to the cause of AIDS and children. She wondered if there was a way to combine these two passions. She also wanted a way to return to South Africa.

Hattie did all that-and more.
After that initial spark, Hattie started saving and every chance she got she'd create her charms. Friends back in Cape Town offered to help make the charms, and she recruited an art director she knew to design the packaging and logo.

Little by little Hattie developed the business. By October 2005 she launched her company selling charms for pets. Soon afterward Hattie joined forces with a businesswoman who had read her classified ad on ladieswholaunch.com, an entrepreneurial women's network that encourages women's business and creative ventures-and the inspiration for this story.

The business took off from there. In addition to providing colorful accessories for pets, it also champions orphaned children, many of whom are living with AIDS. According to their Web site, The Baphumelele Children's Home is an orphanage and education center that started through the efforts of Rosie Mashale. Looking around her neighborhood, Rosie saw children scavenging for food in garbage cans, walking around on the streets, unsupervised. Their parents were out looking for work themselves. One by one, she took them in and gave them food, love, and a safe home-despite the fact that she herself had little money.
Today the orphanage and education center feeds, clothes, and educates between seventy and one hundred children at any given time. The children range in age from newborn to eighteen-who are loved and cared for by men and women in the local community.

In May 2005 the orphanage became officially registered with the South African government, which enables them to offer foster care, adoption, and family reunification services.

According to Ladieswholaunch.com, today Hattie has returned to South Africa, where she lives with her husband and French bulldog, Gilles, in Capetown. Her business has grown and she now sells charms, collars, leashes, and tees. SOCOCO's collars and leashes are true conversation pieces that get people thinking about a vital cause.

Contributing to a cause also has its fashion benefits. If you don't believe me, listen to Hattie's dog Gilles:
"SOCOCO allows you to help the world and look fabulous doing it!"

Amen.