Mohamed Malim, former refugee and 2018 St. Thomas graduate, created the idea for a business called Epimonía for the 2018 Fowler Business Concept Challenge to help support refugees in the United States.
Now that Malim’s business idea has come to life, Epimonía makes a variety of products, and the proceeds go to helping refugees in the United States. The products are made from recycled material from life jackets worn by refugees on the Mediterranean Sea. The company has donated $45,000 to refugees since 2018 and has used over 500 recycled life jackets in its products.
“As a former refugee myself from Kenya, I’ve grown up and know the challenges and the struggles that refugees face coming to a new country, and I saw fashion as a way to make supporting revenue more accessible to these refugees,” Malim said.
Malim felt an urge to give back to his refugee community in Minneapolis, and Minnesota has the highest number of refugees per capita of any state, according to the U.S. Census and refugee support agencies.
“Refugees help us drive our economy up, they help us bring more diverse talent into the pool and they are our future doctors, lawyers, and more,” Malim said.
Malim, who came to St. Thomas for athletics, participated in track and field and studied business administration, focusing on entrepreneurship and marketing.
“St. Thomas provided me resources when I was in college, and they had a lot of great programs for companies that were starting up. I had great mentors who helped me through accessing different resources to start my company,” Malim said.
One of Malim’s mentors was Artika Tyner, a law professor and founding director of the Center on Race, Leadership and Social Justice.
Tyner was able to help Malim set a clear vision for Epimonía and move from an idea to a company. She advised him to build his business based on his passion, which aligned with his cultural heritage.
“He put his heart and soul into what he was creating, and he thought through staying connected and staying committed with perseverance to create something that had never been done before,” Tyner said.
Malim won the President’s Student Leadership Award for founding Dream Refugee, which was a nonprofit established in 2017 that captured stories of refugees in Minneapolis and turned into Epimonía.
Laura Dunham, associate professor and associate dean of the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship, worked with Malim and showed him different resources and tools for Epimonía.
“Mr. Malim had to creatively come up with a way to make an impact on a problem, and what’s powerful about his story is he believed that he could do something about this problem, despite him only being one person,” Dunham said.
Malim’s connection to the refugee crisis pushed him to create Dream Refugee.
“My goal for Dream Refugee was to change the narrative of how refugees are being portrayed in the media, and I wanted to shed a positive light on the refugees,” Malim said.
Working with the foundation he built with Dream Refugee, the resources at St. Thomas, and his passion for the cause, Malim started Epimonía.
“Epimonía is a fashion apparel accessory company that supports refugees here in the U.S. to providing job employment, provide housing, or helping them cover the fee with their application to citizenship,” Malim said.
The company offers a variety of products available for purchase on its website, including apparel and accessories, and all products incorporate the fabric from used life jackets.
“From 2015 to 2018, particularly in Syria, I’ve seen a lot of refugees fleeing from their home country in Syria and arriving at the main hub in Lesbos, Greece. That was where I’ve seen all these life jackets all over the shore beaches,” Malim said.
Malim partnered with several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Greece to obtain these life jackets to use in Epimonía’s products.
One of the most popular products for sale is the Embracelet, which was the first product that was launched on the site.
“The orange bracelet supports job training, the blue one provides scholarships for refugees, the black one supports housing, and the red one supports helping refugees apply for the citizenship application and cover their fee,” Malim said.
The proceeds with the rest of Epimonía’s products are divided between the company’s partners, including United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Refugee4Refugee and others.
Epimonía has also partnered with Love Your Melon, which was created by former St. Thomas graduates Brian Keller and Zachary Quinn. The Epimonía Love Your Melon hats feature a part of the used life jacket on the front.
“I heard Love Your Melon through St. Thomas, so that was a company that inspired me to start my business,” Malim said.
Malim encourages students to take the chance and to not let fear stop them from being influential changemakers.
“Start young,” Malim said. “You have a chance where you are young, and you won’t lose anything. Start young and learn from others, learn from people around you, and do it with passion. If you do it with passion, everything else will come along.”
Natalie Hoepner can be reached at hoep8497@stthomas.edu.