Why it belongs in ORBIS
Toronto basics brand founded 2015 by Benjamin Sehl, Mackenzie Yeates and Rami Helali, sourcing long-staple cotton from smallholder farms in Egypt's Nile Delta and Faiyum; its ABCs Project has funded 23 rural schools there.
Kotn was founded in 2015 in Toronto by Benjamin Sehl, Mackenzie Yeates and Rami Helali to build a basics label around long-staple Egyptian cotton. Co-founder Rami Helali, who has family roots in Egypt, spent time living in a Nile Delta cotton-farming community, which shaped the company's decision to source directly from smallholder, family-run farms in the Nile Delta and Faiyum regions. In discussions with those farming communities, access to primary education repeatedly came up as a priority, leading Kotn to launch the ABCs Project in partnership with the Egyptian NGO Misr El Kheir Foundation, funding and building primary schools in the areas the company sources from - 23 schools built to date.