Matthew Clough: Handbags tackle education crisis

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Matthew CloughStone and Cloth Founder Matthew Clough talks about how handbags can fund education.

A 2013 UNESCO study showed a staggering 124 million children and adolescents do not have access to formal primary education. The numbers may actually be higher but the tools and measurements to get more accurate figures aren’t available.

One person who’s trying to lower those numbers is social entrepreneur Matthew Clough. His company, Stone and Cloth, specializing in backpacks and totes, donates a portion of its proceeds to a scholarship fund for Tanzanian school children to ensure their classroom time is supported and subsidized. It has partnered with Knock Foundation in Tanzania to help provide scholarships for students.

“We found this great organization. We really seemed to click with them,” Clough explained. “They’re a small organization. We also knew exactly where our money was going to be going.”

Matthew Clough: Handbags tackle education crisis

Matt Clough, founder of Stone and Cloth, talks about using handbags to educate children in Africa.

In Tanzania, the cost of an education is often prohibitive for families in need.

“One thing that the Knock Foundation does is: they make sure that the entire family understands the value of the scholarship, so that [the student] is getting the most out of it,” Clough said.

From Detroit, Michigan, Matthew Clough joined May Lee in our Los Angeles studio to talk about how a small company is tackling a worldwide challenge.