Yasmeen Khamis and Farah Al Masry founded the Doodle Factory to enable children to fund their education and medical needs. The startup works with children to create colorful products. The money from sales helps fund the children’s education and medical needs.

The concept behind the fashion and lifestyle brand “is that all designs are made from original children’s drawings” says Dina Mahmoud, Doodle Factory’s Marketing Manager. The children come in for sessions and draw whatever they want. The drawings are incorporated into products like bags, laptop cases, pencil cases, notebooks and other products. The sales then sponsor the children’s needs.

Mahmoud tells WAYA, “Doodle Factory started with Souad, Souad is a 5-year-old child who needed a cochlear implant but did not have the means to do it so we came up with an idea.” The idea became the basis for the brand. Souad made some doodles and these were incorporated as designs on products. “With the money from the sales, Souad could do the operation and from there Doodle Factory as a brand came to conception” she explains.

Doodle Factory launched its first fashion collection in October 2019. Children’s drawings are printed onto the clothes. The startup released its Spring/Summer collection just before the outbreak of the coronavirus in Egypt. Prior to the crisis, funds from the collection were to go to the Deaf Unit. However, the brand decided to shift the focus to daily workers affected by the crisis. “We started to feel that as a responsible brand, we need to do something in the current situation. We decided to fund daily workers with the Food Bank and we started the Road to 500 Families campaign,” Mahmoud says.

Additionally, the startup cooperated with companies that want to provide gifts to their employees while the stay at home. The profits go to the initiatives of the Food Bank, Ahl Masr, and Al-Shifa Bank.

The COVID-19 crisis has caused the Doodle Factory to cancel events. Events are very useful to spread the brand’s name. Through events, they can tell the stories of the children and the brand and explain the process to potential customers. Another difficulty they faced was moving switching to selling their merchandise online.

Doodle Factory’s next collection will fund the Deaf Unit which helps educate deaf primary children. Additionally, it teaches parents and families to sign language.