Thuta Khin @ Leiho offers sustainable basic essentials that give back to our local homelessness communities

Thuta pictured on the left

At Leiho, we offer sustainable basic essentials that give back to our local homelessness communities. Using the buy one give one model, our journey began with bamboo socks that help homeless people because clean socks are the most requested but least donated item of clothing at homeless shelters. For every pair of bamboo socks sold, we give another pair to a homeless person. We also recently launched stainless steel water bottles using the same model because during the summer in the UK, rough sleepers are at high risk of extreme dehydration and heat related illnesses. So for every bottle sold, we give lightweight & refillable water cartons to someone in need. On top of that, we are a community of do-gooders that inspires simple acts of kindness to the society, the planet, and to ourselves! 

I stay motivated by… surrounding myself with people that encourage me to be better today than I was yesterday. 

Three adjectives that describe me are… caring, passionate, dedicated.

If I could have dinner with one person it would be… Michelle Obama because she continues to utilise her voice to inspire & empower women all across the world.

The most exciting innovation to me is… the circular economy, in which there are now countless number of ways we can reuse & repurpose different materials to make new products and later be able to recycle them at the end of their lifetime without contributing to waste.

What motivated you to become an entrepreneur? Is having your own business something you always wanted?

My main motivation comes from my parents who have always encouraged me to find a career path that I am passionate about. I have a background in working with charities and start-ups which inspired me to create something that has a social purpose. When I met my business partner Joey who also had that same mindset, it was almost like a no brainer that we’d start this journey together. 

How did you come up with your business idea? What inspired you?

We started off by wanting to do something slightly different with socks. But after much research, we came across the fact that socks were something highly requested by many homelessness charities. An average person owns roughly 13 pairs of socks and puts on a clean pair whenever they go out. While on the other hand, people who are homeless typically end up wearing the same pair of socks for days, putting them at risk of foot infections and bad foot health. To reinforce this need, we met a former homeless man named Tony who told us that it’s the simple things like clean socks and underwear that really improves a person’s wellbeing and confidence for that day. This inspired us to pivot from our original idea and instead use our business to help connect these basic essentials with conscious consumers and people that need it the most.

Do you have a fixed work routine? Is it important to have one? Any tips for our readers?

Ever since lockdown began, we have been busier than ever. We are all working from home, so our weekly catch up sessions are super important to us - we go over a list of to-dos and targets each week to make sure we are on the right track. As founders, it’s hard to shut off completely from work-mode, but we try to balance it out by dedicating some time every day for ourselves. I like to Facetime my family in the evening and spend time with my cat, cook, and do arts & crafts to take a break and also fuel creativity. 

What do you think is the biggest obstacle for female founders? How can we overcome it?

It’s easy to overthink and worry about certain decisions, but I’ve learned that sometimes we have to take educated risks to find out what works best. It’s okay if not everything turns out to be the way you expected. A lot of our decision making at Leiho is aided by speaking to many different people who give us honest feedback and advice, including mentors, family, friends, our supporters, and more. 

What are your short/long term goals?

Our short term goal is to grow our community of passionate do-gooders who believe in the ideology that every little helps. Every item at Leiho helps someone in need. We want to inspire people to implement that concept to their everyday lives and come up with creative ways to give back. With that being said, for the long run, we want to expand to more products that help many different social causes. Our team is always doing research on the side to find out long-term, sustainable solutions to help vulnerable communities. So, if you have any ideas/recommendations please feel free to reach out! 

Website: https://www.leiho.co.uk/

Email: info@leiho.co.uk