Our Story:
About the Founder & How We Got Started
Our founder Kina Desai (on right) on inspirational field study volunteering.
Our 14-year-old founder, Kina Desai, with Draws For A Cause underwear (Photo by Axel Koester)
The idea for Draws For A Cause was born with Kina Desai. She took the initiative to begin this company in the summer of 2019 when she was a 13-year-old rising 8th grader from Southern California. Now, after working everything out and finalizing the project, Kina is in high school and runs Draws For A Cause.
Prior to having the idea for Draws for a Cause, Kina Desai, in 2019, had gone on a field study with an academic group to McAllen, Texas, various border towns in Texas, and Matamoras, Mexico. While there, Kina spent much of her time volunteering with those on the border. The experience that stuck with her the most during that trip was meeting and working with all of the children from Central America, a majority from Guatemala and El Salvador. It opened her eyes to see how many of the children coming from Guatemala and other parts of Central America were without underwear or only had one pair of old, dirty underwear. After returning home, Kina was inspired to find a way to help these children in Central America. This is where Kina Desai came up with the idea to create, found, and start Draws For A Cause, with the main goal of working to provide underwear to children in need in Central America.