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Bella | Ha Announces First Solar Suitcase Installation

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Published
09/10/2015 by

In a remote part of the Khanh Hoa province in southern Vietnam, near Nha Trang, a birth clinic is seeing a new light: a Solar Suitcase from Bella | Ha.

Bella | Ha is a mission-driven luxury shoe company. Each collection of Bella | Ha shoes is inspired by, and benefits an area of the world in need. The sale of each pair of shoes helps to send Solar Suitcases to birth clinics in these areas. The very first Solar Suitcase that Bella | Ha has donated was installed in the Cam Binh Clinic, at the Cam Binh Island Commune, Cam Ranh City, Khanh Hoaprovince, Vietnam, on Saturday, September 5th.

Solar Suitcases are portable, solar-powered units that provide surgical light and power for medical and mobile communication devices, both essential in birthing rooms. They are created by We Care Solar, Bella | Ha's giving partner.

In many areas of the world, power is either extremely unreliable or nonexistent, and because of this, infant and maternal mortality rates are extremely high. By equipping off-grid medical clinics with these life-saving suitcases, Bella | Ha helps to facilitate safe childbirth and reduce maternal and infant illness and mortality.

"We like to say that our story begins and ends with a suitcase," says Bella | Ha founder Keely Solimene, "When you pack up your suitcase and take off to the far corners of the world, you see things that will change you forever. We have seen so many things on our travels…both wonderful and heartbreaking. And that travel has inspired us…to give Solar Suitcases to birth clinics in the places we have been, beginning with the Khanh Hoa province in Vietnam."

The Khanh Hoa province was not a random choice for the first collection. In fact, it was chosen for a reason that is very personal to Ms. Solimene and her family. Her adopted Vietnamese daughter was born there. Isabella, or Bella, was adopted when she was four years old from an orphanage in Nha Trang, Vietnam. After the adoption, the Solimene family learned that she had a twin, named Ha, still living in poverty in a remote village outside of Nha Trang. It took years of searching to locate and finally meet her. The Solimene family has supported and remains close with Ha. And because of this experience, they resolved to help even more in the area.

So the Bella | Ha brand was born. And this is why the installation of this first Solar Suitcase is so significant. It marks both the culmination and the commencement of extraordinary journeys.

"The delivery of this first solar suitcase may lead to a little Vietnamese baby being safely born on an island in the East Sea tonight!" Keely says.

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