Mkwiro women's group 10 weeks on....
Our last blog on the Mkwiro
Women’s Group was already a few months ago and I am pretty sure that a nice
update is more than needed. As you know, we started last quarter with a work
plan for the Women’s Group – ten objectives in ten weeks – in order for them to
be ready to go to Diani and sell their products.
We first started working on the
logo and the information sheet and, with the help of some people far more
skilled then me regarding new technologies, the new logo and the information
sheet were ready at the end of week 2, right on schedule!
The next objective was to have a
professional looking catalogue that would include all the products. Indeed, we
had different catalogues available but none of them were finished. Thanks to
the help of two amazing volunteers, the Women’s Group has now a beautiful catalogue
that shows their range of products and gives all the necessary information on
how to place an order or contact the group if needed. After several workshops on how to
approach businesses, how to take an order, how to have good and clear accounting,
by week 8, the women were almost ready to go to Diani.
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| One of the groups members shows of a beautiful bag |
For week 9, the objective was to
select some products to have some samples for Diani. I had told the group
before that we would need as many products as we could have (I didn’t think
that so many women would show up and even more products!) After explaining to
them that is was important to take good looking and well finished products from
different women, they made their selection. Since the women brought all their
mats, we used this meeting as well to define the size of each mat in order to
have consistency in the sizes of the mats depending on their prices.
The last objective was to take
care of the constitution. It is always very important for a group to have a
strong constitution, one that can help the management of the group and the
smooth running of its everyday life. The Women’s Group already had a
constitution but they still needed to translate it into English (for legal
reasons, all official documents have to be written in English and Swahili).
Besides, after a few little quarrels, I explained them that the constitution
should be the document where solutions should be found in case of disputes.
After proposing my help to add a part on how to divide an order, the women
agreed to change their founding document.
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| Mkwiro women's group with a mass of beautiful products |
So far, the constitution has been
translated but we still have to add the part regarding the orders. It proves to
be quite challenging to have ¾ of the group present to change the constitution
(as it is stipulated in the constitution itself) but we have to believe in it.
After ten weeks now, I am amazed
by what the women’s group has achieved and really excited to see them going to
Diani and approach businesses. They already started working with the Reef in
Shimoni and have now the possibility to sell their products there during the
high season. I really hope that when our meetings start again (it is not
possible to have meetings during the month of Ramadan), we will manage to
finish our last objective and then go to Diani!
Julie Barrot De Brito - Community field staff/Intern
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