and me trying to use illustrations for the small business training.
Sara presenting on behalf of her group
Nayamani and Esther, trying to get an update on their prchasing of the vegetable plots
Stephanie expressing what a business is to her.Kwa Idd Project
The start of the week was spent trying to validate some initial costs for both Peter’s sunflower business and Mary’s barbeque goat business. Peter’s initial request for the loan was 200.000 Tsh, however after exploring some different avenues for supply of the sunflower we were able to transfer 50,000 from Peter’s allocation to Sion. Sion was an applicant who was initially chosen as she lacked the knowledge and skills in trying to generate income. However, her living conditions were the lowest scored. I couldn't allow myself not to include her in the first round of the small loans, even if it was 50,000 it would make a huge difference to her weekly income.The successful applicants that were chosen were also told the good news and informed about the 2 day training for small businesses. I had never taught to a group before other than carried out presentations for a board of executives I hadn’t really had to take charge of an adult class!! Therefore the start of the week was spent thinking about the approach i was going to take and the content of my training. I knew visual aid was a must and my basic Swahili would not allow me to do this on my own, so having Dan as an interpreter working with me will really come in handy here!!
Helping Sister Felicity - FAWE project
After a lot of thought I have decided the way forward for this organisation will be to try and create some form of income generating scheme. Even if i can finalise donors and get hold of funds once the money has been allocated to where its needed, there will still be difficulties in the long run. So I discussed income generating ideas, we needed to do a survey on the area to see what potential ideas would work. The current org which is financing Sister Felicity has also rolled out another round of funding. Therefore most of my time was also used to assist her in completing the long grant proposal. This required a complete financial picture of FAWE and transparency on why funding was required.
27 may
Ngaramtoni
It was an eventful day in Ngaramton, there has been little rain so it was very very dusty in the hills, but none the less we caught Flora today.Last week she was unable to purchase right quality of wood, so remainder has been purchased. The problem we will face now is the shortage of money, it will not be enough to cover the labour charges so i need to re-asses this with Kate. Also did progress reports for Nayamani and Esther, looking at their records it was apparent they had made a loss with the vegetable business. Nayamani had made a bad call with the supplier she had chosen, as the vegetable plot purchased was not a good one. Esther had not researched pricing within the market she was selling and had sold her stock for less then she purchased. We spent a lot of time with them today to make a plan of action for the next two weeks, we will be working with them closely in purchasing and selling the goods as of today.
28/29
The Business training
I was a little concerned at the star of the week as to not having enough time to prep for the training, However i managed to arrange it all in between my bus journey's to and from work.I was a little nervous the night before, but these 2 days of carrying out small business training was so rewarding and enjoyable. Group work was great aspect in getting all the guys to integrate and work as a team, also the creative guys of the group emerged . I ensured the start of the training got rid of their fear about lack of education and business knowledge.I did this by using a simple exercise whereby i asked the 3 groups to draw pictures on their understanding of what business was – this was really interesting, especially as none of them drew money but pics of the carrying out what they knew was ‘good business’. One of the illustrations was by Justin, he had drew a picture of a tree whereby he explained the roots of it was where the stock was (capital) . From the roots to the branches was the flow of distribution to the customer (channels of distribution). Each branch her drew represented all the different types of consumers (segmentation) and the apples on the trees was where the profit came from. He explained how each part of the apple would cover and contribute costs of the business,families expenses and savings. This concept will really stick with me, no matter what little education he had it was his determination to succeed and care for his family that mattered. I really wanted them to integrate with one another and share thoughts so encouraged them all to present their ideas,they were all shy about doing this but after just 2 days you could clearly see their confidence and enthusiasm beaming.
The remainder of the training covered the requirements to start a business, developing a business idea, evaluation of competition, the customer, determining a selling price and building a repeat client base. The 2nd day was challenging as it was the financial part ranging from profit and loss to keeping records. Although it was a good chance chance to see which recipients had difficulty with numbers etc, to help me recognise which needed closer support and help in setting up.
The start of the week was spent trying to validate some initial costs for both Peter’s sunflower business and Mary’s barbeque goat business. Peter’s initial request for the loan was 200.000 Tsh, however after exploring some different avenues for supply of the sunflower we were able to transfer 50,000 from Peter’s allocation to Sion. Sion was an applicant who was initially chosen as she lacked the knowledge and skills in trying to generate income. However, her living conditions were the lowest scored. I couldn't allow myself not to include her in the first round of the small loans, even if it was 50,000 it would make a huge difference to her weekly income.The successful applicants that were chosen were also told the good news and informed about the 2 day training for small businesses. I had never taught to a group before other than carried out presentations for a board of executives I hadn’t really had to take charge of an adult class!! Therefore the start of the week was spent thinking about the approach i was going to take and the content of my training. I knew visual aid was a must and my basic Swahili would not allow me to do this on my own, so having Dan as an interpreter working with me will really come in handy here!!
Helping Sister Felicity - FAWE project
After a lot of thought I have decided the way forward for this organisation will be to try and create some form of income generating scheme. Even if i can finalise donors and get hold of funds once the money has been allocated to where its needed, there will still be difficulties in the long run. So I discussed income generating ideas, we needed to do a survey on the area to see what potential ideas would work. The current org which is financing Sister Felicity has also rolled out another round of funding. Therefore most of my time was also used to assist her in completing the long grant proposal. This required a complete financial picture of FAWE and transparency on why funding was required.
27 may
Ngaramtoni
It was an eventful day in Ngaramton, there has been little rain so it was very very dusty in the hills, but none the less we caught Flora today.Last week she was unable to purchase right quality of wood, so remainder has been purchased. The problem we will face now is the shortage of money, it will not be enough to cover the labour charges so i need to re-asses this with Kate. Also did progress reports for Nayamani and Esther, looking at their records it was apparent they had made a loss with the vegetable business. Nayamani had made a bad call with the supplier she had chosen, as the vegetable plot purchased was not a good one. Esther had not researched pricing within the market she was selling and had sold her stock for less then she purchased. We spent a lot of time with them today to make a plan of action for the next two weeks, we will be working with them closely in purchasing and selling the goods as of today.
28/29
The Business training
I was a little concerned at the star of the week as to not having enough time to prep for the training, However i managed to arrange it all in between my bus journey's to and from work.I was a little nervous the night before, but these 2 days of carrying out small business training was so rewarding and enjoyable. Group work was great aspect in getting all the guys to integrate and work as a team, also the creative guys of the group emerged . I ensured the start of the training got rid of their fear about lack of education and business knowledge.I did this by using a simple exercise whereby i asked the 3 groups to draw pictures on their understanding of what business was – this was really interesting, especially as none of them drew money but pics of the carrying out what they knew was ‘good business’. One of the illustrations was by Justin, he had drew a picture of a tree whereby he explained the roots of it was where the stock was (capital) . From the roots to the branches was the flow of distribution to the customer (channels of distribution). Each branch her drew represented all the different types of consumers (segmentation) and the apples on the trees was where the profit came from. He explained how each part of the apple would cover and contribute costs of the business,families expenses and savings. This concept will really stick with me, no matter what little education he had it was his determination to succeed and care for his family that mattered. I really wanted them to integrate with one another and share thoughts so encouraged them all to present their ideas,they were all shy about doing this but after just 2 days you could clearly see their confidence and enthusiasm beaming.
The remainder of the training covered the requirements to start a business, developing a business idea, evaluation of competition, the customer, determining a selling price and building a repeat client base. The 2nd day was challenging as it was the financial part ranging from profit and loss to keeping records. Although it was a good chance chance to see which recipients had difficulty with numbers etc, to help me recognise which needed closer support and help in setting up.
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