Time to pretend
Thursday, February 11, 2010
I’m an Arts student. At Laurier - the university I graduate from in June with my BA in English - there are Business students, and then there are Arts students (OK, we have Science and Music students too, but let‘s count those as wider Arts). Unlike the biz kids, Arts students don’t tend to burden themselves with knowledge of the stock market, product marketing, or sound human resource management.
No. We study more broadly philosophical things, looking for passive but effective ways to make a mark in the world. We look at how history is made and how culture is bred. We read books and shit.
Never having had an interest running my own business, I’ve never taken the time to acquaint myself with the fundamentals of sound business-making.
Now, I find myself in the middle of Africa, trying to help a group of village women sell handmade banana wood products. Evidently, right now, a bit of basic business savvy would help me out a little bit.
Upon being given the task of coming up with a way to make money for a group of impoverished, resource-lacking women, my immediate thought was: What the hell can I do to help – what makes me any more capable than them?
Still, I came here hoping to “make a difference”, move outside of my boundaries and not be completely useless to the people of Tengeru - so I suppose I should give this a shot.
Thus, it’s time to pretend that I know a thing or two about business.
Perhaps my second education (and one I tend to think of as my primary) at Laurier will give me a head start. Having worked at The Cord student newpaper for all 5 ½ years of my undergraduate career, I’ve certainly had human resource management experience - with a staff of 15 editors to looks after.
As the editor of a weekly paper, I’ve also surely had some experience in marketing a product that people will want to pick up and consume - even if what I “sold” was free and had virtually zero competition to face up against.
Handmade products in the Arusha region are dime a dozen. Trinkets, bracelets, decorations and knick knacks are cheaply imported from Kenya and sold in markets of Arusha proper. Ask a fly-catching market stall owner where their product came from, what you usually hear (inaccurately) is that they made them themselves. Thought you noticed a lady applying varnish to a bracelet in the corner? Just a clever way to make the products seem genuine.
The bracelets made by the Mama Machumba group - one collection of women we are working with - are the real deal. Hopefully, this can be played to our advantage in the oversaturated market of inexpensive tourist knick knacks.
Brightson - not involved with the project himself - had the idea of working with local safari companies to offer gifts to their customers - in the form of these Machumba banana wood products. This is the first opportunity we’ll explore in the coming weeks.
The last Experiential Learning International volunteer that came to our area worked with the group to create bracelets from the banana tree wood. While it’s a great product that has sold well back in the USA (the volunteer, Erika, took a shipment back with her), the real stumbling block that the women’s group is facing is local sales. While it’s all well and good to help build funds for the women’s group by selling products to friends back across the Atlantic, I worry it’s a short-term solution that doesn’t enable the women to work independently in their home, in the long-term. Hopefully, we can develop the business into something that - after we leave - can continue on without our help.
The Mama Machumba group certainly seem to have faith in my abilities. One thing I've been asking myself is what, exactly, makes me any better at solving their problems than they are. Sure, my Western education has taught me some broadly applicable skills. I suppose finding out how to apply those skills outside of a comfortable, hand-holding environment will be a large part of my development here in Tanzania.
Posted byplayerHAYTER at 10:05 PM