Second day of the pitch competition at Kibera Constituency. Yesterday with the help of five other organizations we trained about 200 young adults on how to build a business and pitch it. Today, 21 of the groups pitching presented their project in front of a jury composed by the French Embassy, Women Enterprise Fund, Uwezo Fund and Project Kenya.
Criteria of selection of a project
1/ sustainability
2/ originality
3/ eradication of poverty
4/ compliance with the law
5/ structure and organization of the team
6/ dynamism, clarity and sucyto convey their idea
7/ credibility
8/ proven idea if already launched before competition
9/plan on how they will use the cash they will get from us.
We selected 7 projects:
1/ Waste management by Guetto Clean:
Daily collection in shops, government office, hospital, private houses. Need a plastic shredder machine to develop their business
2/ Design and creation of bags, carpets, duvets,…by Young Star African Designers
Group of 5 women who create quality custom-made items. International clients. Need seeing machines, fabrics and other sewing equipment
3/ Candle making by Kibera Deaf Group
They need more machines to be able to make more candles.
4/ Organic Peanut butter made by Rozeinuts
They sell the homemade jars to hospital, schools and shops. They need to buy a machine to increase the production and increase the marketing to reach outside Kibera and Kenya.
5/Table banking and loaning by Destine Family
This membership group is composed of young mothers who support each others. They all have a stall or a shop and counted on the loans to develop their business.
6/ Good Sense is a community based group of young adults who are fighting against all the different challenges their neighborhood is suffering : crime, lack of sanitation, shortage of water supply, pollution…
From creating small charcoal business to building toilets to collecting garbage. To be able to welcome more people at their toilets facilities, they need a tank to store water but they also would like to develop a table banking system to be able to help those you want to create a small business locally.
7/ creation of a blog and Application to deliver accurate information about Kibera. “No, we are not drinking sewage water as you can read in some newspaper! We want to change the stories on Kibera and write about the right side of the community!” Mtaani Kibera targets readers from Kibera but also and mostly tourists, journalists or NGO from all around the word. They need to buy computers, rent an office and pay the writers.
All the seven projects will receive a training from I Choose Life -Africa over the next three months to assure that the project is sustainable and ready to move from startup to SMEs, they will receive a 0% interest loan which they will have to start refund after 6 months.
We will also be able to follow up with each of the group and help them develop contacts in the US if needed.
Tonight, we are sad…Raphaele had to go back to NY. Bye bye, it was so much fun to have you with us this year. Have a safe trip!
Project Kenya Trip Diary 