Ethics — Ethnic Supplies

Poverty in Africa- the case for clean water

September 7, 2009 By ethnicsupplies 1 Comment

Last week I wrote about my visit to Dar es Salaam Tanzania and conversations I had with Omari from the Investment Facility for Africa, as well as Ethnic Supplies textile producersFlotea and Elihaika. In this post I will present the points of view from folk in Uganda

I was in a contemplative mood as I left Tanzania for Uganda and tried to take in the conversations I had, had with Omari, Flotea and Elihaika. They all appeared to agree that change is necessary in order for circumstances of the desperately poor in Tanzania and indeed elsewhere in Africa to change to change.

What was interesting to note was that all three are doing there bit to end poverty be it from a different angle/approach but more so that this change or ending poverty was not necessarily about money, instead that the environment in which business is transacted needs to change, skill shortages, property rights for women need to be addressed and that access to international trade is vital in the fight against poverty.

In Uganda I headed to our project in Ruhanga in SW Uganda, where the community is in dire need of access to clean water. Currently the women and children walk for up to three hours just to access clean water. The water they have access to is disease causing, the children and those with compromised immune systems are especially at risk. After the women collect the water they return to the bottom of the valley to collect firewood to boil the water on an open fire to rid it of disease causing germs.

This routine leaves no time for any thing else and time for income generating activities is certainly reduced. What tends to happen is that the women often fore go the boiling of the water step because of exhaustion and consequently this leads to illness which means they can’t go out to work! Catch 22! This water is especially dangerous for the young, elderly and those with compromised immune systems and ultimately ahs implications for healthcare budgets.

It may not be easy to associate the lack of clean water to poverty but there is a real and clear link, water is an essential part of life and therefore like us folk here cannot do without. What compounds the situation in this village in particular, 9 out of 10 households have no access to electricity, this means that most chores have to be completed during day light. This means that women for instance cannot do their embroidery or basket weaving in the evening which are some of the income generating activities that they are able to participate in.

One man in this village is doing his very best to change the fortunes of his village. He was given some land by his father and he decided to put this land to some good use. As the village is on the main road to Rwanda and DR Congo he decided that he would make all these people passing through his village stop and spend some money in his village. He embarked on a project that has become known as Uganda Lodge http://www.ugandalodge.com/ . He soon run out money to make his dream a reality but as luck would have it he bumped into an English woman Ann McCarthy who was on holiday in Uganda, Ann was so taken in by this part of Uganda that 5 years on she has made this project a way of life.

Ann came across me, when she read an article about my work in the same part of Uganda and we have since registered a charity LET THEM HELP THEMSELVES OUT OF POVERTY so that we can raise some money to bring clean water to the people of Ruhanga. We have not achieved this yet, and if you are able to help us please get in touch.

What has been achieved, so far, is that this village was virtually unknown to the outside world, but today thanks to Ann’s efforts, Ruhanga is a place for people in the west to visit and share their skills with the local community, these visitors have been able to help out in local schools, work on the construction site and as a result there is a space for village people to learn about computers as well as sewing machines for women to use.

There is a nursery school that has enabled children from the village to start school before age 7 as was the case before. the challenge now is to get more people from the west to come in and experience life in atypical African village, but also learn about what can be achieved through joint efforts that are not necessarily about charity but rather HELPING PEOPLE HELP THEMSELVES OUT OF POVERTY

Will you take up the challenge? We would love to hear from you and I can guarantee that this would be the most fulfilling holiday you will ever take!

In the post head to Kampala the capital of Uganda where I visited a slum right in the middle the richest part of the city.

Filed Under: Poverty in Africa, Volunteering, Water Aid

Poverty in africa- the day today reality 2

September 5, 2009 By ethnicsupplies 1 Comment

Yesterday I introduced Flotea one of our textile producers . Flotea had left me with so much to think about and I went to sellp that night I wondered what the next day would be like as I was due to meet Elihaika who is also a textile producer for Ethnic Supplies.

Elihaika (on the right)

Elihaika set up her Textile business in 2004 and initially designed clothing for the local market. Like other textile producers in Tanzania, she wanted access to a much wider market so she joined local groups and through these she got into large exhibitions and managed to access markets in nearby countries.

Today she works with 500 other women and is the team leader of Hand Products Of Tanzania (HOT) a group made up of 35 female entrepreneurs from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Her role is to promote the work of the group and to ensure that they have access to public funding to enable them to participate in high profile events. Some of the group’s members such as Julia are semi or illiterate and rely on her for issues such as pricing

Julia

I told Elihaika about my conversation with Omari and asked about what life is like for women in Tanzania.

Elihaika: some are financially dependent some are not: where a woman has independent income she has control over it and it gives her spending power whilst those without financial independence are always asking their husbands for money and there is no guarantee that they will get it or that it will meet their needs. If a man is in charge of the money chances are arguments will arise, men don’t like it when women ask them for money and find this irritating and despise women that ask them for money constantly this in turn frustrates the woman as the woman as she doesn’t want to ask money but has no choice.

Are there Systems and processes in place to support women to become economically independent?

Elihaika: things are changing even in the rural areas, land is more accessible to women and the government is keen for women to own property. It is however up to the women to take advantage of the opportunities that have been provided. For instance family/marital property can pass to women banks have become accessible to women, micro finance is available too and if women take up these opportunities up then they can become financially independent. Women have a big role in economic development as they participate in production, create jobs and are responsible for children especially in the area of education. This (education) is important as it is the key role eradicating poverty.

With that in mind what are the challenges women in Tanzania face?

Elihaika:

Access to working capital is still an issue for women without formal education.
For those involved in textile production market access is a problem
Access to overseas markets
help with designing of products that are suitable for foreign markets
African customs and culture, still place men on pedestals, where women are meant to be subservient, there are still areas that believe in certain jobs being unsuitable for girls
property rights for women are still restricted in some parts even with the government legislation -girls can’t inherit property and confined to a life of poverty
exclusion from education
lack of control on household income and have not say how this is spent

I gave some thought to these challenges and naively or not I concluded that with a great deal of WILL and commitment almost all of them can be eliminated. It also seemed to me that women must strive for financial independence and one way that we can all help is to give women the tools they need to develop the skills that they require to take advantage of the initiatives created by governments and donors. But how do we get around the issue of market access especially access to overseas markets?

We probably can’t do much about the culture that places men on pedestals at the expense of women in Africa but if women gain financial independence an element of that culture may fade out on its own.

I left Tanzania the next day and head to Uganda. I will be writing about my experiences there in the next post. As usual it you ahve a view either way, I would love to hear from you.

Filed Under: African women, Business support for women, Ethical Fashion, Work from Home Tagged With: Africa, african textile, Dar es salaam, Foreign markets, Tanzania

Poverty in Africa- the day today reality

September 4, 2009 By ethnicsupplies 3 Comments

This week I have been looking at the notion of money and poverty in Africa. The question I get asked often and one I would like to try and answer in this thread is How do things work on the ground?.

I will approach it from the point of view of the women I work with and draw from my visit to Tanzania and Uganda in 2008.

Having left Omari I was collected from my hotel by Flotea one of the Ethnic Supplies textile producers. She was two hours late and I was unhappy about this until I heard her reasons.

Flotea

Flotea is an amazing woman who left school at a very young age with no qualification to speak of this meant that she was excluded from formal employment and the only skills she had were embroidery skills. she started out by making table linen and curtains for her own home, when her neighbours saw the quality of her work they asked if she could make home furnishings for them too and soon word had got out and she had a list of customers. She soon outgrew the space in her two room house, and had to extend it, as well as widening her range to include African tote bags Flotea’s idea has grown beyond her imagination and today she employees 30 women from the slums of Dar es Salaam. She shares what skills she has with women less fortunate than she is through workshops on textile production and design

Hippos cushions cover by Flotea

After the initial pleasantries I asked her about her morning and it transpired that she wanted to expand her business so that she can take on more staff. In order to do so she wanted to move to larger premises built from scratch and for two years she had been trying to buy a piece of land for the new premises without much luck.

She had therefore decided to hand over the whole matter to a Solicitor and that meeting had over run and therefore she couldn’t get to me on time. I was truly shocked by what Flotea had just told me which seemed to validate part of what Omari had told me earlier that morning.

I could see clearly why it was important to have commercial systems streamlined and made more efficient to enable businesses to function more effectively. How on earth do you expand a business when acquiring a piece of land for the new premises is a two year process and that is before the construction process begins? I told Flotea about my meeting with Omari and the general points we had covered especially the MONEY!

Flotea looked me in the eye and said “I pity any African who believes that some external person/outsider will come and resolve our problems, because I tell you what they will be waiting for a long time”

This is a strong statement and it raised another question in my mind. African women like Flotea are not expecting handouts and expect to work hard in order to get ahead all things being equal, so why do we in the West have this notion of giving more money?

As we continue the conversation about my morning Flotea is not very keen to be drawn on the issues of what happens to the AID money. She insists that the politicians have the answers to this question. She felt that institutions do not appear to have any interest in the small man on the street therefore she just minds her own business!

Flotea argued that the government merely plays lip service to women’s issues and that in fact unless women work together to share skills and resources they are unlikely to succeed. She told me that there are large numbers of women in Tanzania involved in textile production however there is no institution where these women can go and learn about textile and design. They instead rely on skills sharing where those who know teach those that do not. In her mind this is the one thing that would change life for most women especially the slum dwellers.

Other challenges included

Lack of IT and communication skills
Access to markets the lack of information means they don’t always know what market demands are

I spent the rest of the afternoon and the best part of the evening with Flotea and her team and I taught them how to use email and PICASA Google’s photographs programme. this would enable them to share photos of their products with folk all over the world. Flotea appreciated this and as I left her she told me this is what we need people to come in and share what they know with us!

So there you have it folk, for women like Flotea, it really isn’t about the money! In the enxt post I will introduce another of the Ethnic Supplies textile producers whose view is somewaht different from that of Flotea. In the mean time if you have a view either way on any of the issues raised here please share it

Filed Under: African women, Business support for women, Good Practice, International Policy, Sustainable development, Women in Business, Work from Home Tagged With: African women, International development, Tanzania