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August 21, 2006
Bombolulu Workshops, Kenya
I love Mombasa. It's really bustling and finally I am warm. Summer has come to Kenya. All around me the Bombolulu workshop artisans are rushing about and busy – some in wheelchairs, some on crutches. The atmosphere is dynamic and people stop to ask a question or two and explain how they are making things.
Bombolulu is in the city of Mombasa, on the coast of Kenya. The workshop, where People Tree produces some of our jewellery, was set up in 1969 as a rehabilitation centre. Thirty-seven years on and the workshop now provides training and work for over 100 adults who are either disabled to obtain the skills necessary to make jewellery, woodcarvings, leather goods or tailoring.
I must tell you about a lady I met named Alice Maundu, as she had such a tremendous effect on me. She is 35 years old and has been in a wheelchair since she was a child. She lost her legs due to polio and has 'soft bones' she says that meant she was unable to bear children of her own. Yet this didn't deter her from becoming a terrific mother, "I like children," she says. She adopted two children at age 1 and age 7, and regularly looks after her niece and her nephew during their school holidays, despite her severe disability. But how did she manage when they were little and juggling a full time job? "I hired a helper," she beams.
With such a disability Alice would have found it very difficult to provide for herself let alone live the full life that looking after children brings. She joined Bombolulu in 1993 and has since been making Fair Trade jewellery, where she earns decently by Kenyan standards. "I feel terrible when I see disabled people in the streets begging," she says. "I am so lucky to be here, safe, secure and with a chance to live a full life." Alice makes me think about a man I saw five years ago in Nairobi, who having suffered polio had lost his legs and had to propel himself on a tray with wheels, between the cars, selling bananas. The danger, the exhaust fumes and his courage, forced by need, will undoubtedly stay with me forever.
In Japan we talk about a barrier-free society – but in the developing world we have a long, long way to go. Not only can Alice and the other 150 fully-salaried artisans rely on a regular income but Bombolulu provides other benefits too. They provide housing for the most severely disabled, medical benefits and offer loans for higher education so that their children can continue their education after age 14.
I sit together with Peter, a 30 year old jewellery maker, who reminds me of a good friend from home. He's really charming! He has been working here for 10 years and is really eager to show me his workmanship and skills. When I admit I don't know what an 'anvil' is he laughs in surprise and patiently explains. He gets out a brass pendant, shaped like a leaf, and explains how using the anvil shapes the centre vein of the leaf. It's beautiful. Look out for it in the Spring/Summer collection next year.
If you'd like to support the Bombolulu artists right now then click here to check out some of their beautifully crafted jewellery.
August 16, 2006
Visiting Meru Herbs
Meru Herbs is situated on Mount Meru, a bumpy five-hour drive from Nairobi. As we jolt about and skirt around the pot holes, the driver, James Mwaniki, tells me this is a 'great' place for big snakes! The anaconda can hypnotise dogs and even swallow a goat – whole. The blog photo of me half consumed by an anaconda flashes ominously through my mind...
We started working with the farmers from Meru Herbs 10 years ago. They grow the most delicious hibiscus (carcade as it's known around here), camomile and lemongrass tea – all produced organically. The hibiscus flowers are voluptuous, rose red and the scent seduces you! It's absolutely wonderful.
A woman at Meru Herbs 'shelling' the hibiscus flowers by taking off the plump petals for drying to make tea.
The Nguuru Gakirwe water project was started in 1989 when Italian born Andrew Botta worked with local engineers they built an irrigation system in this drought prone area. Eighteen years on and it serves the 470 families of farmers who can enjoy access to water. This simple but effective engineering is pure genius as it has no automatic parts that could break and has stood the test of time, so rarely the case in development projects. The whole community pay for the water by employing over ten people to maintain it, and every family sends a member to clear out the sediment when the river is low.
Nguuru Gakirwe water project.
According to Paul Mucee, one of the herb farmers, all they could grow in these parts before the water project was created was millet and corn, because rain was so infrequent. 'With the chance of water for irrigation and access to Fair Trade markets I was able to treble my income,' says Paul. Success continues with his son recently graduating from the most prestigious technical college in engineering and now working for an alternative energy solar panel company.
Paul Mucee
I ask Paul if he is happy. 'Oh, I am happy. I used to live in confusion, not knowing how I might feed my family, but now I have direction and great hope. My calendar now follows the natural, organic cycles.'
Andrew, who is the most energetic and amazing seventy-something I have ever met, has created livelihoods for hundreds of people in this rural area with the water project. His friends may have thought him mad starting a project like this in the middle of nowhere, but he has helped to build a thriving community, to which roads, bridges and schooling have now finally found their way as well. Then I ask him about future challenges the farmers face. The climate is changing he says, because of global warming, we need to adopt 'drip irrigation' as it is a more efficient use of water. (This consists of a hose with holes in it, so that the water can drip through slowly.)
I visit the banana fields to see this method in action. The bananas will head for Nairobi, but the people of this community are able stay here - 'We have everything we need for a good life here,' the farmers tell me repeatedly.
August 10, 2006
'Make it Biashara Ya Haki, please!'
‘Biashara ya haki' is swahili for Fair Trade, and these words are being heard more and more in the rural areas of Kenya where I’ve been this week.
The Kenyan economy seems to be back on track. Children aged between 4-14yrs can receive free education and a newly established Community Development Fund now puts rural development at the top of the agenda, together with supporting farmer's prices.
However, there is still a long way to go. Fifty-six per cent of Kenyans live on less than US$1 a day and there is a constant threat of drought, which recently had the whole country abandon work for the day simply to pray for rain. It came. Water really is the new currency for propriety, the difference between life and death, essential to crops, to animals and the deciding factor in the hardship people suffer.
I've come to Kenya to work with People Tree's seven partner groups here, together with our handicraft designer Mayuko. I wanted to find out what effect low prices and machine production were having on the lives of kiondo basket artisans. The kiondo is a traditional Kenyan basket, used when a bride goes to her new family. Filled with agricultural tools and a little food, it signifies she is strong and ready to contribute to her new family.
For over twenty years export sales of kiondos have provided much needed income for rural Kenyan women who have few alternative ways to earn money during the 6 months when they are not farming. Today machine-produced kiondos are depriving them of their income and even those handmade kiondos that are made in Kenya are being sold on our high streets for as little as 50% less than a Fair Trade kiondo.
A Masai lady: Crafts of Africa is now internationally patenting kiondo designs to secure livelihoods of many people in Kenya.
This problem was discussed with Fair Trade members at a kiondo design and quality workshop which People Tree held in Nairobi. Agnes, a kiondo weaver that I spoke to, would like to earn US$3 for a day's work, the minimum wage set by the government but ignored by crafts traders. She, like many other weavers, explained how the middlemen offer very low prices for their goods. The women try to negotiate for a 'decent' price, but often sell bags for less than they cost to make. The women cannot wait for a better deal - they have no choice but to sell their work for less than the cost of production in order to feed their hungry children. According to them, the middlemen take advantage of their desperate poverty.
As the head of the Export Promotion Council in Nairobi tells us, 'This creates confusion in the market and prevents Fair Trade products getting the distribution they deserve.' She is keen to support best practice and encourage Fair Trade because it supports the governments aim to alleviate poverty.
As the workshop discussion continued people were excited to hear about the Fair Trade movement, and that increasingly people around the world want to buy products which are free of exploitation. We have stricter environmental legislation - why not regulation to protect people from exploitation? I tell the group about the Company Law Reform Bill in the UK (click here for more information about the Bill and what you can do to help) and how, in addition to Fair Trade, conventional trade will have to become more responsible.
People Tree is planning a Kiondo campaign to help kiondo basket weaving communities and we hope to be able to tell you more in mid-September!
Dancing with women from a kiondo basket making group.
