Livelihood Training
As you walk through the streets of Babati you get the feeling of a thriving, bustling town. Cars that 13 years ago were few and far between drive along the main road, avoiding the tuktuks, cyclists and goats. Motorbike drivers crowd around a small roadside cafe drinking tea and eating chapati or rice cakes. The established businesses have a good trade. Further down the road are those who are less established, but they have a permanent site, a raised wooden platform where they can sell their wares. Hundred of plastic shoes from China; layers of denim jeans or second hand clothes from Europe; or plastic bags for life, mixed with cloth bags with David Beckham or an unknown American rapper's face staring out at you. Further down the road are traders sitting next to their stock be it small towers of yam, sweet potatoes, maybe trays of onions, a bucket of soft drinks or 10 pairs of shoes. Wherever you look there is enterprise, there are people trying to make some money to make ends meet.
How can those, on the very edge of the informal sector ever hope to progress up the chain towards those with established businesses? In reality unless something in the status quo changes, they can't. This is why we quietly challenge the status quo.
Our 'Street Business School Training Programme' helps people who are struggling with their businesses or those who want to start a business but don't know where to start with training. Two days a month for 6 months so it fits in with life during which time we talk about the fundamentals of business, of market research, of cash flow, of location, of marketing and promotion and getting outside of your comfort zone.
Patrick was in our first group of trainees. At the time he was selling shoes on the road and working as a labourer on building sites. 12 months after the training, he has established a shop selling a variety of products in daily demand like sugar, rice, cooking oil, sugar cane and charcoal. He keeps daily records of income and expenditure and has managed to make enough to put away savings for an emergency. Building resilience is so fantastic to see. Patrick's life changing journey from Roadside to Shop is why we run programmes like this, the impact on him and his family is so tangible and demonstrates that 'poverty' can be beaten if the right approach is taken.
The 2nd cohort of students have now started their training, this time it is an all female group from the Daghailoy community. We asked Jameela, one of the new students why she wanted to join the training.
She explained "The reason why I joined the programme was because of what I heard on the community meeting. Hearing about business training made me want to join and receive it too, hoping to get knowledge on how to start a business. So far with the topics we have been trained on already I see some changes in me. The fear of starting a business is decreasing day by day, I have started to feel uncomfortable to just stay idle and wait for my husband to provide everything for the family. For now there is no day that passes without me thinking about what business I need to do, in fact I have this business idea of buying and selling milk."
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