A JOURNEY OF 1000 MILES BEGINS WITH ONE STEP;
IRINGA LIVING LAB ENTREPRENEURSHIP GROUP TAKES FIRST STEP
Iringa Living Lab First Entrepreneurship Group, 3rd July 2012
A month ago, Kristiina of TANZICT met with potential members of the Iringa Living Lab to discuss possibilities of how they can be involved in solving problems/tensions in their community. They listed about 20 tensions and finally zeroed on four which they thought were most critical to handle. Among the key tensions was unemployment. So, one group, led by Ambrose Mwakikoti and Arnold Luhwago was tasked to come up with initiatives to deal with this problem, in whatever small way.
Members of the group were tasked to identify at least three people in their neighborhoods whom they thought needed entrepreneurship training. This they did and yesterday the first training in entrepreneurship took place. Being the first time, the group was introduced to what Iringa Living Lab is all about, emphasizing that human beings have a responsibility of making their communities better. God has given us the resources we need, hands, legs, brains, soils, friends, etc…so failure is just choice.
A short documentary was shown of Nick Vujicic, who is limbless but has not been limited by his physical condition. It was emphasized that attitude is all that matters in life. As a way of hammering the point home, today we visited Neema Craft, a local NGO that supports disabled individuals in Iringa region to live a productive lifestyle. The visit to Neema Craft has also been very inspirational not only because people with physical defects are very productive but also the fact that they use what would be referred to as useless garbage (e.g. broken bottles, elephant dung, maize leaves, waste paper, etc) to produce high value products.
At the end, everyone was inspired; commitment has been made by every member of the group to work on something-those already in business to better them, those not yet doing productive work to start immediately. They will report back in 2 weeks, coming for another workshop, with new members, at least 2 by each group member. Those interested in working on simple business plans will see Yusuf individually.
Are you passionate about training people in simple entrepreneurship skills? Drop us a message and let’s see how we can work together.
Great work Iringa people!!! And thank you Yusuf - so good to hear that things are proceeding. All the best and greetings from Finland!
ReplyDeleteWhat good work you guys are doing in Iringa.You definitely projecting hope to the rest of the region. Keep up the good work and we are looking forward to see what will transpire next! #Champs
ReplyDeleteBrent, we're appreciate your contribution. we look forward to the August meeting. Just as we had planned, today one of the guys who came for social media training last week had brought 8 new people who want to learn computer. Unfortunately the University computers are not in good condition, they want to work on them first, possibly in a week's time they will be ready.
Deletekeep challenging us to innovate new ways of doing things.
Thanks,
Yusuf
Sounds great! I'm looking forward to being part of this valuable work!
ReplyDeleteWow Sanna, nice to hear from you. Indeed we are waiting for you. Nice preparations
DeleteYusuf
Hello from Dar! What entrepreneurship ideas did people come up with? I'm curious. My business idea would be: making t-shirts for tourists with kanga/kitenge patterns. Buying good-quality mitumba t-shirts (plain colour), washing them well, then decorating them. You could cut one nice pattern from a kanga or kitenge (e.g. a fish, a flower, a mobile phone) and appliqué it onto the t-shirt. This way tourists could get t-shirts with 'a taste of authentic tanzania' but without having to buy a whole kitenge shirt (kitenge clothes are difficult to wear in the North where people use more discreet patterns). It's not ICT but maybe some tailors would be interested!
ReplyDelete