Musana Jewelry

I talked to Sandra today as well as to Livingstone (with Pat the Child) and everyone is really excited about the launch tomorrow!!!

Musana Jewelry Social Business

Musana–meaning sunlight in Luganda–the largest native language of Uganda, is an idea that began the summer of 2009 as we spent 3-4 months in Lugazi, Uganda doing small development projects through HELP International. As we got to know the people and asked them their needs, the idea behind this social venture was born. Based on the development theory of Muhammad Yunas and social business, we believe the purpose of a NGO is to go in and become friends with those you want to help, ask about needs, and train and provide tools so that they can accomplish what they need themselves.

We decided to begin a venture by providing jobs to some women in need while giving them training in business through functional literacy classes and setting up a savings and loans group. The job will provide a stable income to provide for their families while they are making jewelry. When they get on their feet, the women will be better educated and able to take out loans to pursue their dreams The jewelry profits will pay for a cow project which takes street children off the street and increases public health in the community. The business component of this venture makes the system self sustaining.

There are currently 8 women in Lugazi who are being trained in jewelry making. We have personally interviewed these women. Although unique in personality and story, they have a few common themes. They were born into very poor circumstances and did not have the opportunity to be educated, with only a couple years of formalized schooling. The only way to achieve stability in their life was to marry. Frequently these women’s husbands had other wives, which the women would sometimes leave and then return when they realized they couldn’t make it on their own providing for their children. A few women are widows, some of the women were left HIV positive when their husbands died. All have children. Some are taking care of other children more than just their own. The way a woman gains status in Uganda is through bearing children, so many women have 4-6 children. Some of their husbands are or were abusive. When I ask what their biggest dream is, there was also a common theme. To have a house for their children so they don’t have to always worry about where they will sleep despite what happens with the men in their lives and to be able to send their children to school. These women don’t think about themselves, like moms everywhere, they live for their children.

The women will make the jewelry for 5 hours a day and be home for their children when they come back from school for lunch. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. The women are starting a savings and loans group within the jewelry group and we plan to start literacy classes after work. A Pastor is going to meet with them fridays after work to discuss the week and their personal growth and set goals for the next week.

One of the types of earrings these women are making are eagle bottle cap earrings. These bottle caps are going to be collected by the street children. There are at least 100 children on the streets in Lugazi, a town of 35,000. They are migrant and frequently overlooked. They earn money by digging through heaps of trash to try to find scrap metal and sell it for a few cents.

The children are going to now collect our bottle caps for us as a temporary way to get them money to buy some food. One bottle cap will bring $.10, which is enough to buy a chippatti, a bread similar to a tortilla. They can get the caps outside of restaurants and bars instead of digging through trash.

The profits from the jewelry are going to directly help these children. We have a partner called Livingstone Zziwa who is the co-chairperson for the Mukono district in the government. The Mukono District has over 800,000 people in it. He is, in our opinion, the ideal politician because he started by doing community based work and running his own non-profit called Pat the Child. He is going to partner with us to implement a project that he is successfully running in his village into our town. He was able to do this project from outside funding which has since dried up.

Musana jewelry profits will buy a female cow.

Livingstone then finds a family who take in a street child and when they take in the child, they are given a cow. As the cow and child grow, the added income from the cow that the family receives pays for the childs schooling and food. The results for the child are; they are placed in a family in their culture, with parents, and the child is incorporated into the family because they aren’t a financial burden.

The first calf of that female cow goes to another family with another child off the street and all subsequent calves are for the family’s benefit.

Livingstone then bought back the milk from all these cows at a fair price so the family had constant income and started a small yogurt factory in his village. Employing more people and increasing public health.

At the yogurt factory point, we will do as Yunas did in Bangladesh when he partnered with Danone and brought nutritionists into the group to assess the needs of the community. There is a lot of stunted growth and malnutrition in Uganda. When the yogurt is fortified with the proper nutrients, it will be sold for as cheap as possible so that the poor can afford it. It just needs to be a self-sustaining business, one that pays its employees but is able to be sold to the poor people of the community.

The whole project is in partnership with people we know and trust. It is all Ugandan ran except for the selling and marketing aspects of the business, which is the part that we will work with directly.

Musana Jewelry has a two fold mission: to train and empower uneducated mothers so that they can achieve goals they have for their children and themselves through the jewelry business; and in a community to enhance the well being, financial stability, and health of many lives through the cow project.

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!