First stage of the project:
30th of October
Midterm review
2nd of November
Signing of the contract with Students 4 Sustainability
5th of November
Meeting with Jowi, about last minute questions concerning the project and our stay
8th of November
Departure from Amsterdam to Kisumu, Kenya
10th of November
Meeting with Tina and Diederik (another student, who is also volunteering in Okana. We will take over ‘his place’). Discuss face-to-face what our task will be these three months.
11th of November
Departure from Kisumu to Okana
12th of November and 15th of November
Go to the workshop, talk with the employees of the workshop. Observe and listen to their stories. Get to to know the employees on a friendly basis, so they will be comfortable around us and not scared to ask or say things to us. See for ourselves what de workshop looks like and what they are capable of. Make an assessment and document our findings. Discuss these findings with Tina.
16thof November until 22nd of November
Place a suggestion box for all the people who are involved. We will check this box every day. Interview the employees (see appendix XXX#fixme), make an assessment and document of our findings. Evaluate these findings, and make a conclusion about the abilities of the carpentry workshop. Also look at closeby competitors (See appendix XXX#fixme). Discuss these findings with Tina.
23rd of November until 29th of November
Create promotional materials (i.e. leaflets, posters etc.) These promotional materials will consist of a professional overview of their full portfolio. This will include prices, photos, productdetails, etc.)
30th November until 6th of December
Start with marketing plan (see appendix XXX #fixme). Look back at conclusions from the previous week. With this in mind we will go to potential buyers in Kisumu. There we will interview the enterprises (see appendix XXX#fixme). By showing the leaflet with an overview of the portolio, we want to find out what kind of wooden products are desired by them, how much they are willing to pay, etc. After each day we will make an assesment and document our findings.
7th December until the 13th of December
Evaluate both interviews (i.e. with the employees and with the enterprises). Discuss the results of both interviews and the outcome with Tina and Jowi. See if there are potentially profitable deals by matching the possible supply with the possible demand.
14th December until the 20th of December
Organize an open house for the local community. For the local community, we feel that it is important to engage them in SRI as much as possible. We want to realize this by organizing an ‘open house’ day at the carpentry workshop. All the people from the community, who are interested, have the opportunity to get a look at the activities taking place there.
During every week of the project, we constantly want to evaluate the project. Not only will we assess ourselves on a day-to-day basis, but we would also like to frequently have meetings with Tina or Jowi about our involvement for the workshop.
Besides this we will frequently check the ‘suggestion box’ and try to act on their input.
Second stage of the project
During the second stage of our project we want ot focus on the continutiy of the workshop. We want to make the employees more self-sufficient. We will realise this, by helping them with financial administration, knowledge preservation and find a suitable manager, who will replace Tina in a few months.
We are convinced that some unforeseen activities will arise, whilst we are there. Due to this, we expect that this set out planning wont be exactly similar to how we will operate in Okana. However we will take on these unforeseen possibilities by the best of our abilities.
At the end of the project we at least want to deliver:
- An expansion of the carpentry workshops customer network
- Set up a marketing plan
- Getting the workshop on the right track in becoming self-sufficient
- Find a suitable manager, who will replace Tina