Habari,
After a week of settling down, meetings and gaining a realistic insight of SRI, we have started with our project! During a meeting with Verah and George we discussed having an Open House at SRI. The idea behind the Open House is to show the locals what SRI does (and especially the carpentry workshop), find new apprentices and see what products the locals are willing to buy. At the moment we are printing the leaflets, posters, business cards, etc (see appendix) for the Open House. We will visit local schools, churches and individuals to invite them to the Open House. This will take place on Thursday the 26th of November and we expect around 50 people to come. Besides a tour around SRI, we will transform our house to a showroom, a few speeches will be conducted and at the end we will provide all the people with a lunch (Ugali, a traditional meal here in Kenya).
Besides the Open House we also went to the woodshop together with George (manager), to buy a begin supply of wood. To use wood optimally, it's needs to dry for a long time. Therefore we bought the stock at the beginning of our stay. This stock was financed by Students4Sustainability.
After the Open House, we want to focus on our marketing plan. Who will be our customer segments? The local people in Okana? The middle class in Kisumu? Or maybe both? What products do the people want? What price are they willing to pay? What do the competitors make and at what price do they sell their products? etc. During our meeting with Verah and George we discussed a new logo for SRI. We will also focus on this part after the Open House.
For now these are our ideas. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know!
Kwa heri,
Bart, Dominique and Katie