December 2019

Hello subscriber subscriber,

Jacana business centre

Jacana will build a business centre in Zambia with the aim of creating opportunities for small scale entrepreneurs, so that they can grow economically and create better living conditions for themselves and their communities. A mouthful, but how do we see that in practice.

Why?

In the last few years Jacana trained more than 300 small entrepreneurs. We see a micro-economy emerging before our eyes: one entrepreneur helps the other. Such as tailors who make bee suits for beekeepers and drillers who provide farmers with water. We also see that there are entrepreneurs, who we have trained in the past and now gained so much experience that they, train other entrepreneurs. During these training sessions we keep an eye on things, but they do well. All of that happens in the, now too small house, from the director.

Plan of action

First Jacana buys a piece of land. We want to start small with expansion possibilities for the future. The building project will be supervised by Jacana itself. Jacana will approach small scale building entrepreneurs, such as carpenters, plumbers, electricians, bricklayers and brick makers, these entrepreneurs will build the centre under supervision of a construction expert.

What are we going to build

Ton Teunissen draws the construction drawings. He has a lot of experience building in Africa. He has designed many buildings including SHIPO office in Tanzania, where Rik and Dinie worked for three years.

Local brick makers produce all the bricks. Afterwards, the structure of the honey processing plant will be build. In the first phase, this building will serve as a workshop and storage during the construction of the main building. After the main building is completed, the temporary workshop will be transformed into a food-processing unit where the beekeepers will press and bottle the honey.

The main building includes three offices and a training hall. The training hall will also serve as flex spaces for small entrepreneurs who are guided by Jacana. These companies can, for example, do their bookkeeping under guidance of Jacana or plan meetings with their customers. You name it.

Who will use the business centre.

Of course, Jacana will move to the new location. Currently, Eastern Manual Drilling cooperative also uses Jacana's office and storage space and Jacana guides the managers in expanding the business. The current office has become too small. In addition to the drillers, the Eastern Beekeepers Cooperative will also be given a place. The cooperative is looking for a building where they can hygienically process and bottle the honey. From 2021 more than 100 keepers from Chipata and surrounding villages will use the centre, that is why Jacana wants to build a food processing area that meets the Zambian hygiene standards. The beekeeper cooperative can use the space and the equipment until they are strong enough to continue on their own. In addition to honey, there may be other products that can find their way to the market in this way. Think for example of oyster mushroms, super food moringa or fruit juice.

The building entrepreneurs who participated in the construction of the centre can continue to grow under guidance of Jacana and may use each other's qualities to attract bigger building contracts.

In short, we aim for a broad entrepreneurial audience. Of course we will continue to make strict selections and put our energy into people we believe in and who really want to move forward.

Support of Wild Geese

We could never have started this plan if we had not received the trust and financial support of Wild Geese a Dutch donor. Wild Geese supports the project and doubles every euro/dollar that you donate to this project. We hope that you believe in the project as much as Wild Geese and therefore would like to make a small contribution for small scale hard-working entrepreneurs from Zambia. Click here or on the picture if you want to donate.

Wanted

We are looking for a building expert who can guide small scale entrepreneurs such as carpenters, electricians, plumbers, masons, etc. in building a Jacana business center.

Are you interested or do you know someone, simply respond (reply) to this email (preferably with a resume).

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