Purchase handmade baskets, leather beaded sandals and kikoi traditional wrap clothing from local villages for sale in ha...

Entrepreneur

About Me

I am a born again Christian missionary and a businessman living in Mombasa. I am married and i have three children. I run a small handicrafts business as well as a timber yard on the outskirts of Mombasa city. I started the business to uplift my family's economic status and also to help many orphans and destitute children in the community through profits as part of my social responsibility as a missionary.
I buy handmade wooden,stone, leather products made by local artisans in Mombasa and the entire coast regions for resale. This has enabled many of these poor village folk to earn a descent living from sale of their products.

My Business

I run a small handicrafts business. The products that i sell include wooden, stone, leather products that are made by village artisans in the community here in Mombasa and surrounding areas. I have also engaged the services of experienced carvers from the community to make special high priced carvings. I fund my business from my own personal savings but we have challenges meetings customers orders as we don't have enough materials to make products.
We have many orders of handicrafts from Japan, USA, South Africa and Switzerland. My business promotes sustainable Kenyan woodcarvings as well by encouraging the use of farm-grown trees instead of threatened hardwoods for carving, thereby securing carvers’ livelihoods and providing a new income source for many poor rural villagers. Woodcarvings made from Neem (locally known as “Mwarubaini”) rather than over-harvested hardwoods, such as ebony, can now carry the FSC logo, giving consumers peace of mind that the carvings have not contributed to the destruction of the forests of Kenya.

The certification is also unusual in that it certifies wood from small farms for the production of carvings by Kenyan craftsmen, instead of the most common FSC certifications of large-scale, commercial timber production to supply the timber trade and well-known do-it-yourself stores. We contribute to conservation of threatened Kenyan forests and help to improve livelihoods for poor farmers in Kenya by offering free tree seedlings.
The business is profitable since. I used my first Zidisha loan to buy my handcrafts stock from the local villages. I invested the profit into my business and now I have expanded it and employed two orphans who finished their high school and have not got admission into college. I have enrolled them for evening classes in accounting.
I will use this Zidisha loan to buy more stock of handmade arts and crafts from the villages for sale at a profit and uplift their economic status. I intend to use part of the profit to establish a daycare orphan feeding center in the village as part of my social responsibility in giving back to the community.

Loan Proposal

Ich muss 140 US-Dollar, um vor Ort gefertigten Kunsthandwerk vom Dorfbewohner zum Verkauf in meinem Shop Kunsthandwerk zu kaufen. Es gibt eine riesige Nachfrage für Körbe, Leder Perlen Sandalen und Kikoi Baumwolle Wrap Runden. Gewinne aus dem Erlös geht an bedürftige Waisenkinder hier helfen und etwas Geld wird verwendet, um mehr Aktien kaufen werden. Ich danke Zidisha für die mir die Möglichkeit, für meinen ersten Kredit zu beantragen. Ich bin auf der, wie das funktioniert bei der Unterstützung creat einem Aufprall in unserer Gesellschaft aufgeregt ..

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