It was not long after the government announced of Covid-19 having reached Kenya that we felt the ripple effect as a business. The premises where we were hosted had to be closed down. As a result, we had to go home and figure things out.
Admittedly, this was a task for us as we had not anticipated this sudden turn of events. What to do, space, machinery, and means of carrying out operations were our main concern.
We had to live in the new normal. Shortly, a meeting was convened by the management to deliberate on the way forward since the women and youth benefiting from Daraja organization looked upon us for direction.
At first, it was decided that we would engage in beading and making of accessories as we did not have sewing machines to make bags and masks. The marketing team was tasked with looking for a market and selling the ready products.
On the side, we busied ourselves by reaching out to friends and well-wishers with an appeal for sewing machines and space. Providentially, we got 3 manual machines from 3well wishers and for space: we used a borrowed room next to our director’s house that belongs to the landlord. We faced a few challenges with the machines as the team was not conversant with their usage but they were however encouraged to first try.
Despite the challenges encountered, we were able to receive an amass order of masks thanks to the marketing team and our support team. We made and delivered them on time. We carried on with the mask business until we realized they had saturated the market and the prices had considerably reduced.
Following the disbursement of free masks by the government, we decided to wrap up the business and look for a viable way- forward. Something that would complement the bags and yeah, that was a clothing-the main arm of fashion and design.
Though the team had been trained on the making of African bags, there was a need to sharpen their skills in terms of quality to be exposed to other opportunities such as cloth-making.
Without delay, a meeting was called for to deliberate on the decision. It was then decided that training materials be purchased and everyone including the management to fully participate in training and understand the whole process of sewing. The trainer volunteered his services fully.
Training kicked off on a very high note keeping in mind our trainer’s vocabulary” Training to be tailors, not designers”. That alone-‘becoming a designer’ was very welcoming though the expectations thereafter were heightened.
The progress was gradual as everyone was striving to get better every day. The desire and motivation were enough to keep the team going. Not forgetting the budding confidence as we evolved to more complex stages.
Talking of golden opportunities, we fell for one. During training, we landed an opportunity to produce clothes for Tiankara Creations(one of our partners). A chance that came earlier than we had hoped though everyone was in for the challenge ready to put into action the training we had received.
Since then, we have been making clothes and we are looking forward to acquiring more clients to enable women and youth to lead a decent livelihood.