Overview
Facing the very daunting prospect of literally no business and no income for the coming season, founder Ake Lindstrom met with his porters and crew and over 2 meetings (social distancing applied ;) ) we think we have found a way forward.. Our team is forming a group a.k.a. SACCOS to pool resources and get farming. In the coming months not only do we expect to grow food and sell at a profit but furthermore keep rolling forward income into ongoing initiatives for as long as we need to.
For those that are interested in helping their porters, crews or employees with this sort of initiative here’s what we did, you’re welcome to copy, share ideas and give feedback:
1. Meeting. Agree to set up SACCOS.
2. Find people in our team to get all info and legal requirements
3. Set up viongozi x 6 elected by our crew
4. Find land. We are renting locally. In our groups we even found options up to 300 acres (but far) that people were willing to let us use FREE. In the end we are renting as it has water and close to us so we can work on it a lot.
5. Bring in farming specialist onto assess land and advise best things to grow and correct seed type and fertiliser.
6. Set budget and include every cost that can be ascertained.
7. Set date for all members to register and put money in. Note we agreed to use ONE phone number to put all money into Airtel money to collect and disperse cash to make it transparent.
8. Present all costs according to info from farming expert and open to discussion.
9. Agree final budget and time requirements of members and pass RULES of SACCOS and future meet dates, communications plan.
