welcome back, rosetta
audrey and i spent the day at rosetta’s place, who had been away for two weeks and had just arrived back home this weekend. after having heard so much about her and corresponding with her through email over the past few months, it was great to finally meet her in person for the very first time.
together, we spent the morning hours treading through the july reports, reviewing operational expenses, sharing any newsworthy items, as well as laying down immediate concerns and addressing minor logistical issues. rosetta also took this opportunity to articulate what she felt was her real vision, which was to build a social entrepreneurship engine (social business) as the driving force behind zimele – where goods and services such as crafts and agricultural assets would eventually form the backbone of a marketplace that would stimulate both the local and global economy. realizing this vision will be immensely difficult, as the mindsets and cultural forces of the zulu community have to be met with a fierce intensity, where the people have to cultivate an environment for themselves where they can be empowered to make their own choices through a better education system, incentive and the long arduous process of community development that is necessary to heal the scars of a broken history.
we also took some time to discuss the specifics of the project i am tasked with, which is to continue documenting the efforts of various self-help groups in swayimane, identifying their potential business opportunities, exposing personal stories of their progress and improvement as well as hurdles, and to build a compelling picture around the transformation of these women’s lives on a scale both big and small. to this day, the scope of such information has been difficult to obtain due to communication barriers and lack of a systematic approach that involves asking the right questions and properly documenting their responses. but these stories are extremely valuable and will serve to be a vital resource for both internal operations as well as providing feedback for the process of securing funding/donations for investment rounds that require concrete performance measurements. rosetta’s advice to me was simple, yet extremely helpful — to be reminded that relationship-building is paramount when trying to materialize stories that can be very personal and private – rather than taking a strict business-minded approach.
newsworthy items that we also covered were cluster-level projects that are really starting to take shape,
such as the advent of vegetable gardening training, knitting / beadwork projects, and home-based care initiatives that community members are now taking into their own hands. the role that zimele will be playing in these home-based care initiatives is still unclear, and a proper assessment has to be made with regards to treating the effort as either a social project or a larger endeavor that requires further funding, training and potential partnerships.
some other important issues that were raised dealt with quality control within the zimele crafts program, citing the need to promote a better system or methodology to ensure that only the best products reach the market. in a similar vein, we also discussed the need to develop higher levels of creative thinking among community facilitators to help them better identify potential assets that could lead to new opportunities.
finally, there was mention about the need to begin taking the initial steps to build out the commercial arm of zimele, the other piece of the puzzle that would complement the social arm. stefen, our new volunteer, comes from belgium and brings with him many years of business development expertise that really makes him a great fit for this task. he arrived from the airport just this afternoon and will be my new roommate at the dunaverty.
these next two weeks are going to be super busy.
