2016

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Meet the Team: Lusaka, Zambia Autumn 2016

Our teams of volunteers did some great work supporting businesses across Sub-Saharan Africa in 2016! Here’s a quick hello from our last team of volunteers who worked with enterprises in Lusaka, Zambia on the Challenges Worldwide International Citizen Service programme from September – December 2016.

Tasvi Shah

tasvi-shah

Age: 23yrs

From:   UK

Host Country: Zambia, Lusaka.

Home counterpart:  Likando Muyangana

Enterprise:  African Ceramics

Enterprise counterpart:  Peter Mushimba

Qualification:  Bachelor’s degree in Economics

Before Placement: Deutsche Bank intern

Fun fact: I love food, so I once opened a restaurant in my home for one evening.

 

Likando Muyangana

likando-muyangana

Age:  24yrs

From:   Zambia, Ndola.

Host Country: Zambia, Lusaka.

Home counterpart:  Tasvi Shah

Enterprise:  BDSA

Enterprise counterpart: Lewis Kimpton

Qualification:  Bachelor’s degree in Economics

Before Placement: Unemployed

Fun fact: I have too many clothes for one person but insist on wearing the same seven outfits over and over again.

Wiza Gift Chinula

wiza-gift-chinula

Age: 23yrs

From:  Zambia, Namwala

Host Country: Zambia, Lusaka.

Home counterpart:  Patrick Jones

Enterprise:  Bookworld

Enterprise counterpart:  Jonathan Watson

Qualification:  Bachelor’s in  Economics

Before Placement: Student, at the University of Zambia

Fun fact: Jovial…Always ready to make people laugh.

Patrick Jones

patrick-jones

Age:  21yrs

From:   UK

Host Country: Zambia, Lusaka.

Home counterpart:  Wiza G Chinula

Enterprise:  Recycle Mania

Enterprise counterpart:  Choolwe Mwiinga

Qualification:  History graduate

Before Placement: Student

Fun fact: Love sport and pumpkin leaves (Zambian recipe)

Geoffrey Joseph Daka

Meet the Team: Lusaka, Zambia Autumn 2016

Age: 25 Years

From: Zambia

Host country: Zambia, Lusaka

Home counterpart: Akalu Michael

Enterprise: Waste Master Limited

Enterprise counterpart: Virginia Arroyo Armenteros

Qualification: Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Education

Before placement: Student, at The University of Zambia

Fun facts: I do not know how to swim then I have phobia for sharp things like needles and knives.

INTERESTS: Networking, Making Friends and Discovering New Places

Choolwe Mwiinga

choolwe-mwiinga

Age: 23 years

From: Zambia

Host country: Zambia, Lusaka

Home counterpart: Lucy Kate Bird

Enterprise: Recyclemenia

Work counterpart: Patrick Jones

Qualification: Bachelor’s Degree in Adult Education

Before placement: Student, at The University of Zambia

Fun facts: I do not know how to swim and I love eating

INTERESTS: I love reading Novels, Watching Movies and going out with friends

Akalu Michael

akalu-michael

Age: 22 Years

From: United Kingdom (UK)

Host country: ZAMBIA, Lusaka

Home counterpart: Geoffrey Joseph Daka

Enterprise: Kapenda Mabula-Luano Honey

Work counterpart: Namukale Nanyangwe

Qualification: Bachelor’s Degree in Management and Marketing

Before placement: Volunteering at Personal safety charity

Fun facts: I’d rather live with an alligator in the same room than a cockroach.

Lucy Kate Bird

lucy-kate-bird

Age: 22 Years

From: United Kingdom (UK)

Host country: Zambia, Lusaka

Home counterpart: Choolwe Mwiinga

Enterprise: Recyclemenia

Work counterpart: Joseph Ng’ambi

Qualification: Bachelors of Science Degree in Business Management and Marketing

Before placement: Assistant Manager of Green bank Pool

Fun facts: I can do the moon walk

Winston Nkonde

winston-nkonde

Age: 26 years

From: Zambia

Host Country: Zambia, Lusaka

Home Counterpart: Vaneza Lourenco

Enterprise:  None- Team Leader

Work counterpart: Vaneza Lourenco

Qualification:

Before Placement: ICS Volunteer

Fun-Fact: I’m easy at life and have a bias for having fun in all that I engage in.

Lewis Kimpton

lewis-kimpton

Age: 21 years

From: England – Sheffield

Host country: Zambia, Lusaka

Home counterpart: Joseph Ng’ambi

Enterprise: Business Development Services Africa (BDSA)

Enterprise counterpart: Likando Muyangana

Qualification: Bachelor’s degree in business and Sport management

Before Placement: Student

Fun Fact: Am always up for cool chills

Joseph Ng’ambi

joseph-ngambi

Age: 23 years

From: Zambia

Host Country: Zambia, Lusaka

Home counterpart: Lewis Kimpton

Enterprise: Recyclemania

Enterprise counterpart: Lucy Bird

Qualification: Bachelors’ degree in Economics

Before Placement: Student at the University of Zambia

Fun Fact: Quiet and shy but people get attracted to me and I find it strange

Vaneza Lourenco

vaneza-lourenco

Age: 27 years

From: England

Host Country: Zambia, Lusaka

Home counterpart: Winston Nkonde

Enterprise: None- Team Leader

Work counterpart: Winston Nkonde

Qualification: International Law and   Relations

Before Placement: Events coordinator

Fun Fact: very down to earth

Peter Mushimba

peter-mushimba

Age: 23

From: Zambia

Host country: Zambia

Home counterpart: Jonathan Watson

Enterprise: African Ceramics.

Work Counterpart: Tasvi Shah.

Before placement: Student at Zambia Institute of Animal Health.

Qualification: veterinary nurse.

Fun fact: I am the special one.

Jonathan Watson

jonathan-watson

Age: 21

From: England

Host Country: Zambia, Lusaka

Home counterpart: Peter Mushimba

Enterprise: Bookworld.

Enterprise Counterpart: Wiza Chinula.

Before placement: Student

Qualification: Bachelor’s degree with Economics

Fun fact: He was born on the 26 on 11 month, 26 minutes past 11. His weight was 6, 11 pounds.

Jonathan Watson

namukale-nanyangwe

Age: 22

From: Zambia

Host country: Zambia, Lusaka

Home counterpart: Virginia Arroyo

Enterprise: Kapenda Mabula Natural products Itd-Luano Honey.

Enterprise Counterpart: Akalu Michael.

Before placement: Student at the University of Zambia.

Qualification: Bachelor’s degree in development studies.

Fun fact: I can wear many outfits every morning before I finally choose one. Oh! And I loves shoes.

Thanks to all of our volunteers and business owners – your hard work is making a real difference to the economies we are working in! Here’s to an even more successful year in 2017!

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Jack – M-JAP

M-JAP a small company with huge ambition, dreams of exportation and a revolutionary packaging solution. There’s a lot of potential here but also a lot of recommendations to be implemented but I don’t mind I like the challenge and its satisfying helping such a motivated and enthusiastic business.

So over the past 2 weeks I’ve been working with M-JAP – a business that sells smoked fish, honey and health drinks. Random combination or what?! Unfortunately or fortunately for me the bestselling product was the smoked fish, which made mine and my counterparts Market Research a very smelly business indeed.

So what’s so special about M-JAP?

Well Mr. Samuel Abunyah has come up with a revolutionary product that packages smoked fish into a hygienic primary and secondary packaging which stops fly’s and other insects causing the smoked fish to became insanitary which is a huge problem at these market stalls where the fish is just left out in the open, with fly’s swarming about around it.

It’s been really interesting conducting the fleet of ICS Challenges company and market analysis which has helped us structure and develop a really great insight into M-JAP. For instance looking at the Marketing Mix which Looks at Price, Promotion, Product and Place we discovered that there were issues with how the currently distributing their product. My counterpart and I are currently working on writing a recommendation to implement a new distribution channel to increase the sales of this innovative product.

One thing you should expect over on placement with Challenges Worldwide is to expect the unexpected! I hate the cliché but in terms of financial record-keeping all the businesses vary so much. One company can have no recording keeping what so ever, or like M-JAP they have all the important pieces of information but there are gaps for instance sales for 4 months last year weren’t recorded and on the opposite end of the spectrum you have businesses where they have already prepared things like cash flow statements and projections. And you don’t know till you get over here what sort of business you’re going to get.

 

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Rav – … Think I’ll let him explain this one

As I’m sure you know by now, week 2 of our twelve week journey, is when we finally begin our work for our respective businesses. This is something I have been looking forward to, as the months of anticipation and excitement will finally be over and I can get stuck in and make the impact I know I am capable of delivering. This is how the majority of you will feel, and what the majority will be able to experience instantaneously without an issue, however inevitably there will be an occasion in the programme your high expectations may not be met. Unluckily for me on this occasion, I was let down. Not due to negligence on anyone’s part, but in my case it was more of a ‘just one of those things’.

As my colleagues enjoyed a very exciting first week at work, myself and my counterpart Sam were first stood up on the day we were to begin work, something we both weren’t expecting and were left frustrated due to the preparation, importance and overall significance we had placed on this day. However the following day our business owner had agreed to meet with us. I was full of excitement to get started for J-Nissi Enterprise, a business which specialises in hand cut sugar coated ginger chips, and it had only been running for a year and has ‘space issues’ as the enterprise summary crudely put it. So after the 3 hour journey to our enterprise on the tro tro we were granted permission to visit the business, I was surprised by the scale of the operation, the business was a one man show in which a middle aged woman operates from home, in a tiny dark kitchen with tools more commonly seen in a garage. After being shown the premises we were able to sit down with the owner, and conduct our initial meeting. Her passion and vision for the product were clear, and it was really inspiring to hear her personal story in which she has overcome hardship to trying her hand at business in the form of J-Nissi Enterprise. I came out of the meeting pretty happy overall, the only concern to me at the time being how much she was on the phone and how busy she seemed, but I didn’t think too much of it and began pondering how we can help the business.

Despite the initial romance with the enterprise, it became apparent that perhaps the enterprise was not ready for our services at this moment. As occasion after occasion, the owner cancelled on us so much so that we were becoming unable to submit our deliverables because we simply did not know the answers. In this case we were more of a burden to the owner instead of an assistance. It began to become clear to Challenges Worldwide staff that we as volunteers, were having our time wasted and they acted swiftly to transfer us to another business, for which I am grateful. Despite how demoralising this was, we were well prepared for the realities of the programme and the training and guidance we were given really shone through in this situation.

So onwards and upwards onto Seladel Foods, a fish and poultry business who have been operating for 20 years. They operate in a factory, have their own office space, and supply one of the biggest supermarket chains in Africa- Shoprite. This was a huge contrast to our first business we were initially assigned, and began work right away in a lovely air conditioned office. Therefore despite the initial setback, I am sat here with confidence looking forward to the next 10 or so weeks we have left, and optimistic about what we can achieve at Seladel Foods. So in my case this cloud does in fact have a silver lining.

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Andrew – Finisure

I was initially quite apprehensive about meeting the staff on my first day at the business due to the fact that being Scottish, even some of the Ghanaian students studying English could not understand anything coming out my mouth. Regardless, I still ventured there on day 1.

Being ‘apparently’ the closest business to our host home, myself and Isaac thought it would be a walk in the park. Instead it turned into 3 mile walk along dirt roads and meandering around village houses getting ‘obromi’ yelled at me, which means white man. In all honesty it was a great experience and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Top tip: Do not take suede shoes to Ghana, they will not stay clean for more than two minutes walking on the dust concealed road.

After almost 2 hours we eventually found our way to the workplace. Not what I expected. We were led through the gates of a large house and taken into a very nice, clean furnished room. The company owner was in a rush so we didn’t get much time to talk. Instead we were approached by his younger brother, who was very polite and friendly offering us water and ice on our arrival. This was a great gesture and instantly I felt very comfortable being there. After a quick introduction and discussion about challenges, we were given a tour around the work facility. Most of the production was completed in the back garden of the house, where the four smiley carpenters worked hard as a team. I tried my hardest to speak clearly and not eat my words when introducing myself. My counterpart assured me in confidence that they didn’t understand a word I said. Over the next 10 weeks I hope to give myself some self-taught ‘Scottish mumble’ rehab. From a close observation of the team and their work it was evident that they were all very talented and hard working. The final products that they showed us after were of a very high standard. Before we left myself and Isaac got a photo with the team of carpenters. This was a nice momentum of the first day and helped to ensure a good first impression.

Me da se xx

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Romina – Norte Drinks

After an exciting week of at the Legon campus in Accra, the real thing is about to begin!  After an intense journey and a lot of rushing around to find the right tro tro, here I am, on Tuesday morning with my counterpart Ferdinand, finally meeting Clara, the owner of Norte Drinks. I immediately liked her and I hope she felt the same way about us. After our chat about her enterprise, I was truly impressed by her motivation and forward thinking about her business. Here’s a short summary of what my client is doing and where my counterpart and I will be working for the next three months.

Her name is Clara Norte, owner of Norte Drinks Enterprise in Accra, Ghana. She started her company 2 years ago with her own capital and a little help from her friends. She graduated the University of Ghana in 2012 and since then she had worked in TV Africa for a few years before realising she wanted something different for her future. That’s why she decided to give it a go and start her own enterprise making drinks. Her flagship product is the popular Ghanian drink called Sobolo. For most people reading this, I should expand on what Sobolo is – it is a special drink, something like an ice tea, made of hibiscus plant which is boiled and then different natural flavours are added to it. Norte Drinks makes 3 different flavours – cinnamon, lemon grass and pineapple. Clara’s products are 100% natural and she does not add any preservatives to her drinks, keeping them nice and fresh. She is also bottling and labelling her Sobolo. Apart from Sobolo, Clara prepares fresh fruit juice – orange, pineapple, watermelon and takes it to events where she’s serving – most recently a book launch in Legon Campus but many other events as well. What makes Clara different? She’s the complete one man show. She does everything herself and she does everything from 100% natural products bought locally. Her goal is to promote healthier lifestyle among Ghanians and this is a rare thing to see out here. Her forward thinking will take her places.

Overall, I’m excited to embark on this opportunity and see how things go. This is an amazing opportunity to actually see what a young entrepreneur is going through and help as much as we can. It is still week 1 but I’m positive something exciting is on its way.

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Emmanuel – Seladels food limited

The ICS journey so far I would say has been an experience. Learning new things, meeting different people, building new skills and improving on my confidence level and finally making an impact is in the surely in the process.

The UKV’s arrived and I was paired with Hannah. We were assigned to work with SELADELS FOOD LIMITED. We were so nervous and eager at the same time to work with the enterprise. Finally we  got to know much about this enterprise one  Tuesday morning as we started our first day working with them.

SELADELS FOOD LIMITED is a medium enterprise located in Afienya comm. 25. Their main core business aim is to produce quality and healthy fish and meat locally to meet international standards. They have been operating for 14 years and currently has a staff population of 23. Luckily for Seladels, they have over the years built a great relationships between them and their customers and that has made them currently having a ready market for their products.

Currently they supply major supermarkets and shopping malls like, Melcom, Shoprite, Game, Max mart, Koala, shop n save, sunshine with quality meat and fish.

They have also attached a rubber and plastic processing to provide polythene bags to customers.

A talk with the director of the company Mr. Worla revealed to us the insight he has for the enterprise. He seemed to have so much knowledge in food and hospitality which explains why the company keeps expanding as the years go by. He made us understand he doesn’t compromise on quality when it comes to business since he is ready to satisfy customers with the kind quality they want. He simply doesn’t insist on standards.

He has a great working relationship with his employers and has even provided accommodation to the workers in order to be close to the enterprise which I think is really motivating. Hannah and I spoke with some of the workers at Seladels and they were really happy working with seladels.

Seladels has plans to expand their capacity and stretch out to the regions and have started researching and planning towards it. They also plan on serving their customers with different products within the food scope which is currently in high demand. The director is very enthusiastic optimistic about his business and really hopes to expand his business and to “dance with the gorilla’s” as he normally says.

One thing I was impressed with was that he get 90% of their raw materials locally which boost local economy.

Hannah and I are barely 2 weeks old in this enterprise. We are still gathering information by observing, conversations with the manager and some workers, market surveys, online findings and more. We think the company is on track because they know what they are doing. We hope to be part of this group by bringing fresh ideas to the table and making  recommendations that will make an impact in the long run.

We hope to create a great relationship between us and the director and workers. My counterpart and believe a journey to make a great impact has started and we hope to complete it with time.

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The complete thing | Accra Communications Committee

Welcome, this is ICS Challenges Worldwide Ghana –Team Accra’s first communications blog post and we want to give you an insight into this unique programme. What do we do? I here you say. Build schools, pet endangered animals or teach English in the middle of some Himalayan village? Sorry, we don’t live up to your stereotypical gap yah activities like I say we’re unique. We empower people, create and implement ideas and most importantly we give people the tools to change their own lives. Pretty cool eh?

We thought you the reader were probably quite bored of reading the same blog post about how they got called Obroni (White Man) or just tried this exotic dish called Red Red. Oh, and those really annoying, eye wateringly beautiful Instagram photos….

Labadi beach

Instead why don’t you just check out the types of business we work with and meet the people whose lives we’re changing (ourselves included).The Businesses from the small to the medium because we only work with Small to Medium Enterprises. Here’s the rest of the communications team to tell you about they’re businesses.

Emmanuel – Seladels food limited

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“SELADELS FOOD LIMITED is a medium enterprise located in Afienya comm. 25. Their main core business aim is to produce quality and healthy fish and meat locally to meet international standards. They have been operating for 14 years and currently has a staff population of 23. Seladels, have over the years built a great relationships between them and their customers and that has made them currently having a ready market for their products”

Romina – Norte Drinks

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“I immediately liked her and I hope she felt the same way about us. After our chat about her enterprise, I was truly impressed by her motivation and forward thinking about her business…She graduated the University of Ghana in 2012 and since then she had worked in TV Africa for a few years before realising she wanted something different for her future. That’s why she decided to give it a go and start her own enterprise making drinks. Her flagship product is the popular Ghanian drink called Sobolo”

Toyin – Froyurt 

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“When it comes to taste, undoubtedly Froyurt is one of the best yoghurts I’ve personally tasted, however the ladies have contacted Challenges Worldwide in hope to build brand presence and increase market share in Ghana. They one-day hope to compete with already established probiotic brands in Ghana such as Yomi and Goghurt and more importantly, to see Froyhurt sold in big malls such as Melcom and Shoprite. They believe starting with Challenges Worldwide is the right direction to begin achieving these goals!”

Andrew – Finisure

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“Most of the production was completed in the back garden of the house, where the four smiley carpenters worked hard as a team. I tried my hardest to speak clearly and not eat my words when introducing myself. My counterpart assured me in confidence that they didn’t understand a word I said. Over the next 10 weeks I hope to give myself some self-taught ‘Scottish mumble’ rehab.”

Rav – … Think I’ll let him explain this one

Rav_ICS

“As my colleagues enjoyed a very exciting first week at work, myself and my counterpart Sam were first stood up on the day we were to begin work, something we both weren’t expecting … I was full of excitement to get started for J-Nissi Enterprise, a business which specialises in hand cut sugar coated ginger chips, and it had only been running for a year and has ‘space issues’ as the enterprise summary crudely put it.”

Jack – M-JAP

Jack_ICS

“M-JAP a small company with huge ambition, dreams of exportation and a revolutionary packaging solution. There’s a lot of potential here but also a lot of recommendations to be implemented but I don’t mind I like the challenge and its satisfying helping such a motivated and enthusiastic business.”

Jay – Team Leader

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“The ICS programme has a strong set of values. To me the ICS programme stands out from all other aid and development programme. The key areas that make it unique is the use and focus on youth led change and the creation of global citizens through UK volunteers working in pairs with in-country volunteers. In the short time I have been in Accra, Ghana I have seen great bonds being created and cultures shared including both (Ghanaian and UK culture nights). The ICS programme stands for change through the sharing of knowledge and aims to be sustainable where the people supported are then able to support themselves and continue sharing the knowledge further and wider (compare this to giving someone money! A process of development still used by many governments and charitable organizations).”