How I Built a Community Business

My name is Anne Mukuria and I was born in a village in central Kenya where everybody, especially women, would weave as a hobby. And of course, waving is a traditional heritage that has been guarded by many generations.

When I completed my schooling, I wanted to look for a job in the big city, but my chances were slim so I ended up back in the village doing what I know best: weaving. When I discovered social media I spent a lot of time on it and later realized, alas! I could showcase my village way of living and perhaps people on the internet would buy. Little did I know that this was the beginning of a new adventure that would impact not only me, but also many, many women in my village and the neighboring villages around us.

In the beginning, I only started trying to make contacts through social media so that I could make contact with the outside world, then later came to realize that I can structure this to be a business. It was scary because I didn’t know who would buy from us and if a person does buy, how can we get the baskets to them if the shoppers are all outside our village and country at large? Slowly but surely I started visiting the big city and came to understand how the postal service works in our country. It’s so efficient that you can ship products anywhere in the world, even from my small village. 

The Basket Business

I kept thinking about the baskets we were making in our village and how I could structure the business to be sustainable for us as women and for the women to see and feel the pleasure of weaving. I wanted as many women as possible to experience the art as well as earn an income from it.

In 2016 I created a social media page with a few photos I had taken with my phone. At first, it was difficult to learn how to build a social media page and I’m still learning how to use it as my marketing tool.

My first customer was a lady in the U.S. who had some work (a project she was helping with) here in Kenya and when I first got her order I was super excited. I seriously danced the night away!

Today, we are very efficient with our process which makes it easy to fill orders. I am one of the weavers and I do quality control. I have other women who dry the fibers, while others harvest and prepare the fiber for weaving. If some leatherwork is needed, we have men who do that. The following day I do the packaging and take the first early bus to the city to ship the baskets via the postal service. 

We do face challenges here in our small village, though. This year there have been delays on shipping. We also have a hard time maintaining a catalog on our website simply because we have a wide range of baskets. And most customers won’t purchase without a website. 

Our Self Help Group

We have structured ourselves as a “Self Help Group.” It’s easy to distribute the work among our selves and if we have a lot of baskets to make, we call other neighboring women to help us.

As part of the Self Help Group structure, we don’t use all of the earnings from the baskets and we have started Table Banking. We all put our money together and when one or two people need to borrow money, they can at a low interest rate. When that money is paid back, everyone shares the profit from interest that was made. We’ve established togetherness, transparency, and trust with each other.

It feels really great to see my ideas impacting women directly. I’ve made a difference in my village because I help women sustain their families. I’m glad I listen to my inner self to keep going and do what I do best: weaving.

I’ve seen so many women empower themselves by going on to do things like farming, raising poultry, or starting shops in the village. Many have even gotten their children into school with the money they made.

African Proverb

When you walk alone you walk fast, but when you walk together you go FAR.

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