BY STYLE REPORTER The Adam Molai Foundation (AMF) will next month launch a sewing project in Marondera with the aim of fostering self-sufficient entrepreneurial and income-generating projects that benefit vulnerable people.
Through this initiative, the foundation will train the beneficiaries to become entrepreneurs and generate significant income for themselves.
The project will operate on a commercial scale in collaboration with other stakeholders, who include local businesses and schools, among others.
AMF executive director Nomagugu Matibiri said they were aware of some organisations offering the same service, but their initiative’s unique competitive edge is anchored on job creation for vulnerable groups.
“More than just sewing and supplying commercial quantities, the project will ensure that consumers feel more philanthropic when buying or dealing with this initiative,” Matibiri said.
AMF would oversee the project with the help of selected beneficiaries from the vulnerable groups that are already on their books.
“We are recruiting 50 able-bodied women who are beneficiaries of the Adam Molai Foundation feeding programme and forming a community cooperative to run the project,” Matibiri said.
“The vision is to establish a company whose products we will sell not only in and around Marondera, but also throughout Zimbabwe and beyond in the future.
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“The company will create jobs for Adam Molai Foundation beneficiaries and run profitably to support community initiatives.
“To help grow the business, the foundation plans to approach additional investors, such as regional and international textile mills.”
Matibiri said the foundation was also partnering the National Training Institution for Rural Women that will assist with training and certification of the beneficiaries, arming them with the much needed entrepreneurial skills.
“The sewing project will begin by focusing on schools in the neighbourhood, in a phased rollout, before expanding to additional rural and urban schools in Marondera and the Mashonaland East province,” she said.
The executive director said the project would progressively expand its product range to manufacture corporate clothing, work suits, T-shirts, and maid uniforms aimed at both individuals and the commercial market.
The company would partner with school development committees on a profit-sharing incentive on a commission basis for all uniforms sold to their respective schools.
“This will create a revenue stream for most of them, who are currently cash-strapped and will also leverage the fact that the company will employ some parents,” Matibiri said.
“Once this model has tangible benefits for the pilot schools, the other schools are expected to do the same.
“We are cognisant of the fact that there are several uniform shops, both large and small, in Zimbabwe, but the fact that this project will transform the community and bring about a sustainable change in the lives of the beneficiaries of the sewing project and their families.”
Matibiri is appealing to like-minded organisations to support the initiative with sewing machines and any other form of assistance they are capable of giving in order to help kick start the project.
She said the initial 50 women to be employed on the project will be from the current 95 able-bodied beneficiaries of the foundation.
“The aim is to grow and replicate the model to cover other forms of business and interventions for the less privileged in the communities,” she said.
AMF is a private non-profit organisation with a pan-African focus that seeks to improve community livelihoods.
