Exciting New Project

JAMBIANI CO-OPERATIVE WORKSHOP

A ground-breaking initiative sponsored by ZAP

Fundis

Zanzibar and, in particular, the south-eastern area which includes Jambiani, Makunduchi and Paje suffers from a lack of qualified tradesmen or “fundis”. Skilled workers are scarce even in Stone Town, and are often brought over from mainland Tanzania, leaving the Zanzibaris unable to take advantage of the steadily growing tourism industry.

In response to this situation, and working with the local community of Jambiani, ZAP has established an innovative Vocational Bursary Scheme. Under the scheme, ZAP funds the college fees, educational tools and day-to-day living expenses of young people in the village, including a waiter, chef, two plumbers, two electricians, two motor mechanics and a refrigeration engineer. Our African Director oversees their pastoral care, and monitors their progress carefully. The waiter and chef already have good jobs in the village and the rest of the students are doing well; they qualify in summer 2009 after a three year course.

Delighted by the opportunity this offers for village employment, the Jambiani Village Committee has asked ZAP to assist in setting up a Fundi Co-operative Workshop. The project has three main aims:

- to regenerate and sustain the local economy

- to disseminate skills throughout the area. (The qualified ZAP Fundis will train their own apprentices, also from the village)

- to expand the range of skilled Fundis to include carpenters, joiners and other trades.

ZAP has undertaken to fund set-up costs and initial running expenses for the Fundi Workshop, including transport costs, which may include individual motor bikes, or small vans. At present, a tradesmen’s working day is frequently wasted travelling to and from jobs by bus. Secure lock-up premises in Jambiani village High Street have been which ZAP has renovated, and two village ladies attended a business course in Stone Town to learn basic accounting skills.

Already, the two electrical students have been engaged (with supervision from their college teachers) in a couple of large installations for private house owners in the village, who are delighted with their work. If the project is successful, the fundis may be able to partially reimburse ZAP for capital costs – however, this is a long way off, and it will be more important to concentrate on expanding the pool of manual skills, through an apprentice scheme with the qualified tradesmen and through further training – in joinery, brick-laying and decorating, for example.

After careful consideration, the Directors of ZAP have decided that the new Co-operative requires a qualified and experienced business manager (click here for job description) to ensure that, from the outset, the venture is run profitably. There is no culture of ‘big business’ in Zanzibar, almost entirely because of lack of initial business capital. Living hand-to-mouth, tradesmen generally apply to customers for the cost of materials, and have little idea of accurate estimates. The opportunity which a reputable trades co-operative, centrally managed, could afford them is hard for the young men to visualise, let alone begin on their own, and a competent manager who would oversee the project seems a ‘must’.

The Jambiani Fundi Co-operative Workshop is an exciting, ground breaking scheme in rural Zanzibar – an area of extreme poverty and critical unemployment which falls outside the remit of larger charities. It has the full support of the vocational College Principals and, if successful, is not only on course to provide a life-enhancing enterprise for many young men and young women now living barely above subsistence level, but has the potential to become a template for other rural communities in Zanzibar in the future.