Aug 23 – Marketing

Aug 23

Marina from Mascorp, Ken from Inuka Kenya and Bonface visited Amusha today. Marina is the project-manager at Mascorp, in charge of funding projects for youth groups. They came to see the projects going on at Amusha to get a feel of the activities at the ground. After talking briefly about the application process for funding from Mascorp, we demonstrated our shower to them. They seem interested and impressed by the shower. If Amusha’s application for funding is successful this round, they will be awarded 40,000KSH in a few weeks.

As we were walking to meet Shadrack, Bonface talked to us about the two projects he is currently working on. Bonface is an ambitious young man who is looking to start his own business. One of his research is on sewage purification. The project started out as eliminating the sewage smell but shifted to sewage purification as they realized the sewage is purified in the process. Bonface says he worked out the purification process but the project still needs funding and government authorization before commercialization. The second project is on recycling plastic to make rods, which can replace metal and wood structure. The research for this project is still ongoing. Bonface will let us know more details through email so we can look at the possibility of collaborations. 

We head into a church where the heads of various groups have gathered.

Isaiah and Davies introduced Eco-Shower to the group. There was a long question and answer session in Swahili afterwards. Although we do not completely understand the conversation, from the occasional laughter from the crowd, everyone seems to have had a good time. The questions ranged from where the shower can be placed to warranty issues. Isaiah tackled each question skillfully. The heads seem to be satisfied with his answers. Hopefully some of these people will turn into our customers. 

As we are ending the session, the leader from a disabled group came up to us.

The group is trying to make candies for sale, but they have a problem cutting the candies into pieces after it solidifies. He asked if we could came up with a method that makes the process easier and cleaner. The exact process is not really clear to us. We hope to talk to him more about it if he comes to our workshop tomorrow morning.

The progress of shower installations:

This is the shower installed at Sisal with wooden structure.

 Another showers is installed at Kwa Ruben for a week-long testing.

The operator who is interested to test out our shower.

This is half-completed shower at a vendor near Sisal. He ordered a metal stand.  He even placed a water tank near the shower so water can be easily refilled into the shower. Amusha will be monitoring the sales and making further improvements to the showers.