It's great to finally be here, although I wish that my dear friend Judy Severson, the co-founder of MoMo, could be here with me. The seeds for MoMo were planted about 3 years ago when Judy and I (along with our kids and others) visited Kakamega as part of a Village Enterprise Fund Vision Trip.
Orphanages in Kenya are brimming with children, many of whom lost their parents to HIV/AIDS. The actual idea for creating MoMo didn't really happen until the next year when we came back to Kakamega to find that many of the babies we had grown to love had perished for a variety of reasons, including lack of safe milk.
Inspired by the work of Village Enterprise Fund, Grameen Bank, and Kiva, among others, we had the idea to help orphanages start businesses as a means to reduce reliance on outside funding sources. In the case of the orphanage in Kakamega, a dairy seemed to make the most sense - providing much needed milk, while also creating an income stream from the sale of surplus.
With the help of amazing people like Lyndsay Holly, as well as Julia Hack-Dave, Wilson Peru, and Rowland Amulyoto from Village Enterprise Fund, today I start the process of moving MoMo's first project further along. We've had some set backs, but more importantly, we've had a lot of people step forward and support our efforts. That's why I am here today.
My goal in the next few weeks is to chronicle the process of developing a business plan to utilize $10K in seed funding (to be given as part grant, part loan). I invite you to become part of the process. Suggestions and advice greatly appreciated throughout the journey. Each day I will be posting the latest - two weeks here in Kenya.
This is an experiment in capitalism of the heart....please stay tuned!
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Danusia - you are doing such important work!
ReplyDeleteWe are proud of you.
Please post pictures!
Raja and Axl miss you but know that you need to share the love.
ReplyDeleteDanusia, wow, you are the bomb. Good luck. So the first first quick idea - consider having the kids grow coffee as well, better margins, thoughtful merchandising, Oprah will love you and the viral thing will start, when that happens, Walter can help you create an investment fund to seed the Start-ups that the kids can work at once they return from Stanford with their MBA's and PhDs.
ReplyDeleteFrom Vahe - who is continuing to have problems posting.
ReplyDeletefinally, I wanted to suggest this:
-you don't have to become a multi-million dollar coffee exporter, you can bring benefits to the place one coffee shop at a time
1. contact peets
2. tell them you want to sell a limited amount of coffee to the Palo Alto Store
3. like a sister cities program, you can have a sister coffee shop program
4. By having distribution direct to retail you can really capture value
5. Use your design skills for packaging, signage, web site
Imagine a small display at the point of sale that describes the great Kenyan that helps the orphans, you will sell out instantly, Peet's gets great viral news (more valuable than the money they earn
6. Roll out to other stores - eventually production capacity will be met but at that point, the brand becomes a remarketer, they can stop with the product and sell other goods from local farms - then you go on Oprah
keep the cows for the dairy creamer for the guests who come to volunteer time to run the business
;-)
v
Vahe is right. You are the bomb.
ReplyDeleteDir Momm, Counslr Vino is helpig me rite i miss you & you work good
ReplyDelete1 PS please bring some milk back to poodles luv milk too Axl woof woof woof woof woof
test
ReplyDeletethank you Aleksey - duh
ReplyDelete