Friday, March 29, 2024

PULPIT: Amlaku’s story comes full circle

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“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, gang aft a-gley” – Robbie Burns 2019 was to be the final year of our long-running project supporting Amlaku’s village of Baregota in rural Ethiopia. The village now no longer needs our support.
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In fact in 2019, they purchased all their own seed and fertiliser, and have done the same again in 2020. Vegetable production has really taken off, with everything they produce finding ready buyers in the hotels and market in Lalibela, just eight kilometres away. Although they are quite close to the equator, they are 3000 metres above sea level, so the vegetables they grow are pretty much what we grow here. They have also planted various fruit trees – oranges, apples, avocadoes, along with coffee, and these trees are all becoming productive now. 

The bridge that two Mauriceville farmers built in May 2019 is proving to be extremely useful, while the grain mill continues to ease life for the village women who used to spend many backbreaking hours grinding grain between two rocks. 

Each family now has their own bank account, and they are actively saving money generated from the sale of produce. All of this really helps the people of Baregota on their journey towards sustainable self-sufficiency. 

Their future looks good, with some of the improvements made in this village now being shared with other villages. Amlaku has been helping other villages access low-interest loans to purchase improved seed and fertiliser.

He was then ready to pursue his own future in the tourism industry, which in 2018 grew in Ethiopia by 50%. For that, he needed a decent vehicle, and after initially doing a deal with some people in Addis who had vehicles, a deal that eventually fell through, he very reluctantly came to us for help in July 2019. While he could get a 50% loan from his local bank, just like here, they needed him to find the rest. 

Miraculously, and thanks to the incredible generosity of just a few supporters, we had some $76,000 in the bank for this need within two weeks. All the more extraordinary when you consider that this was not for the village development project, but for Amlaku’s personal future. 

The minibus – a new Toyota Hiace 16-seater – took some four months to come in from Dubai, but he finally took delivery of it in early February, and was ready to launch Baregota Tour and Travel PLC.

You will know what else arrived around then – covid-19. That put an abrupt end to all tourism activities in Ethiopia, just like the rest of the world, so the minibus is now in secure storage in Addis. 

Covid-19 is spreading quite fast there, around 100,000 cases and 1500 deaths thus far, mostly in the Addis area, with the country pretty much locked down. Once things improve, Amlaku will put the minibus onto the taxi run between Addis and Lalibela, which is normally a two-day bus journey, but for a good vehicle like his, it’s a long day’s journey. Local business people will pay a premium for this service, so that should get him going again.

In March 2019, he had started manufacturing the Days for Girls reusable sanitary towels in Lalibela, employing 20 youngsters from the village, and soon turning over about $9000 a month – incredible. 

Unfortunately, this had to shut down with the advent of covid-19. Part of that process included making liquid soap. They are planning on kicking this production off again in the next week or two.

With time on his hands, and being confined to Lalibela because of the pandemic, Amlaku, never being one to sit on his hands and do nothing, decided to start a new venture making not only liquid soap, but a range of other household cleaners, soaps and et cetera. After working with chemists from soap-making companies in Addis to learn the process, including the formulas for the various products, he was ready to go. With just a little funding from here, he was able to purchase the necessary raw ingredients in Addis, and so launched Ric Soap and Detergents PLC in July, operating out of a small rented shed in Lalibela. He has half a dozen people working with him, with minimal equipment. As of now, each bottle of product is filled by hand using a one-litre plastic jug. His fiancée, who has a small print and design business in Addis, has produced the labels. They are selling 12 products to about 30 local shops. 

There are some 80,000 people living in Lalibela, and so plenty of potential customers.  

His first two production runs sold out very quickly, with positive feedback from the shops and their customers. Like many start-ups, he is doing all of this on the smell of an oily rag in terms of cash in hand. The Town Council has given him a much larger building, rent-free, and that is now kitted out for production.

However, he unexpectedly had to put all production on hold for a couple of weeks while the building was certified as suitable by the relevant authority, and all of his products were certified as safe by a lab in Addis. The building inspectors described him as “visionary,” and his operation as “environmentally sustainable”. 

One of the things he is looking into is setting up some sort of recycling operation so that the containers he is using can be collected and sent off to Addis to be recycled. This will be a first for Lalibela. 

With his certification now granted, he is currently awaiting the arrival of the third batch of raw materials. His team now numbers 10, including three watchmen, each working an eight-hour shift, to give 24 hour protection to the building and its contents.

This new business has the potential to be very profitable, as well as providing employment for several workers, some of whom he has already trained up in the mixing of the various ingredients. A recent generous gift from a New Zealand donor has helped hugely with his cashflow issues. 

The next stage is to move the Days for Girls manufacturing across into the same building, which will mean a total of 30 people employed there, which is no small benefit to the wider community where many people struggle to find work. 

So, while there are still some uncertainties about the future, as with the rest of the world right now, it looks as though this project, which has now been going since 2009, is really reaching the point of its goals being realised, in fact more than realised. The villagers have a sustainable life now, with this year’s crop, due for harvest in November, looking as though it will set new records, while their fruit tree and vegetable operations are developing well. 

Amlaku’s own future looks positive, as of now. When tourism does eventually open up again, he has a potential business there, along with the soap-making venture. Truly, much to celebrate.

A huge thank you to all who have supported this project over the years – to the tune of more than $300,000 now. This includes Farmers Weekly editor Bryan Gibson, whose willingness to share Amlaku’s story is very much appreciated. 

What a privilege it has been for us here to have been part of Amlaku’s extraordinary journey over the past 11-plus years – and all because back in 2009 he, as a young tour guide, had the nerve to ask a visiting tourist from NZ for help to go to university. So many lives have been significantly enriched because of that simple question, including that of the visiting NZ tourist.

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