Jacana trains first welders to produce and sell rope pumps in Zambia
Business empowerment organisation Jacana has trained 7 welders to produce rope pumps and EMAS hand pumps. The welders will start a local business in producing and selling the pumps.
The training by Jacana is part of a self-support concept for families to become entrepreneurs for the production, installation and exploitation of pumps and wells.
The full supply chain includes local hardware shops to deliver the materials, welders to produce pumps and drillers to drill boreholes and install pumps.
The roll out of the concept in Zambia, follows Tanzania where 5.000 pumps have been sold without subsidy.
Talks with the families to help develop their business plans.
Own workshop
The welders produced the first rope pump in their own workshop. Jacana checked the quality of the pump, and once approved, they got money for production of four more pumps.
The first pump will be installed in front of their workshop as an example. The other four pumps are promotion material and stock to attract customers.
When the welders sell a pump they immediately produce a new one, so there are always four on display.
Show case area
Jacana selected some villages around Chipata, Zambia, where 50 partly sponsored pumps will be installed.
Families will be the owners of the pumps and are responsible for the maintenance. These families have a plan to earn some money with the pump, because they get access to water throughout the year.
As early adopters, they pay only 10 percent of the costs of the pump. These families will be role models and will motivate other families to buy pumps in the future.
Skilled well drillers at work.
Selection of the families
The role for Jacana is to organise meetings in several villages and explain the procedure to all community members of how they can become one of the lucky ones who receive a partly sponsored pump.
Jacana selects the families and checks if their business plans are realistic. If that is the case, the drillers can start.
Experiences with a similar concept in Tanzania learned that people start to appreciate to have an own family pump. This convinces other families to go to the welders and buy a pump themselves.
About Jacana
Jacana is a Dutch-Zambia based foundation that searches for motivated and qualified entrepreneurs for its program. Then, Jacana guides the entrepreneurs and trains them to use Skype, email and computers for their business purposes.
The foundation focuses on small African entrepreneurs who are about to escape from the poverty trap. By carefully delivering them the right kind of support, the young entrepreneurs are enabled to escape from poverty. They will create employment and set an example for those who are even less fortunate.
This news item was originally published on the website of Jacana.
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• Stockholm World Water Week 2016: Technical centres as water job generators in rural areas, 2 September 2016
• Basic Water Needs to provide 540,000 Malawians with safe and clean water by 2018, 14 September 2015
• Country: Zambia
More information
Jacana
‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands
info@jacana.help
www.jacana.help