April 2013
Sumcho Dolma and Dema Yanzom, two sisters who have opened their own business with the help of 50/50 and generous volunteers from around the world like you, are off to a great start. After renting space for a shop in downtown Thimphu, Bhutan's capital, they registered their Business with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and made a list of the goods that were in the greatest demand locally. Then they got to work stocking up: food, drinks, kitchen items, health products, batteries, and perhaps most important, toys for children.
With 50/50's initial investment helping them to get started, the sisters are planning to keep the store well-stocked, begin to pay back the loan portion of their funding, and save some money to improve their living situation.
January 2013
They're in business!
Next up: heading to the town of Phuentsholing, on the border with India, to stock up on merchandise for their new shop. Many thanks to Tashi Wangchuk and Mepham Sangmo (below), volunteering with 50/50 on the ground to help take care of everything!
October 2012
We're excited to announce a new partnership in Tanzania with Marine Cultures, one of the most innovative organizations out there. 50/50 and Marine Cultures will be working together to provide residents of Zanzibar coastal communities with opportunities to learn a new and interesting trade that has enormous potential to increase incomes--sponge farming.
Natural sponges are in high demand in the bath and cosmetics industry (think Body Shop) as well as in the arts, where painters prefer using the soft, absorptive sponges found in the sea to the artificial kind. By learning the proper technique for growing, harvesting, and cutting sponges, local residents can gain a new skill that will help them to earn a living while preserving their environment (when cut correctly, sponges regenerate without suffering any harm). That's good news for everyone, especially in coastal areas--like many in Zanzibar--where fish populations have been dwindling rapidly in recent yeas and threatening the livelihood of communities that have long depended on large catches of fish to provide their income.
50/50 and Marine Cultures will be teaming up to provide funding to the sponge farmers, offer instruction both in sponge cultivation technique and in the business skills necessary to manage their enterprise, and helping to connect the farmers with buyers and markets where they can sell the fruits of their labor.
Here is Okala, who lives in Jambiani, showing off one of his sponges:
September 2012
Pemba Fresh Dairy Farm is up and running!
January 2012
On the island of Pemba, just off the Indian Ocean coast of Tanzania, you better get to the market early if you're hoping to buy some milk. Demand for dairy is high on Pemba, but there's not enough milk to go around.To help meet the growing demand for milk, 50/50 will be partnering with a group of entrepreneurs on the island to create Pemba's first dairy farm. It's a great business opportunity: a cow producing 15-20 litres of milk each day can earn the group 24,000 shillings. Multiply that figure by four, and a small herd can earn the group nearly 100,000 TZS each day. For a group of seven entrepreneurs, that's a big jump in earning potential.
Right now, milk is sold unpasteurized (consumers must boil it at home) and in plastic bags that end up littering Pemba's otherwise-pristine environment. Pemba Fresh Dairy, the name the entrepreneurs have chosen for the new business, will instead sell its milk--pasteurized beforehand--in glass bottles that will be re-used by the dairy, rather than disposed of. Buyers will pay a small deposit fee and have it returned to them once they bring the bottles back, whereupon they'll be cleaned and properly sanitized. The bottles will be provided courtesy of Wonder Welders, a great organization on the Tanzanian mainland.