Name of Project Initiator: Milkias Bonke

Name of Project: Selling Traditional Cloth

Scope of Project: Handicrafts, Fair Trade

Location: Shiromeda, Addis Abeba

The Bold Idea:
Buy traditional cloth directly from the producer and sell the cloth at a fair price. We plan to enter the US market to sell to Ethiopians living in the US.

Issue that project addresses:
The artisans who make traditional cloth are at a disadvantage when selling to middle-men. This project seeks to introduce fair trade practices to the traditional cloth market.

Moment of Inspiration: What experiences led to the desire to start your own/this organization?
All the traditional cloth markets take place in our home village. Our families’ income depends on making and selling traditional cloth. Since we grew up in the town, we know the producers. We realized that we could buy the cloth directly from the producers and then sell it at a fair price, instead of accepting the low price the merchants offer us.

Think Big: What role has ReachUp! played in helping you to dream big and take on this project?
If there were no DOT Ethiopia we were ready to follow in our families’ footsteps. But the DOT Interns helped us to see big opportunities. The ReachUp! program helped us to see new opportunities. We started thinking about ways to change our life and also our community.

New and Untested: What’s innovative about your/the project?
The idea is not new but we plan to use the ICT skills we learned in ReachUp! to make it modern.

Seeing Possibilities: What are the most important qualities to be a successful professional and engaged citizen in your country?
Determination.

What advice do you have for others wishing to embark on a similar venture?
We told many Ethiopian youth to enroll in the ReachUp! training.

In photo, Milkias Bonke demonstrating traditional Ethiopian weaving style

UPDATES:
Milkias Bonke attended the  'Youth Entreprise Day' in Nairobi in April 2007, which was sponsored by UN Habitat.  Milkias presented his ReachUp! project and displayed some of his traditional Ethiopian cloth products at the Exhibition Hall.

Milkias is now helping to improve the lives of weavers in his community, particularly the members of the "Struggle and Prosper Weavers Cooperative Limited" company that he has founded and is now licensed by the government.  Some of the obstacles that Milkias has faced include finding start-up capital for his company and a lack of fair market prices for weavers as set by the retailer.  Milkias hopes to improve the cloth trade through using technology to access markets.

August 2008 update - Milkias is currently preparing a business plan for the weaving company and conducting research.