Fiskani: May 2009 Archives

Hello from Malawi!

News here is that we recently ran a focus group with one of our trainee groups from the Chinyolo Youth Club. We wanted to evaluate the success of our micro-solar training programmes and to get feedback from the participants.

The meeting was run by an independent moderator to ensure objectivity.

The focus group we held with Chinyolo Youth Club

A number of interesting findings came out of the meeting...

• The feedback was excellent. Many felt they were now "changed people" due to their new skills and the opportunities that came with them. They boasted that not a single customer has ever returned a product to them due to quality problems!
• Feedback from other groups showed that they too hoped for regular refresher training sessions in marketing and book-keeping.
• One of the difficulties highlighted was that of setting up a business apart from a group, as an individual. This is due to the lack of sufficient capital.
• The biggest sellers are the lightbulbs, followed by the mobile chargers which are often used by their owners for phone-charging businesses in their areas.

Trainees join the scheme in the hope of acquiring new knowledge and skills to develop business opportunities and increase their incomes. Please support our work in helping the trainees to achieve this goal.

Thank you.

More updates from Malawi soon,
Fiskani