Sustainable, eco-friendly products to the market from indigenous bark cloth fused in African designs

Unfortunately, the production of plastic will double by 2025 from an initial 332 million tons in 2015, increasing microplastic exposure in fish consumption and eventually affecting different levels of the ecosystem and food chains in oceans (FAO, 2017). Concurrently,  Sub-Saharan Africa will contribute to most of the population increase by 2030 despite the alarming gap in unemployment, especially among young women. Rafiq Green Hub Start Up was born from a need to address the unemployment crisis faced by most marginalized women in Kenya while tackling the concern of environmental degradation. Women who are secure financially tend to secure food security from the household level to the community level. Women who are information literate can withstand climate change and pandemic-related shocks as they have an empowered mindset to find alternative solutions amidst a problem. Hence, the long-term impact of Rafiq Green Hub is to promote economic independence among marginalized women and ultimately East African Women through the production of eco-friendly products.

Rafiq Green Hub uses the bark materials of indigenous trees found in East Africa to produce biodegradable products without cutting down the trees! The tree commonly known as “Mutuba” has a special bark that can be transformed into bark cloth and is largely accepted by UNESCO as an “intangible heritage.” We aim to emancipate women continuously through financial, peace-building, entrepreneurial, and environmental awareness programs. Rafiq will provide awareness creation in financial, entrepreneurial, personal, and professional development to African women to emancipate them through information literacy programs. Finally, support women who produce Rafiq eco-products with impactful visibility for their potential projects or activities that have a positive environmental impact. We believe that by empowering women’s livelihoods we shall have a food-secure community with sustainable environmental practices geared towards both livelihood and environmental resilience. Our eco-products shall scale to serve international communities as well.

Rafiq Green Hub aims to work with youth, especially women from marginalized communities, women with disability, and those who hold refugee status. Additionally, we believe in disability inclusion as an integral core value in our Start-Up for inclusive futures. Working with those living below the poverty line, refugees and persons with disability addresses the issues of exclusion, lack of access to financial literacy, and lack of work that provides dignity at the same time. Hence, achieving impact by ensuring at least 15% of women producers are persons with disability and at least 10% are refugees. Opening an economic door to those left behind means we leave no one behind and we enhance inclusive worlds/futures.

1. Elizabeth Koka: Passionate about the intersection of Livelihoods and Environmental Health. The phrase “nothing for us without us” resonates deeply in her endeavors and she dreams to see young women from impoverished backgrounds, refugees and persons with disability have dignified forms of livelihoods and attain autonomy as well. Through autonomy in livelihoods, they can change their household purchasing powers (food security) and cause a ripple effect on the community by impacting social and even health systems. Persons with disability and refugees face the extra barrier to livelihood opportunities due to environmental, social, and structural barriers. "We start small and we change lives is her motto." She is currently the Founder of Rafiq Green Hub with an experienced background of over 6 years working in healthcare, research, the humanitarian sector, and consulting. She leads the research design, sales, and operations.
2. Bobbie Traut: Bobbie has worked for over 15 years in the NGO sector focusing on human rights and civil society. In her career, she has mentored other NGO professionals and participated in several fellowship programs. She is currently the Co-founder of Rafiq Green Hub and leads in partnerships, inclusion, and entry to markets.

During the COVID-19 pandemic: We progressed into actualizing the concept in Uganda and then Kenya by producing the first few samples of eco-friendly bags made by women tailors. The few samples were tested in Greece through We AFRIHug. The COVID-19 pandemic hit hard when Rafiki (former name now Rafiq) was about to test-run its first-ever MVP. Unfortunately, due to a lack of access to investment capital, closed international borders, and an ever-hard economic time, the ideation that had generated its first MVP closed. The women we sought to empower frizzled back into the same cycle of unemployment with no hopes of a sustainable means of livelihood. Rafiki Center closed but Rafiq Green Hub was born yet again in 2023 amidst the face of uncertainty and hopelessness.

2023-Current:  Rafiq Green Hub as a social enterprise is now run by women, owned by women, and ensures an inclusive business for women throughout its supply chain was revived once more by Elizabeth Koka and a robust new team of advisors (Bryan Banfield, Dan Kirk, Piotr Kedzierski) and Co-Founder (Bobbie Traut). Rafiq will not give up on the vision and the long-term goal of ensuring women from marginalized communities are empowered as we address environmental needs through the production of eco-friendly products using a new partnership-based business model and B2B approach.

Rafiq Green Hub aims to use an “inclusive model” in the production process by ensuring universal design mechanisms are instituted in the whole production process to afford persons with disability their rights and autonomy in dignified and autonomous work/livelihood. We envision our machinery models to be disability friendly for persons with physical disability them to work in an environment where all barriers have been removed and an inclusive model is strengthened. Currently, this model is unique as the entire Start-Up will be based on an entirely inclusive model. Additionally, working with refugees means certain policies (related to the economic integration of refugees) need to be followed. However, we embark on challenging certain policies that disregard refugees at the employment nexus but rather ensure refugees have dignified work and pay for it.

Hence, Rafiq requires technical support in terms of envisioning the inclusive model all round and acquiring both technological and knowledge transfer within the Start-Up. We believe Solve can help us realize this vision fully while disrupting barriers that lock out refugees and prevent inclusion within the enterprise. We hope this model once fully successful can be replicated by others who face barriers in including marginalized populations such as refugees and persons with disabilities within their enterprise by adapting technologies, inclusive culture, and al rounded inclusive models.

Rafiq Green Hub is using an inclusive model to ensure no one is left behind within the business chains and leveraging Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) approach to ensure marginalized women, refugees and persons with disabilities attain dignified livelihoods lon-term. 

At least 15% of persons with disability gain dignified livelihoods at Rafiq Green Hub and 10% of refugees. A carbon footprint mechanism to monitor enterprise carbon footprint for strategic goals within SDG 13 for climate action.

We aim to adapt and remodel existing traditional machinery used by women to accommodate and include women with disabilities by ensuring machinery has inclusive aspects to ensure persons with disability can work with them as opposed to conventional machinery.Additionally, we aim to adopt the E-commerce model modulation to ensure we maximize on digital penetration.

Co-Founders=2 

Advisors=3 

Women Tailors=15

Tailoring Supervisor=1

Volunteers=2

Sign language Interpreter=1

2020-2021: Ideation to MVP stage period.

2023-current: MVP to operational structures in place and some ongoing.

Rafiq Green Hub’s model is inclusive from the onset and includes a women inclusion/empowerment framework from the founding level (all the Co-Founders are women), to the supply-chain/production level (all tailors/supervisory are women and we aim to include women suppliers within the supply chain e.g. those who supply organic waste fibers and the indigenous barkcloth). Further, our volunteer staff comprises persons with disability (hearing impairment) and we aim to ensure the production is inclusive of at least 15% of women who are persons with disability and 10% are from refugee status/background. 

Also, we empower marginalized women from the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) chain within our production cycle model. Rafiq Green Hub consists of Co-Founding and advisory from both the Global North (United States, Poland, and Sweden) and Global South (Kenya and South Africa) to ensure knowledge and technology transfer trickles equitably to strengthen Rafiq’s diversity, inclusion goals, and equitable knowledge sharing and transfer.

Rafiq Green Hub will provide eco-products to individuals by partnering with like-minded businesses, and will not provide products or services to the government.

The plan for Rafiq Green Hub to become financially sustainable included accessing first the EU market, and then moving to African markets, possibly even in South Africa through the production and sell of our eco-products using both a B2B business model and partnerships with grassroots CBOs for dignified and sustainable livelihood framework.