Mawejje Creations

I grew up in ‘matoke land’- the pearl of Africa. Uganda is the second largest producer of bananas after India with about 9 million tons produced annually. As much as this is great; it creates tons of waste in form of stem and stocks, which have been left over to decompose thus emitting a huge amount of methane gas and carbon dioxide.

In the midst of such abundance, youth unemployment stands at 83%. And 8 out of 10 women in Uganda practice agriculture with bananas as the main crop but still live below the poverty line.

I am a chef by profession and along the way I became uncomfortable about the increasing waste from bananas and growing youth unemployment thus decided to do something about it. At Mawejje Creations, we are adding value to banana waste while creating job opportunities for youth through skills training, value addition and market linkage.

Over 10 million hectares of Banana plantation, with an average of 1500 plants per hectare, exist in more than 160 countries globally. Uganda is the second largest producer of bananas after India with about 9 million tons produced annually, creating tons of waste in form of stem and stocks, which have been left over to decompose and rot hence emitting a huge amount of methane gas and carbon dioxide. These emissions have a negative impact on the environment, which increases global warming every year. Every ton of banana waste emits, on average, a half-ton of carbon dioxide per year. Evidence reveals that 7out of 10 youth are unemployed yet the services and industrial sector have not created enough jobs for the burgeoning youthful labor force, 8out of 10 women practice agriculture with bananas as main crop but still leave below poverty line

In our case we are working with communities which grow matoke (bananas) of which 8out of 10 women practice agriculture with bananas as main crop but still leave below poverty line with bananas as main crop grown with low economic growth affecting their performance. 7out of 10 youth are unemployed yet the services and industrial sector have not created enough jobs for the burgeoning youthful labor force.we train,equip them with different skills, we engage them in community out reach,needs assessment,campaign and awareness programs.our intervention will support them with hands-on skills,enable them earn extra income and creating platforms for job,network and marketing opportunities.Banana growers will extract banana fiber of high advantage of selling them to us which will close the gap between our services and their needs.

With approach of value addition to banana waste,we directly engage banana growers in chain of production as they extract banana waste to get fibers,sale them to us in due course they earn extra income to sustain themselves while creating jobs opportunities for disadvantaged youth and women in rural communities of Uganda through banana fiber production, hands-on skills training, developing affordable banana fiber products to reduce banana waste to have free carbon emission environment in Uganda and the entire global. We envision to be the leading company in Uganda and Africa improving livelihood of banana growers through recycling banana waste into products of value.

Banana fibers are used in different ways but at Mawejje Creations we develop different home textiles which inculde table marts,cushion,rugs,lamp shade, wall hanging and on other hand we in research on how we can develop banana fiber fabrics. we also use these fibers to make banana papers for package. through the process of extracting these banana fibers there wastes which remain behind, we use them to make charcoal briquttes for cooking hence saving the enviroment.

Being that we are not only us n this space, we acknowelgde our competitors due to high advantage they have than us like Industrial production,Extensive Research, and Commercializing innovations. with all due, we respect there poetintial and the intervation over the solid waste in community but they always miss out on something which is minimal social impact & over whelmed with lots of innovations.

There different apporaches used by different innovators but at Mawejje Creations we develop different home textiles which inculde table marts,cushion,rugs and on other hand we in research on how we can develop banana fiber fabrics. we also use these fibers to make banana papers for package. through the process of extracting these banana fibers there wastes which remain behind, we use them to make charcoal briquttes for cooking hence saving the enviroment.

We directly engage the local farmers and youths in rural communities in creativity, recycling of banana waste into banana fiber, income generation without using a chain of middle men. It is also unquestionably the best among existing solution that turn banana waste focusing on developing affordable banana fiber products,income generating activity and job creation with both social & enviromental impact.

we basically use different kind of technology which Indigenous Knowledge where locals and us team up together to find out on how to extract the waste while using the locally made fabirictaed machines,manual extraction and other different process and aproaches in our enterprise

• Manufacturing & process optimization
• Management & design approaches

 Conventionally, the banana fibre is extracted through a cumbersome manual process, wherein the pseudo stem sheaths are scraped and the fibre is separated by using a metal scraper (flat and blunt blade). In this manner, just about 500 gm can be extracted. An alternate way is to extract the fibre through a mechanical process, which yields 10 times the quantity but with heavy damage to the fibre.

On the other hand we use a machine which is designed in a very simple way such that it can be used by everyone, as the mechanism is very simple. The major components used are blade, belt and pulley, motor, and roller shaft. This model is helpful in fibre industries to extract the fibre from banana stem thats the mechinical tech of which is conviniet but quite expensive by the community hence using manual extraction

With approach of adding value to banana waste,we directly engage banana growers in chain of production,creating jobs opportunities for disadvantaged youth and women in rural communities of Uganda, developing affordable banana fiber products to reduce banana waste to have free carbon emission environment in Uganda and the entire global.

We have so far been able to train over 2 groups of women1 out 5 of them are able to generate income from the products they make, reached out to 4 house holds in the campaign we carried out in Ntugamo-Rugazi village and over 100 youths have been reached through different channels ie radio interview,social media and blog posts 

we expect at least 3% of banana growers knowing how turn banana waste into fiber, products of values to increase their income to support themselves and their families. And over 2000 lives of women and youths in rural communities of Uganda being positively impacted through our services both directly&indirectly, production and the selling’s of banana crafted products in 10 years to come. With estimation of 500 hundreds jobs opportunities being created for university students,unprevilged youths out of banana waste to alleviate in rural communities of Uganda. We will validate this through need assesment, monotoring and evalution each year to keep track of record hence making sure that matoke(banana)growers are enble to earn extra income and lives being impacted positively.

Currently we are serving 100 rural farmers,50 youths&women in the rural community

We will be serving 500 banana growers,250 youths&women in the rural community

In next five years will be serving 2500 farmers,1250 youths&women in both rural&urban community

• In one year we want banana growers have been extracted 2tonnes of banana waste to sale us the banana fiber,2 out 10 youths being contracted and assigned.
•  we aim to produce fine banana fiber products of the highest quality, 100% natural, making Mawejje Creations have a premium quality products from banana fiber.

• We want to establish Mawejje Creations as a socially and environmentally minded company in the next five years, through up scaling utilization of sustainable resources for job creation among youth and women groups, i.e. empowerment and employment schemes.  
• The next 5 years will acquire a heavy duty banana fibre recycling machine which will be supplied to banana growers, that will increase on the volume of production to serve the increasing demand of our products. This means increases in employees and efficiency hence improved product quality and reduction in unemployment.
•   we will  repilcate our module in three districts,theres provision of 5 tonnes of banana fiber,established 3 extracting centers in our new pilot districts.
• We have impacted over 500 youth from different universties, insituations and those with unprivelged background in community and they are able to create there own business and be self employed through our empowerment schemes.

•  Currently our production is still at low capacity due to use of manual extraction where its hindering/limiting us to wider impact at the moment and labour intensive.
• Another great barrier is financial constraint for us to diversity our services in rural communities.
• We also have challenging of marketing our products&service since most people are ignorant about banana fiber innovations,value addition and most of them tend to think that its sisal!

•  We carried out research on innovative measures on how to extract banana waste using machines,it was on advantage that there are possibility to have extracting machine which can help us to increase our production.
•  To over come barrier of financial constraint we are in plan to launch crowd funding campaign come June, constant applying for different opportunities which will include;grants,prize awards,accelerator programs all linked to financial support as it is with solve.
•  Another alternative to over financial issues, is to supply banana fiber extractors and other machines used in production at simple fee and on micro-credit to banana growers.
•  We are going to carry out different programs in communities and on media which will include campaigns,workshops&training in different regions talking about banana waste,its dangers and opportunities across the region to over come the challenge of marketing and ignorant within people.

we have 2full time stuff who deal with operations,fund-rising and administration.

We have 2part time contractors who support us in training,workshop in communities.

We have 1 volunteer who helps us in research and language interpretation.

We have 1part time senior intern who works with us in product development.

Mawejje Creations is composed of a team of 6 who are passionate about change, waste management,value addition and youth unemployment in the region.

Alituha God; degree in procurement with 5years of experience in Business management &Book keeping

Annet Namuyaba; certificate in fashion&design,certificate in applied social innovations with 2years in garment making

Isa Kyakonye; certificate in mass communication&journalism with 2years in sales&marketing

Moses Ssenda;   degree in textile and garment making with 25years in weaving & textile

Muhammed Dimma; Certificate in hotel&hospitality,certificate in Business incubation,Banana fiber extraction and technology with 8years experience in chafing,3 years in banana fiber innovations& product development.

Patrick; Certificate in applied social innovations,1 year in research&farm management. 

The team is based on love and passion towards the change and impact in the community and composed with different profession, education background and vocational skills. Training has been of a practical nature, as team members have been trained and equipped with different team building skills and others and as a result, each has a good working skills of the whole production process. There is therefore a lot of specialization. Apart from the various tasks, the team is in charge of ensuring there is a ready supply of materials and our partners are in good terms with us. Most of the members work part since some work doesn't need physical appearance&we believe in a team where everyone achieves more and no one is above the other.

Mawejje creations project has developed iwithin one year thanks to the support of several  actors Umoja inclusive. Umoja is a france based  company  were modernity  and craft manship meet. Umòja values the african textile and pictorial traditional heritage by combining it to the sneakers modernity. Hand-woven textiles in a responsible and human approach to create intercultural sneakers. Umòja revisits traditional savoir-faire in order to make them attractive and maintain employment within artisanal cooperatives while taking into account human and environmental cost of the fashion industry. They make shoes out of  local fabrics which are gathered all over East & West Africa.we work with them through research programs which are focusing on sustainable,eco-friendly materials from natural trees especially banana and mutuba tree. We provide banana fiber,back cloth which they use to make eco-friendly sneakers

Business Module Canvas

Being that we enable growers earn extra income,create jobs opportunity for disadvantaged youth and women, we equip banana growers with extraction skills where they are able to extract banana waste into banana fibers. We purchase the fibers from them at fair cost where we directly engage youth&women in creativity, recycling of banana fibers into products of value. Here we are able to involve in our end-buyer(who pay/buying our services and products),ie house holds,crafts shops,tourist,textile&fashion industries depending on the preference and choice.

We earn revenue by selling our products that we get after recycling banana fiber. We earn from training's and workshops we organize in local communities where youth&women are equipped with different skills.Our recycled products are mostly bought by households,craft-shops,hotels, tourist, textile&fashion industries. On the other hand we will sustain our business through applying for grants,raising investment capital through crowd-funding campaigns and fund-rising network and events.

We are excited to be part of the solve community to gain access to mentors and potential investors who can help us to scale our production so that we can achieve sustainability as business and expand our social impact.

Once this business sustainable we can replicate our business module,develop other products and increase our environmental impact.we strongly believe we need to recycle more banana waste to reduce carbon emission with goal of extracting 2tonnes in our first year of operation.

The solve community will be able to propel our idea forward faster because of its association with MIT

We would like to partner with huge multinational manufactures of in enviroment,textile,cloth,shoe and fashion industries like Adidasi, Nike,Nutil,Umoja who might need of other alternatives of using eco-friendly,environmental raw material and new packing measure.

And other entities which are working on global causes like poverty,women empowerment and youths.

We love to work with mentioned organization with possibility of expanding our production on international in care of environment.we could make this happen by tapping into their co-operate social responsibilities, closing the big gap between stakeholders and local communities

My team will reverage the prize as it will help us to complete and work on our goals set for five years as lisited below,

•  We will acquire big land where demostrations farm will be,which will helps to produce fine banana fiber products of the highest quality,research in different feilds and estabilshing measures in community on how to control soild waste, 100% natural, making Mawejje Creations have a premium quality products from banana fiber.

•  To establish Mawejje Creations as a socially and environmentally minded  through up scaling utilization of sustainable resources for job creation among youth and women groups, i.e. empowerment and employment schemes.  
•  Will acquire a heavy duty banana fibre extraction machine which will be supplied to banana growers, that will increase on the volume of production to serve the increasing demand of our products. This means increases in employees, reducation in soild waste and efficiency hence improved product quality and reduction in unemployment.
•   we will  repilcate the module in other communities,theres provision of 5 tonnes of banana fiber,established 3 extracting centers in our new pilot districts.
• We will train youth and women in banana fiber technlogy and innovations were they are able to create there own business and be self employed through empowerment schemes as they start home cottages for crafts and texitile.