Project Mala 2017-2018
Summary of the Project
""The Mala project wishes to bridge the gap between students and the textile industry existing out of a lack of entrepreneurial skills, knowledge of the industry and financial means, to light up the path for young entrepreneurs.""
On the sixth of November the Mala journey to the Gambia started. For a total of three months we were surrounded by the people, culture and nature of this beautiful west African country. Mala means "to light" in Mandinka, the second language of the Gambia. You will soon find out how the project got this name.
Project Mala consists out of a research report on the textile industry including all stakeholders and an entrepreneurship workshop with students of a textile skill center of choice. The guiding lines through the entire project will be our research questions (see below).
The research is going to be performed in four different phases; the orientation phase, the information gathering phase, the application phase and the reporting phase. Information gathering will be performed through an extensive literature review and a qualitative research approach including interviews. Every member of the team will have their own focus point and responsibilities, but communication between the team members and with the involved stakeholders is our main key to success.
Eventually we will leave behind two reports, one formal report and an entrepreneurship manual based on the workshop. We hope these reports will lead to implementation of entrepreneurship in the educational program of especially skills centers. To achieve this we will eventually spread our deliverables to as many influential institutions available. We acknowledge this is an ambitious goal to achieve in solely three months, nevertheless the main goal is to set a solid base for perhaps other groups in the following years. For more information on the process you can read our blog on this website.
Research Questions
- What aspects in the educational system in the Gambia need improvement in order for it to function in the most optimal way?
- What are the cultural implications on the effectiveness of entrepreneurship in the Gambia?
- What aspects in the textile production would need improvement for it to function in the most optimal way?
- In what way could the gap between the textile education (students) and the economic market (industry) in practice be narrowed down in an entrepreneurial way?
Deliverables
1. Formal report on our research for all stakeholders involved
2. Entrepreneurship manual for skills-centers based on information we gathered and experiences from the workshop.
Funding
Collected amount: € 920
Thanks to our 55 sponsors
Fundraising stopped
Above you can see how much money we raised with the help of all our lovely sponsors. We want to thank them all for making our project even more successful than we could have ever imagined. At this point the sponsoring possibility's are closed, because the Mala project for this year has ended. Underneath you can still read the original sponsoring page. Eventually the money is spend a little different than stated in the original sponsor page underneath, because of changes in the project. By taking a thoughtful decision together with our supervisor, we now think that we invested the money in the best way possible. The money was used to start up our workshop and eventually we donated an amount of €900 to Presentation Girls Vocational school in the form of a micro-loan for four to six students to start their own business after graduating. Read more about this in our project plan, that can be found in the deliverables, or in the blog post 'back again'.
Original sponsoring page
Great that you are thinking about sponsoring the Mala project! Let's give you one more quick overview on what Mala is all about.
Mala's, which means 'to light', main task is to light up the path of young entrepreneurs in The Gambia. Lots of students that finish school have trouble finding a job or starting their own business. We will conduct an extensive research while identifying all important stakeholders to find out the exact cause of the lack of entrepreneurial initiatives, this will contribute to the academic research in the Gambia.
To provide the students with a real chance we would like to help them start a business at the end of our workshop. Through micro-finance we would like to provide the talented students with a small starting capital. In addition, since the focus will be on students in the textile educational sector, we would like to donate them a sewing machine, which possibly is the start of a life-sustaining income. To arrange excursions, to set up our workshop and to buy the sewing machines, we need your help!
All small contributions will help to make our project a success, and help students in the Gambia to start their own business and possibly change the course of their lives. In exchange for your donation, we will keep you posted through a blog on this website during our stay!