Brikama, Wasserij

Project Title:

Laundery facility/shop

Location

Brikama

Applicant Organization

National Association of Balantas Zone 6 the Gambia 

Registration status

Registered with A G chambers

Contact person/project leader

Diminga Camara-7006616

Sanyang Manneh-7661322

Project management team

Executive management committee

: 

Project Partners/ stakeholders (if any)

Department of Health and social welfare

DCD

Required Budget (GMD) should not exceed D200,000 

D200,000

Counterpart Contribution (at least 10% of the total cost)

D20,000

Bank details (account number and b-band number)

ECOBANK Gambia Limited

Account number-6280510973

Bban number-008301628051097370

Sector, e.g. health, education, agriculture, etc.

Health

Number of people expected to benefit from this project

Above 50 women are expected to have access to work in the facility, however, over 1000 people will benefit from the project by extension.

Project Description (200 words) e.g. objectives, activities and duration, etc. 

Balantas are an ethnic minority in The Gambia and a great percentage of their women engage in handwashing laundry services where they go meet their clients in their houses and wash their clothes there. However, there have been cases of these women being wrongly accused of petty theft and their wages withheld. Sometimes the women collect their clients’ duirty laundery and take them home then later bring them back or their young daughters bring them back. There have been reports of young girls getting waylaid on their way home or getting sexually abused by male clients or other men in the house. Bringing these women together under one roof with all the necessary equipment to work and take care of their families will not only help ensure their safety but will help them maintain and even increase their productivty and income.

With washing machines and dryers, women will have the opportunity to engage in other income generating activities  since the machines get the work done in shorter amount of time. Also the women will be able to take on more customers since they are able to wash the same amount of clothes within a shorter period. The laundery shop will serve as a form of social protection for the women. With standard equipment and facility, the women can charge competitive prices for the services, as opposed to the give away prices they get paid for their labor. They will, however, not charge exhorbitant prices but rather at reasonable prices as a means of maintaining their customers and attracting new customers as well.

Washing of people’s clothes for a living has been a way of living for many including this lady and acquiring wasing machines can change their lives 

Major goal

To improve the income and wellbeing of the women

Specific objectives

To increase the income levels of beneficiaries

To positively affect the general wellbeing of beneficiaries

To lower incidences of abuse against the beneficiaries.

Expected outputs

Improved living standards of beneficiaries and their families

Project Sustainability

A percentage of the wages will be used for operational costs and a percentage will be saved for maintenance, expansion and sustainability purposes.