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Helping cottage industriesDavid Yeaman — Barrie, ON One of SCAW founder Murray Dryden's visions for our charity was to contribute to the local economy. Our bedkit distribution definitely accomplished this goal as we found out on visits to local businesses in Nicaragua. I believe Murray would be pleased. First we visited the t-shirt manufacturer. His shop was in a poor suburb of Managua with sewage running in the gutters. The shop was about 30 feet by 30 feet with the family living quarters at the back corner cordoned off by tin, cardboard, and scrap wood. The normal annual output of this company was 240,000 shirts, all sold within Nicaragua for local use. Our distribution added an additional 16,000 t-shirts and 12,000 shorts to that volume, an approximate increase of 13% to their sales for the year. The usual working hours of the shop were from 7:30 am to 5 pm but, in order to complete the SCAW order in time, they worked 24 hours a day with sixteen people for thirty-two days. What an effort by this company. In addition to meeting the target date, the quality proved to be excellent as well.
Next we visited the mattress manufacturer which was similar in size and was also the home of the family who ran the company. The company was solely owned and operated by family members consisting of father, mother, and two older brothers. The SCAW order was completed by all four working from 6 am to 6 pm for seven straight weeks. It took about fifteen minutes to make each mattress. Materials used for the stuffing was scrap t-shirt material purchased from another local factory thus adding further to the local economy. Typically, they would produce 4,800 mattresses each year. Considering the SCAW order was for 4,000 mattresses their annual sales were increased by 83%. They where truly ecstatic and attributed this as a gift from God.
Finally, we visited the manufacturer of the mosquito nets. Again, it was similar to the others: family run, with the family home and factory as one and the same. This particular company had not made mosquito nets before so it added a new facet to their business and added approximately $15,000 in sales. Once again they were very appreciative of the business. Obviously this distribution accomplished one of Murray's hopes and made a difference in the lives of many more people than the 4,000 bedkit recipients. |
