Skip to main content

From Zambia: Expect the Unexpected

August 24th, 2012
We have officially made our first SMART Light transaction! With only 48 hours in Zambia, I have come to expect a few things: Internet data packages go fast, punctuality is a luxury, and to continually expect the unexpected. This last point (well actually the last two) was evident in my delayed flight, and very much alive in my first meeting with our local partner organization here in Zambia: Disacare.
Photo courtesy Edward Silva & Bryan Pon
While in a Saturday meeting with management from Disacare, where Bryan and myself explained the opportunities and potential of the SMART Light, as well as trained our first potential entrepreneurs, we had 3 visitors show up. Although one was set up through Bryan’s network at UC Davis, the other visitors were a random couple from Japan and Sweden, who saw the SMART Light online, found our location, and happen to find us all there on a Saturday.
After getting some hands on experience in explaining the value of the product, its advantages, and potential uses, we had truly demonstrated that this light would work in their operation.  They thought it was a great product for their sustainable development project in Southern Zambia, and bought one light, with immediate plans to purchase 15 more. Although just a small stepping block towards our efforts of market research, product distribution, and providing a better, safer, and more affordable lighting source here in Zambia, it was a great way to spend some of our time in this first meeting.
Overall, the meeting went well. And besides the expected obstacles of any new venture in a foreign country, our list of ideas run deep, the opportunity for the success of this project is strong, and more importantly, the potential for personal and cultural growth are promising.
We will be spending the rest of the weekend preparing for our tasks next week: seeking collaboration with local NGO’s; visiting and displaying our lights with locals in surrounding compounds and villages; getting to know Zambian consumer demands much clearer; and exploring how to meet these goals through the strategic use of entrepreneurs and distribution models. And if nothing else gets accomplished, we will surely find a way to lure the chickens away from our kitchen. Over and out from Lusaka, Zambia—more pictures soon!
Edward Silva and Bryan Pon, UC Davis

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to the UC Davis Blum Center Blog!

Here you will find updates on our organization, and blog posts written by each of our Blum Fellows about their experiences abroad. Make sure to check out our website at blumcenter.ucdavis.edu, and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/UCDavisBlumCenter to get regular updates and see our upcoming events.
Post a Comment
Read more

Manufacturing in Phnom Penh by Purva Juvekar

During winter and spring quarter 2017, my teammates and I (Team WASHOut) designed a sanitation station using a Biosand Filter. This was our effort towards providing clean water to students in floating schools on the Tonle Sap lake. We were provided with the opportunity to go to Cambodia and implement our project in person through the Blum grant, and we worked with Wetlands Work!, our clients for the senior design class. Figure 1 Rendering of Sanitation Station   We spent our time at UC Davis designing the station – sketches, CAD models, renderings, dimensions, engineering analysis and testing. We made a prototype in Davis, which we showed during the Senior Design Showcase in June, to test flow rates and water quality standards. The next step was to take the design to Phnom Penh and manufacture it there. We got to work as soon as we got there. My teammate and I were introduced to people on the WW! team who could help with translation, and we began scouting the city to fin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pedaling for Water in Kisumu: Closing, By Abe McKay

Pedaling for Water in Kisumu: Closing (3 of 3) 2017.09.12 In my second week in Kenya, I was back to visiting farmers, both with Vibrant Village and through other connections. However, I receive my biggest surprize in between site visits. I was walking with Ernest Kulali, a field officer and farmer from Vibrant Village, and he was telling me about the effectiveness of farming techniques. Using traditional methods, Ernest was getting 20kg of maize (corn) in a season from his shamba , his farm . When he switched to using purchased seeds and fertilizer, the same land produced 360 to 540kg of maize. What!? I had him run the numbers by me again, 20kgs → the range of 400kgs. I still didn’t believe it, but Nick the Vibrant Village director later agreed that farmers were seeing that magnitude of increase. Not just doubling their income/food supply, but a twenty-fold return! Further farming modifications will not yield as large a jump, but that sort of scale encouraged me that changing te...
Post a Comment
Read more