A history about the company and ongoing developmentIn 1998, Andrew Hind a successful entrepreneur, formed the vision that donating to charities for wildlife conservation by philanthropically minded people was not going to be sufficient for the long term sustainability of fund raising. Donation has its place and always will have but we are asked so often by so many, all worthy, that for most of us we can only select to support a few.
His concept was to bring his business acumen to bear and create lasting businesses dedicated from the outset to providing profit from a successful operation whilst at the same time allowing the customers of that operation to share in the vision and take part, without it costing them unnecessarily. He formed The Wildlife Café group. A string of 11 themed restaurants from Eastbourne to Tring. Parting with his shares in these restaurants to concentrate on developing the ethos of a 100% fair trade business that was open, honest and transparent, he was taken on in 2003/4 to develop the commercial activity for Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). Unfortunately, due to the corrupt nature of some Kenyan politicians and Andrew’s unwillingness to back hand those politicians he was ousted from his role. The concept that he developed however lives on and KWS are now enacting many parts of it. Notwithstanding his poor treatment at the hands of politicians, he continued to forge the concept of assisting Africans to trade their way out of the poverty trap. He saw from his years spent in Africa that the vast majority of Africans just wanted to be treated the same as we are in the west and be allowed to offer their products on an equal and level playing field. There are many reasons which can only be changed with political will why the playing field is tilted towards the west and it will take many years for this to change. But undaunted he saw that fair trade was the best way to ensure the best market price for the quality goods that can be produced. African producers on the ground and at the sharp end of life, want a HAND UP NOT A HAND OUT. In 2003 he was instrumental in forming relationships with co-operative societies not only in Kenya but also in The Gambia and Thailand. The obstacle being that fairtrade did not apply to non food items at that time. Notwithstanding that obstacle, he then applied the criteria. However its not all one sided. He had to convince the mindset of the African producer to also change. Their mind being a get what you can now and to hell with tomorrow. Over an 18 month period he has worked hard to change this mindset and now has quality control procedures in place for all the products offered through JAMBOHUT and has agreed a pricing structure with the producers which is fair to them and allows for sustainable development with replanting and social development schemes. He has also been able to root out all the minor corruptions, e.g. the taxi driver who first took him to the cooperative expecting a 2% kick back from everything Andrew bought from the cooperative. There is now an excellent and business like structure in place with signed contracts controlling all aspects of the working relationships. With these cemented relationships between the UK company and the various producers groups, this has provided the foundation for a new and unique business to be developed where JAMBOHUT is the first and foremost retail and wholesale importer of genuine quality controlled African handicraft, at realistic prices and on a fair trade basis. |
NEW PROCEDURES
It became apparent however that the payment of large sums of money to the committees of co-operatives was not in itself a guarantee of payment to members. Andrew uncovered in almost 100% of cases that the money was not going to the artisans but either spent by committees paying unnecessarily high wages to themselves, wanton wastage on other benefits in kind or just plainly stolen. This is not something he shouts about as he feels that a further destruction of trust between the western consumer and the producers from the south will be extremely detrimental to future business.
Rather, in his own inimitable way, he found a way round the problem. All producer groups have a committee by necessity, there has to be people who organise and run things on the ground, BUT for every order JAMBOHUT places 80% (and in some cases 90%) of the money paid by JAMBOHUT is directly to the artisan member and the 20% (or 10%) is paid to the committee. This has been welcomed by all the 20,000+ members that supply JAMBOHUT which in itself is an indictment of the previous practices of committees.
JAMBOHUT has also increased its prices paid to producer groups in two ways in 2007. It increased the prices paid by 10% overall and then also added 10% of the total cost price on top again for use in funding community projects.
JAMBOHUT will continue to refine its procedures and root out endemic corruption wherever it rears its ugly head. There is no place in a fair trade society for corruption and Andrew enjoys the answer to the question of "Well will my little bit make a difference" with Anita Roddick’s analogy of a mosquito in a room full of people. It makes a difference and so will we.
JAMBOHUT environmental practices continue to provide positive impact for co-operative members and their surroundings.
With its producer partners the Community projects supported are:-
- Water boreholes in parched areas
- 3 for 1 tree replanting schemes
- 3 for 1 Aloe Vera replanting schemes
- AIDS/HIV awareness education
- Free condoms
- Female circumcision prevention
- Ending of enforced child labour
- Orphan housing, clothing, feeding and education
- Helping children with polio and other disabilities
- Garbage collection
- Education and employment for street kids
- Planting of fruit trees for sustainable farming
- Improved training for looking after poultry and pigs
- Soap making techniques to provide income and better cleanliness
- Youth centres and business training
- Clean water supplies
- Electricity supplies
- School building expansion
- Free sustainable education in rural areas for nursery ages
