At one time David Marenya of Gem Sauri Ecotourism was exhibiting his products at Laico Regency hotel in the city of Nairobi to an enthusiastic crowd. At another, he was airborne to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso to represent the enterprise at the SWITCH Africa Green Regional Forum.
David, an artist, is the manager of Gem Sauri, a Community Based Organization (CBO) whose artworks have impressively blossomed through use of recycled waste papers and eggshells to make aesthetically appealing designs mounted on boards fitted with canvas.
Situated in Yala town along Busia road, some 45 kms from Kisumu town, David works with 30 Volunteers. His enterprise has significantly exhibited the adoption of sustainable consumption and production approaches for waste management. The CBO has diversified its activities using the surrounding natural resource base in its locality for tourism purposes. Members conduct hiking activities, bird watching at the Yala falls, and agritourism for promoting subsistence vegetable farming.
David has a mantra “waste is wealth” that governs the operations of this lake side outfit. Subsequent to the implementation of the SWITCH Africa Green project interventions, the MSME greatly improved its products and continued to utilize the knowledge and skills acquired from the implementation period of SUS-TOUR, a project whose objective is contributing to the sustainable development of tourism in Kenya through the promotion of customer-oriented innovation and marketing of Community-Based Tourism (CBT). The project developed a toolkit consisting of three modules to enhance the tourism potential of the participating MSMEs.
The project was granted to The Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production in partnership with Ecotourism Kenya and Federation of Community Based Tourism
Organisations. SWITCH Africa Green programme is funded by the European Union.
Gem Sauri focused on waste management given that all their practices involve reuse of waste materials like eggshells, used weaves, papers and ash. By integrating rehabilitated youthful drug addicts in the mounting and crafting of their artworks the enterprise ensured that social inclusivity was undertaken. In addressing product development, ten homestays were registered as part of the CBT. Gem Sauri developed itineraries for university students and supporting with marketing through the local business forum.
The main waste generated at this enterprise comprises of water, paper, saw dust and wood offcuts. In 2014, before SWITCH Africa Green Programme interventions, their waste generation and disposal were enormous and environment contamination was on the rise. During implementation of the SUS-TOUR project, Gem Sauri began to employ the 3R principles; Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Here, waste eggshells and used hair weaves is collected, washed, ground and used to produce fancy artworks which are sold to generate income. The enterprise also implements a waste water reuse strategy in which water used to wash the weaves is mixed with ash and used to irrigate plants in the kitchen backyard garden and tree seedlings in the individual member nurseries.
“I had to get another source of raw materials to sustain the production of my artwork,” says David. “So, I approached boiled egg sellers and did not only tell them that I was interested in the eggshell waste, but I also used that as a point of advocating for good environment conservation.”
Since the enterprise discovered that the type of waste mostly generated around their enterprise was from the hotels, eateries, food vendors and co-operate functions, it entered into an agreement with the hoteliers and vendors around, to dispose of the eggshells, wine and spirit bottles separately for ease of collection for recycling. To this end, the baseline for their waste management strategy was therefore, focused on recycling of eggshell waste to produce artworks, reusing waste water to water vegetables and seedlings, and composting compound waste to produce organic manure that is then used in growing of vegetables in gunny bags.
The enterprise increased its annual sales from KES 30,000 (USD 300) before SWITCH Africa Green programme interventions to KES 200, 000 (USD 2,000). This came about as a result of implementing best practices taught through the project including use of toolkits. They introduced new packages like tailor-made tours and excursions for university students, niche market, exposure through forums and exhibitions, online visibility and presence through Facebook and WhatsApp. Use of social media in advertising and marketing helped the enterprise to reduce the cost of producing paper brochures.
“Apart from the tools that were provided, it has also helped with networking and collaboration. There is also the agritourism bit and the crops that we grow in this area; something that was not there before the intervention of SWITCH Africa Green,” David adds.
Use of recycled water in the gardens contributed to sustainable livelihoods and increase in family income that was realized through sales made from surplus vegetable production. The families have become healthier leading to a reduction in medical care costs. Eco innovation; homestay concept in converting some rooms in the family house or in houses within the compound for use by visitors has had a positive impact on the income of the host families. This innovation has also endeared the visitors to the host families as it’s offers the visitor to learn the local customs and ways of life of the host community first had. Direct revenue to the host family has also made many express their interest to enroll as host families.
Initially, community members did not view ecotourism and more so sustainable practices as a way that could have a positive impact on their levels of income. However, with the inclusion of the community in decision making during the project’s duration and activities like cultural days, clean-up exercises, nature-based products promotion and sales through the CBTE, the possibility has become a reality. All this has translated into some level of improvement on household incomes. The county government has as well recognized the CBTE and supports its interventions. The artworks are crafted and mounted on cardboards by youths who are rehabilitated drug addicts in the area. This improves inclusivity in the community as the drug affected youths are integrated in constructive initiatives.
Gem Sauri faced challenges such as financial inadequacies and political instability that was occasioned by the political state of the country in 2017 as a result of presidential election results which led to a drastic decline in the number of tourist visits.
Members of Gem Sauri learnt that establishing systems and structures and adhering to good practices as spelt in the sample code of conduct, will help the enterprise grow. They also learnt of the importance of community involvement and participation in the decision-making processes in the CBTE. Establishment of natural resource inventory within the coverage area was found to be significant while grass root collaboration and partnership with the county government and other CBTEs in the region for referrals improved the visibility and publicity of the enterprise. Establishing effective communication using internet technology enabled the enterprise fit in the digitally transforming world which makes it relevant to global trends. The enterprise intends to implement all these lessons learnt in the most efficient way possible.
