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Where we do it > Kenya - Remi Thackrey

On Kenya’s Coast Kwetu Training Centre has trained over 500 local people in skills that are enabling them to use the resources around them to earn a living. 85% of people trained by the centre were previously living on less than seventy-five pence a day but with new and marketable skills they are now able to ensure a more secure future for themselves and their families.

The Centre supports and develops disadvantaged communities in Kenya’s coastal region by training them to use the natural resources to earn a sustainable income. Recent projects have included honeybee farming, mango drying, crab farming and chilli production. In addition to essential sustainable projects, the centre also trains the local disadvantaged community (mainly women, young people, and people affected by HIV & AIDS) in areas such as bookkeeping, administration, marketing and business.

Kwetu faced some challenges. Many young people who lived on the coast were migrating to Nairobi to find work with the skills they learnt at the Centre, as there was no money or business to keep them there. And the Centre itself wasn’t making money to survive and so relied on donor funds to sustain it. It was seen by many at Kwetu with the knowledge the trainers at the Centre had and the natural resources in the area, they could keep money, people, and skills in the area by becoming a self-sustaining business.

VSO volunteer Remi Thackrey, 30, a marketing consultant who ran his own company in the UK went to Kwetu Training Centre in 2005. He had worked as a group-marketing manager at a large IT company. Following this he set up his own marketing consultancy, which he sold two years ago. Remi’s business experience in the UK stood him in good stead for the challenges of developing the Kwetu Training Centre’s ability to sustain itself. It meant he could adapt his knowledge and skills to train and support management at Kwetu in finding a product, branding the product and then identifying a need for it in Kenya and eventually abroad. The ultimate aim of Remi’s work, through marketing products with a recognisable brand and standard of quality, is to ensure a self-sustaining Centre.

‘A typical day’ says Remi, ‘starts at about 8 o’clock in the morning with a trip through the village past the chief’s camp to the Centre itself. On arrival we either have a team meeting or get on with the day’s activities. I generally work with the management in solving day-to-day issues, satisfying customers and producing the products that we have got. We also spend a lot of time in the field visiting customers, doing market research together, finding out what the clients want from us.’

‘This kind of work is very important in creating a self-sustaining Centre. The main aim of the Kwetu Training Centre is to teach people from rural communities how to make money from natural resources. My role as a volunteer is to support the training centre in making money for itself. So when we talk about secure livelihoods we talk both in the terms of community making money for itself and projects like this that support the community also making money for itself. By the time I leave here I’m hoping the Kwetu Centre will have the ability to generate 80% of the cash it needs to keep going.’

‘The impact our work’s had in Kwetu, especially in supporting the management, is that it helps build confidence, it helps build knowledge, it helps build understanding of the market that they’re in. It’s very important for a centre like Kwetu not to rely on hand-outs but to actually generate income for itself.’

Remi believes that working in Kwetu was an incredibly valuable personal and professional experience, ‘the kind of skills I have learnt from working here are the skills I believe everyone needs in life: flexibility, adaptability, and empathy. Placing myself in a position in a different country, in a different culture in a different context helps me understand different people. Personally, I’ll take with me some friendship, some fun times, some good memories and some sunshine.’

Martin Muli, a trainee from the Kwetu Centre has realised the benefits of what can be learnt there: ‘the training itself has helped me very much back in my life in the village because I’m an entrepreneur running a small business. So the skills I learnt at the centre have helped me to understand the products the customers want. And I can start to produce some of the products I want to sell instead of going to the market to get them – this has helped a lot.’

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