For our minor program International Entrepreneurship and Development at the TU Delft we, Line, Christine and Coco, will represent Muima in Kenya from October 2018 to February 2019. We will design a new product and implement a new plastic recycling technique in the factory. We want to create possibilities to make more products out of plastic waste. This way, we try to contribute in solving the plastic problem in Kenya!

After two weeks of holiday in Kenya, we came back to the factory on the 4th of January. From here, we had an intensive week to finish our product and compression machine. That is the reason why this blog is a bit late, oops.

When we arrived in the factory again, we tried the adjusted mould from Mukanda. This mould made the pieces perfect and “everyone jumped a hole in the air”! This means that the main part of our new product is finally finished! The employees could start making many of them in different colors. From this moment, we started focusing on the practical part of our new product, which is a tough part. We made several adjustments on this particular mould and we continued welding and grinding. After many try outs we finally succeeded with this mould. This was a really big relief, since we worried about it a lot. From this point we saw big progress, because the first prototype was ready, woohooo!

Besides our new product, we were also busy with our new compression machine. We collected all the necessary materials during our holiday, for example the thermometer that our friend took for us from the Netherlands. Together with Mama Natasha, we optimized the process and we made instructions for the employees. In this way, everyone in the factory is able to use this machine. After a week of optimizing the process more and more with the employees, we made some good flat plates that we will take with us to the Netherlands.

Next to our project, we did a lot of things with the local community this week. Together with Wilson and the employees, we visited the local football club. We gave them a new football to play with and played a game with them. This was a really nice experience!
Wilson really wants to contribute in making these young boys better and better. Because of this, Muima and Muima Industries will help them with finding the correct equipment and register them as FC Muima to play in a real competition.

Furthermore, we visited the first grade of a new, local school, which had just opened and only had one class yet. Our host, the bishop of the local Kenyan Anglican Church, told us that because the fact that they are a new school, they do not have notebooks and pencils yet. That is why we bought a notebook and pencil for each student. We also taught them some words and sentences in English, like how to introduce themselves. This was also a very special experiences for us.

In short, this was a busy but very nice couple of weeks. We really enjoyed finishing our project exactly the way we wanted! For now: stay tuned! Because next week we will finally announce which product we have made!