hi there:

Glad that this great initiative is getting local media attention. Plse provide the name of the newspaper so I can read the full article.

Thanks

A pleasure! Hope this give you new ideas and sources to finance your project.

Best,

Dirk
Ashoka-Volunteer "Geotourism Challenge 2008" -
from Munich

Yet another organization dealing with recycling of waste to collaborate with/exchange ideas:

http://www.enda.sn/ecopole/

Best,

Dirk

Hi Maria,

Have a look at this webpage: www.sowetovillage.eu/Home.html
It is about a similar project recycling waste in Senegal. They are already successfuly exporting their design products to Europe.

Best,

Dirk

Enrique,
Mexico City, Mexico

Your kind comments totally sum up the vision of our organization !
COBATI seeks communites that are empowered through community tourism participation, where resources and benefits are equitablily distributed between tourism operators and host comminities to ensure improved livelihoods,social sucurity, sustainable development and promotion of inter-cultural understanding.
Maria Baryamujura www.cobati.or.ug

Hello Dennis from Canada,
Thank you for taking interest in our work.
Our program targets the homestead as a focal point of empowermnet even before tourism participation.In doing so we empower the family in all aspects of living in a good homestead environment tapping into their traditonal way of lving and ndigenous knowledge, from bulding household incomes, basic hygiene, sanitation, basic food security, family nutrition, health etc. through this process we mentor the families to build self reliance and positive attitudes at homestead level for their own good not just for the program which is the core objective of COBATI. For hosting visitors, this is an activity that African women are good at,its the very fabric of their upbringing, we just enhance their capacity to use their homes to provide hospitality to the travelers and in the process supplement their household incomes.
Therefore the issue of standards and service delivery is covered as an on going process, the families clean their homes as part of their day to day living, whether they are expecting visitors or not, the food is grown in their gardens, the entertainment is part of their culture, making handcraft at home level is a skill attributed to any respectable african woman,so there is no way the experince becomes a perfomance, the activities at the homestead or community are determined by seasons, i.e if you visit during planting season the activities and experience you will get will be related to that season, if you return during harvesting the activities, products, foods and entire experince will be different !, we emphasise to the community that they dont have to stage anything or change ther lifestlyle for vistors, its the visitors to fit in the family routine, also if they are too busy to host we teach them that it is ok, that is why visits are booked in advance.Pricing and revenue sharing is worked out by the stakeholders on a percentage basis.
Feel free to contact me anytime.
MARIA.Founder -COBATI

Many thanks for your kind appreciation of our work, i visited your website and i was pleased to note that we share similar sentiments as regards connecting travelers to different geographic areas and giving them opportunity to share in holistic and authentic experinces and alternative lifestyles.
I look forward to networking with your organization.
Maria Baryamujura
www.cobati.or.ug/community@cobati.or.ug

Hello Dana,

Thanks again for your comments,
This is a brief on how we are maintaining steady flow of travelers and marketing our program;

As COBATI, we are not dong tour operations, we are sticking to our mission of educating and equipping rural communities with skills to engage in tourism as a supplementary economic activity to improving their livelihoods.
Our strategy is to work with partners in the tourism industry as frontline vehicles for service delivery, hence we have partnered with a local tour operator who handles travelers interested in people to people tourism and culture. We chose him after long considerations as we wanted an operator who understood our vision, we did not want someone driven purely by profit, we agree with him on costing.

He markets our program during trade fairs abroad, on his website and contacts. We also do our own marketing through our website, Friends of COBATI network, Ashoka family, the travel industry and word of mouth from past visitors. We also have good relations with the media both local and some international e.g Ode Magazine who covered our program in their copy of July last year having sent a professional photographer to shoot the pictures, we now have pictures under the photographer , you can access them via google – Sven Torin .

My personal input has also marketed the communities through the lectures I give and articles I contribute to the media, but the most publicity has been my connection to Ashoka.

Please feel free to ask for any more information you may require.
Warm Regards
Maria

Dear Dana,

Thank you for taking interest in our program and commenting on my entry.
The following hopefully will answer your questions on our program.
On the partnership section; “curios/souvenirs” through recycling/waste management;
This is a new initiative in our strategic plan (2008-2013) which we are seriously seeking partners to network with and grow it; it’s in its first phase. There is an organization I saw in a documentary on CNN about India, where communities have been empowered to recycle plastic bags into quality handbags and are exporting them to the USA department stores; I would like to get in contact with them to learn from their experience.

Locally we are working with the Nubian women who are skilled in basketry to produce shopping bags to replace plastic bags which have been banned in Uganda, we are negotiating with a local supermarket chain to purchase the bags from the women and place them at their counters, the partnership would provide market for the women, social responsibility and good practices for the supermarket and COBATI would have contributed to waste management and clean environment. For details on the plastic bags initiative check out my article in Ode magazine Blog(www.odemagzne.com) the article is “ Promoting a clean environment while conserving traditional skills and improving livelihoods” . We re also trying out using discarded drinking plastic straws and making hats and bag as well, the straws are a menace to children in rural areas who collect and play with them, use them to drink water without realizing that they are unhygienic. All these initiatives are our means of promoting good waste management practices in communities where we are introducing rural tourism and hospitality. We believe that in order for communities to clean the environment they must realize the underlying personal benefits. Initially we are working with 50 women in the pilot group (have attached for you a picture).

Duration of the home - stays usually depends on the traveler, it can be from half day to two weeks , also there is an option to tailor make a package which would take one through different areas experiencing diverse cultures.

On convincing Nubians to participate in rural tourism, it was easy because of the approach we used. We did not force the program on the community, instead we approached them through their elders and community leaders, whom we sensitized on the tourism potential embedded within their unique culture, appealed to their cultural pride, explained the potential of linking tourism to their way of life, showcased to them success stories from other countries, raised their awareness on the uniqueness of the traditional handcraft and culinary skills of their women as well as the strategic location of their villages. When they got convinced, they introduced and recommended our program to the entire community, hence they are our partners, and they own the program as well as sharing the proceeds. All visitors to the community first interact with the community leaders, sign the visitor’s book and are assigned a guide to the host home stay and village. The aim is to ensure visitor security, easy interaction and involving the visitors in the community, not as spectators but guests to the entire community. This process ensures that the experience is not staged but lived and is beneficial to both parties. You could check out the Nubian hospitality experience from “Maria Jesus Perez Fernandez (mjperez@codespa.org)– from a Spanish Ngo CODESPA who on 30th Sept 2007, led a team of 7 visitors to the Nubian village. CODESPA had requested to visit one COBATI area of operations. They held a meeting with community leaders, women artisan groups and were hosted to a traditional Nubian luncheon, entertainment and a craft exhibition by women. I have always felt that the Maasai community in Kenya have been taken advantage of, they are paraded for photo sessions, the activities are staged, and the whole exercise is so commercial. At COBATI, we are teaching the people that the visitors will find them as they always live, eat the food from their gardens etc, all we emphasize is cleanliness at homestead level in terms of good sanitation practices, genuine rural hospitality, home hygiene and environment.
Thanks for Paty’ contact.
Sorry for the lengthy mail!
Warm Regards,
Maria