TRAVEL DIARY
Christine Driscoll, Business Development Manager of EDUN LIVE, provides a diary of her working week during a recent trip to Uganda. To view videos of the trip, please subscribe to our YouTube page.
Wednesday
My trip began with a mid-week flight from Dublin Airport through Amsterdam, landing in Entebbe that evening. From Entebbe, I got a ride into Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, where I stayed at the Sheraton Hotel (not too exotic, I know!).
I have visited Uganda four times in the past 18 months, and EDUN’s head of production also visits once or twice a year, as does the company’s CEO. As Business Development Manager, the purpose of this particular visit was to search for a new ginnery that we could run our cotton through and that could partner with us on our Conservation Cotton Initiative (CCI). I was also seeking to delineate the partnership for the CCI and the roles and responsibilities of the involved parties (WCS, EDUN, and Invisible Children), going forward. A visit like this provides an invaluable opportunity for me to get a first-hand view of the situation we are dealing with in terms of production, community development, etc.
Thursday
Representatives of Invisible Children and I drove to Gulu, the second largest town in the country, (by population), located in northern Uganda. Gulu is a war-torn region – there has been a civil war raging there for over 20 years, between the current government and a rebel group called the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Since 2007, there has been more peace in Gulu arising because Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA, moved into hiding in the Bush in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo. As little as three years ago, people did not feel safe going out at night in Gulu. In fact, before the cessation of hostilities between the government troops and the LRA up to 15,000 children, (known as ‘night commuters’), were fleeing into the town for safety every evening, so that they would not be abducted from their homes in nearby villages by the LRA soldiers.
Fortunately, the government and LRA are finalising peace talks right now, and the region is no longer under siege. Because of the relative peace in the area, the town of Gulu is beginning to flourish economically again – there are shops, restaurants and cafes. It also meant that I was able to travel in relative safety and there was no requirement for security personnel during the journey.
That does not mean the effects of the war are not still felt and apparent. It is estimated that about one million people have been displaced during the war and are currently living in camps, (referred to as Internally Displaced Peoples' camps [IDP] – see www.invisiblechildren.com/theMission/). Some of these people have been living in the camps for a decade and have had no means of earning an income or escaping their situation during that time. Now that peace talks have almost concluded, these people are beginning to return to the land they once inhabited and taking up farming – a major industry sector in this region of Uganda, which provided a livelihood for an estimated 90 percent of the population before the war. Through the CCI, we are planning to help farmers in this region by supporting them with training and equipment to start organic cotton growing.
Peace has also brought a lot of help from the International community in terms of Non-Government Organisations (NGOs). These organisations are helping by providing food, medical help and rehabilitation centres for formerly abducted children. They have also created many jobs in the area. It is really exciting and inspiring work.
Friday
Yesterday and today we met with people in the camps (IDPs), as well as the cooperative that runs the cotton ginnery that we have identified as a potential partner.
The people in the camps are living in semi permanent huts. The camps themselves are crowded, dusty, barren, and inhospitable. As well as talking to camp residents about how we could support their return to farming, we were introduced to young teenage girls who had been abducted by rebel soldiers, raped and impregnated. Because of this, these girls feel like outsiders to society. They were happy as they sang songs welcoming us, but then they sang about their hope that people would understand their plight, which was distressing, reducing some of the girls to tears.
At the ginnery, we initially had a meeting with the men leading the cooperative. It all sounded very positive and we were hopeful that we had found a suitable partner and would be able to take things forward. Then we toured the plant! It was completely run down, and hadn't been functioning in years. We quickly realised that the ginnery was unusable (unless it was completely over-hauled) and we would have to look elsewhere.
The main problem in finding suitable partners to help with the CCI is that much of the local infrastructure is not up to date. There is a lot of capacity building that needs to occur to ensure that gins, mills and manufacturers have the equipment they need to work efficiently. Also, the cotton situation is very political in Uganda: there are a number of cotton traders who basically monopolise certain areas and ginneries around the country. These traders have had some conflict with each other over the last couple of years as they jockey to gain control over new regions of cotton farmers.
Saturday
Today, I travelled back to Kampala. The distance from Kampala to Gulu is about 225 miles (365 kilometres). Normally, this would take about three and a half hours to drive. It took us seven hours! The route is more pothole than road. You look ahead and see cars weaving around the potholes, travelling at about five miles an hour. Or you see cars and trucks that thought they could handle the potholes and that have broken down in the middle or side of the road. It’s unbelievable. I spent pretty much my entire day on Saturday being bounced around in the back of a Toyota Land Cruiser amidst clouds of dust. There are more comfortable ways to travel!
Sunday
I relaxed at the hotel for a while and then did something really fun, visiting the Ugandan Skateboard Union. This organisation is located in the suburbs of Kampala and was founded by an incredibly impressive teenager with the help of a Canadian skateboarder. It’s a way for teenagers to get off the streets and participate in a hobby that allows them to develop new skills.
I also went to Breakdance Project Uganda, another group founded by young Ugandans in order to help kids get off the street and learn skills that could get them possible jobs, as well as providing an outlet for them and way to be part of a community. (Videos from these visits are available on the EDUN LIVE Youtube channel at: youtube.com/edunlivedotcom.)
Monday
I had arranged a visit to our spinning mill and factory in Kampala. We have been working with the same factory now for the last two years. Because of our compliance standards, they have done a lot of work to install new health and safety standards, such as updated fire alarm systems and emergency exit maps.
Compliance issues are vital to our relationships with our factories, and they really work hard to implement our recommendations. Our facility there has also increased the natural light in the factory by putting in windows for the workers, and cleaned up the lunch facility. It’s great to see that these changes have been made due to the orders coming through via EDUN.
This mill also recently installed a new dye machine and water treatment facility to dye and process organic garments. They are Ecocert certified throughout the entire garment-making process. In other words, it is not just the cotton that is 100% certified organic, but the entire garment is 100% certified organic, because the factory has instituted procedures to be sure that nothing gets contaminated with conventional cotton garments or pesticides during the T-shirt-making process.
The cotton supplier from whom our mill buys cotton was also just certified fair trade through Ecocert, so now our mill will go through the process of certifying the entire garment procedure as fair trade. This is cutting edge, as most products do not get certified beyond the farming level.
There are challenges we face by being ‘grow-to-sew’ African. One thing that is very difficult about manufacturing in Africa is the ability to be price competitive against all of the Asian, (particularly Chinese), imports flooding the market. You can import fabric from China that has a 17 percent duty on it, and it is cheaper than making fabric at the African mill down the street with no duty! This is caused, (in part), by the subsidies the Chinese government gives its factories, as well as the conditions in which some of the Chinese fabric and garments are made. To help keep our costs down in our African production, we do our best to achieve efficiencies by putting through large volume orders This is why the success of EDUN LIVE is integral to the success and survival of these factories in the short term. Part of the mission of EDUN LIVE, however, for the long term, is to encourage other businesses to invest and produce in Africa, so we are hoping that our suppliers grow as time passes.
Another challenge is capacity. For example, it has been next to impossible to get a brush backed fleece garment out of Africa because most mills do not have the proper machinery – it is very expensive. However, we did find one source and hope to soon be able to launch the first 100% African fleece hoodie.
After visiting the factory, I headed back to the airport for my return flight to Dublin. I will probably be returning to Uganda in August for a follow up visit. It is an amazing and dynamic country, and I wholeheartedly recommend visiting.
Tuesday
I begin the follow up to my visit. This will involve writing a report for EDUN’s CEO, Christian Kemp-Griffin on the Conservation Cotton Initiative, outlining the next steps we will be taking. After I’ve completed the report I will attend meetings in our New York office for further discussions. (I subsequently have had follow up with our factory, which has sent new samples of a 100% African and certified organic tote bag, which is amazing! It also sent some printing samples, so that I can show customers the factory’s capabilities.)
When I return in August, I hope to see some real progress on the ground for the CCI in the north: hopefully, we will have hired a country project manager for the CCI in Uganda, to bring farming communities onboard and help them to learn the organic processes. I’m also hoping we will have some new orders for our factory that will help them grow their business and hire more people!