Imani Productions, together with St. Luke’s Mill, forms our Program Development Department (PDD).
This department consists of tailoring, knitting, t-shirt printing, jewellery and candle making, tent and chair rentals as well as the flour production. This project started in 2011.
Our program development department has just recently been introduced with the main aim of building LWHC into a self sustainable organization through income generating projects and activities. The need for self sustainability has been highlighted numerously during the life of the project but more so in a recent strategic planning week that was conducted by a professional outside organization.
Our reliance on a small group of donors was highlighted as a risk since the magnitude of program disruption that might occur just by losing a single donor would be beyond the capabilities of LWHC to remedy. The initial activity pursued was in the milling of grade 1 sifted flour with the goal of providing a quality, locally produced staple food item to a wide personal and business market. The project was a huge success with endless orders received and sometimes lack of an ability to supply the demanded units.
However, with a recent weather downturn and a sharp fall in the supply of maize the price of raw material almost doubled overnight making it impossible for our local mill to profitably continue producing flour. We hope to restart this project as soon as prices fall back to a reasonable level. While waiting for the mill operation to begin a small crafts workshop has been set up to create jewellery and other small personal items for sale.
In addition to this is a screen printing operation where customized t-shirt production is being pursued as an income earner. All the work being done in each of these ventures is organized and carried out by one of our VMM volunteers and a team of LWHC clients and community members.
If you feel that you can contribute, either financially, expertise wise, through required materials donations or in any other way please contact us to see how and if this can be arranged. Every little bit helps!
