Catatan Tim YLIAC - Dec 2011

HELLO! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! J May He bless all of our plans in the upcoming year, 2012. May this year become LEGENDARY! :D

PROJECT OVERVIEW & PROGRESS REPORT

Community development is about building peoples and its surroundings, but most importantly, a constant effort to establish communication with people. Johar Baru -RW 06, an urban enclave located at the heart of Jakarta perishes in the typical poor urban pocket of the capital. Here, in RW 06, The YLI Alumni Project team for Community Development in Johar Baru is delighted to reach out our hands and mold a change for the people, especially the mothers.

During the project planning, we figured that dealing with people comes best (and challenging) when we always on the run to adjust for changes. Since we are still at the stage of the project set-up, the initial plan to set-up a tofu nugget-soya milk small household enterprises should be altered into something – that we have overseen- as more suitable with the needs and the condition of the people. Having considered the interests, needs, prospect of the Mothers, we came up with the idea of trying out handycrafts training for the Mothers.

Beads-based handycraft was chosen because the Mothers have the existing interest to learn more about it and have developed a small group to develop the skills. We came to facilitate them with training, for product quality development. On November 13, we invited Mrs. Ida, who has been experienced with training and community development for poor urban areas.

The training itself comprised of the basic skills of arranging the beads into a ready-to-wear items such as bracelets, necklaces, keychain. We saw a huge excitement comes from the Mothers during the training and... VOILA! They did it quite well (according to Mrs. Ida), and she also told us that they had enough basic skills to make this business come true. From the first training, each of the The Mothers got a kind of investments, such as 2 kinds of pliers and some of raw materials (beads and strings).

Well, back to topic. After the first training, we sent additional raw materials for them so they can make more handycrafts in order to train themselves. According to Mrs. Ida who already saw the products and know how the Mothers made it, she said that they still don’t know how to make things gently so the coating on the beads are damaged. Second, basically the raw materials we bought are the one that Mrs. Ida provided for us and she admitted that the quality is not the best. From our assessment, the Mothers of Johar Baru still need to improve the quality and the look of the products, therefore a constant learning process is recommended. Here are some of the products they have made:

Seeing these conditions, we managed to redo some of the products they’ve made so we can get the raw materials again and process it to better products in the future. This action is taken because we want to set a high standard for the product in order to make us easily accepted in the market and successful in the future.

Last but not least, we are thinking of selling this products with a brand. This brand will come to market with “accessories for working chic” as its main positioning and “helping others in Johar Baru by buying this products” as its secondary positioning. We will make these two as our positioning in the market. Moreover, we are thinking of naming it as Bella Donna. It is Italian, means beautiful women. Do you guys have any better idea regarding our brand’s name? J FYI, since we want to make accessories, we will exclude key chain from our list of products.

WHAT ARE WE IN THIS PROJECT?

We will be just their investor and fasilitator in the beginning. After they gain profit from this business, they will pay us back every month (profit sharing). It will be done this way, IF and only if we don’t get any sponsor for this project. But if we get one, basically they will pay for all of our financial needs or else, we will inform you later on. And in order to reach this goal, we need to transfer our knowledge so that they can be independent in the near future.

NEXT PLAN & TARGET

To achieve the main target which are making good quality and standardized products, each of our divisions come up with their main target as well:

• PRODUCTION: Standardized the products, giving and sharing knowledge about technical stuffs in making jewellery made of beads and also about fashion trends (color, shape, designs), and making production plan (collaborating with Marketing Team)
• MARKETING: Done with market research in immediate period regarding target consumer’s taste and behavior in buying accessories, making a GREAT marketing team (still needs 1 or 2 more personels, anyone? J), establishing a marketing plan for a year (STP, 4P, and market penetration strategy), and demand and sales target management (collaborating with Production Team).
• FINANCE: Earning sponsorship proposal (for our funding) and of course finding the right partner for this social project!

Last but not least, I just want to say that this team is only a representative and we are nothing without all of your inputs, comments, and of course your support!

Writer: Stephanie Octavia