TBT Bizarre Bazaar Crafts Festival June 2015

When I look back at all the places we have had a stand to sell our merchandise, Bizarre Bazaar in Karura Forest stands out as the best place. We had a shared booth last year in June and it was a great experience (obviously sales wise). I don't know about other times of the year but this year I will be looking out for BizBaz for the June/July period.

Blessings,
LK

Congratulations Faith Wanja! KCPE Results

Hey good people,

I just wanted to congratulate my girl Faith Wanja for passing her KCPE exams. I am so proud of her. She's a smart girl and we helped contribute to the payment of her school fees last year. It feels good to see that she did well. She scored 304/500 and we're so proud.

Her dream is to become a doctor. Well, y'all look out for Dr. Wanja in future ;)

Happy New Year, wishing you all the success possible.

Bless,

L

Mdada and Michelle Obama in Doha, Qatar

Hey guys,

This was the best thing that happened to us last year, seriously! To be in the same room with an icon and girls' education champion Mrs Michelle Obama was EPIC!! This was at the World Innovation Summit in Education in Doha, Qatar in Nov, 2015.

It was so awesome, just listening to her. We were so inspired.These words spoken be her summed up our year-

"Don't worry about those who don't believe in you, you just have to work harder to prove them wrong" 

YES and YES and YES. 

This shot was taken from way back in the auditorium. Unbelievable. I tweeted that i would meet her just a few months before and this was close to that. My dreams are coming true y'all.

Other than this it was a great experience, I met some wonderful people from Japan, Singapore, China, Israel, US, Pakistan, Jordan etc. It was GREAT. Qatar is rich y'all. It's actually the richest country in the world.

This happened during my birthday and it was the best gift I could ever receive. Stayed at a 5 star hotel, had great food, met amazing people and made great connections. Graca Machel was there too. She speaks so passionately about education, you will be converted if you're not a believer!!!

Congratulations to Dr. Sakeena Yacoobi for winning the WISE Prize 2015. She's doing an amazing job educating women in Afghanistan. She's definitely one I look up to.

I'm still not over all this and it happened in November 2015 :)

Bless,
L

PS: I was sort of a celeb there because of my hair!!!  haha I had these twisted braids in maroon, blonde and black. Some guy from Bahrain even had to get a pic:) Will share the photo if anyone asks for it. (i'm too shy)The compliments i got were awesome. I'm soo soo happy about this.

Are we international now? :)

We just sold our merchandise to the ICANN organization at their most recent ICANN54 Fellows programme in Ireland!!!

It feels so good to actually get people miles away on a different continent and country that I have never even been to get connected to us and our cause. Wow, what can i say. This is what we're about. Bringing hundreds and thousands from all over the world to make a difference in a girl's life by simply wearing our merchandise.

Thank you ICANN :)

Yassssssss :)

We're on Jumia baby!

This means a lot you guys. Our products, currently bracelets, are listed on Jumia!!! Yey!!

Jumia is a major platform plus, it saves us so much time trying to deliver products by ourselves. Now, if you like our merchandise or just want to support our girls you can go to our Mdada shop on Jumia and purchase a bracelet which will be delivered to you.

In future, I want the girls in my entrepreneurship class to list their merchandise on this platform so that  they can learn and make real money today which will pay their own school fees. This is genius right? No? Haha feel free to critique us in our comments...

Hey, we're also on Etsy for all the diaspora and international folk out here. Search for the shop mdadaforgirls.


God bless,
L

To purchase/support the cause go to Mdada shop

Why are people unappreciative even when you're helping them?

Hello earthlings,

It's been a while since i posted something here and the truth is, I don't like writing plus i'm just lazy but i think it's important. This is like the only documentation I do about my project and I was just taking this free online course on ALISON-Diploma in Project Management and I just got to the part where i'm learning the importance of documentation. Anyway, i also have a lot to say. I go through a lot running Mdada sometimes it's just too much really.

Today lemme just talk about something I experienced with one of the parents of the girls whose school fees I have been trying to help pay. Let's get things right, I am not taking over from the parents, i am just trying to do my best where I can. For anyone whose ever started a business, you know how tough it can be. Imagine trying to get a business going and help someone pay school fees. Basically i'm trying to get as much profit as I can and then share the profits with the girl. This is my passion and I believe I can help people get out of poverty and education is one way of solving this. Back to how tough it can be get a business going. Making profits in the beginning is not easy. You need to invest so much time and resources to your business before you can get clients because when you're trying to do something new you'll probably be learning as you go, making mistakes and learning. 

It reached a point where i needed the support of the parents because I needed staff. The only difference is I would be paying you in form of school fees going direct to your daughters account. I did intend to cater for transport expenses but that was it. Anyway, long story short. When I brought this idea up with the parents, it wasn't flying. Okay so I wanted to understand how we can make things move forward in the interest of the girls. I couldn't even get them to come and help me out once in a week! Crazy! 

When I went to the school to just check how much the students owed in terms of school fees, the principal was like what's going on because he is aware i'm trying to help pay school fees for the girls. He suggested that I ask the parents to help me but I was like they're not interested. How do you help someone in this situation? I came to an agreement with the parents that i would match whatever they contributed as in if they could pay 1000 bob i would pay a 1000. What do you think?

Sometimes, i'm just crawling like the Martin Luther says

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, and if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."

Oh well, I guess all things happen for a reason because I have since changed my approach. Now I'm looking to train girls on how to actually make an income for themselves. I landed on a bestseller item that is easy to make and can be sold by students. I think this is in fact easier to scale my business because the girls will be learning a new skill and paying at least part of her school fees if not all of it. The products will be listed on Jumia, check out our Mdada shop online and support :)

Gosh, I need someone to give me some kind of motivation to write.There's so much into this story that I haven't shared but you know me...urgghhh i'd rather talk about it than write about it.

Later earthlings.

L