On a rainy and bustling Monday afternoon, the residents of the Temeke district were greeted with a pleasant surprise. KISIMA Water, a local Pure Drinking Water bottling company arrived at the scene with an innovative concept to save the day!
As the Mwananchi were moving around in the heavy downpour, KISIMA Staff and Management began distributing thousands of Rain Ponchos to all street vendors, Boda Boda drivers, shop keepers, and all others who were struggling in what has been a very wet week.
Hundreds of people gathered around in excitement as they stood to receive the Rain Ponchos, branded in the famous pink KISIMA logo. One of the lucky recipients, a Cashew Nuts Vendor was very excited and said “I will be able to sell a lot more Cashews in the traffic jams now that I have this Rain Poncho!” One of the many school children that received the Rain Poncho mentioned that he had to walk a long distance and was glad that his schoolbooks would not be drenched.
We got the chance to speak with the Managing Director of KISIMA Water, Mr. Ali Dhanji as he was distributing Ponchos. We were interested to know what inspired them to implement this innovative promotion. Mr. Dhanji explained, “last year our warehouses were heavily flooded, and our company faced many losses in stock and loss of business. So during this rainy season, we wanted to do our small part by alleviating the pain of wananchi who are trying to go about their daily jobs, disrupted by heavy rains. It is really satisfying to see that a Rain Poncho worth 2,000/= Tsh can increase the sales of a street vendor by 20,000/= Tsh on the same day! This year, we thank the Temeke Municipal Council for improving the infrastructure in the Changombe Industrial Area and making business as usual for us without any flooding. This encouraged us to further do our part and give back to our community. We will continue distributing our 6,000 Rain Ponchos over the course of this week in different areas of Dar-es-Salaam.”
This initiative is one part of the KISIMA CARES program of 2015. In line with KISIMA’s mission to give back to the community, the company will be drilling bore wells and handing them over to long-serving staff. This will allow their families to operate sustainable businesses of selling water in areas with scarce supply. The company also donates free Drinking Water to orphanages and shelters for the disabled in and around Dar-es-Salaam.
It was refreshing to see the top management as well as the factory-staff working hand in hand to serve the community during a time of difficulty. Just another example of how hard times bring the wananchi together.