Karibu Loo (KL) has many exciting developments to report. Thus far in 2018, KL has gone from being a business struggling to secure long-term contracts to a business struggling with positive growing pains.

• Moving to profitability: KL has been profitable in each of the first three months of 2018, earning approximately $2,000 in January, $1,000 in February and $7,000 in March. April is on track to generate profits as well.
• Sound leadership from Maureen and Kenneth: The business has improved significantly due to more effective leadership (Maureen Mulievi), and the addition of a young, energetic sales professional (Kenneth Odongo). See all staff at Karibu Loo: https://www.karibuloo.co.ke/our-staff/
• Long-term business absorbing an impressive 46% to 94% of units: Maureen, Kenneth and the staff have been successful in securing more long-term contracts. The British Army (located in northern Kenya), has become an important client requiring extraordinary servicing and effort, contracting from 16 (currently) to 66 units at its peak in January. The construction business, with an April total of 17 units on monthly contracts, now includes Konza Construction, Nanchang Construction, TENSES, and Karen Construction. KL has retained the ongoing weekly Sunday-only rentals to three churches for seven units. Long-term rentals therefore absorb 17% (27% with the churches) of our units plus the highly variable British Army business, which puts absorption between 94% in January to 46% in April.
• More effective targeting: KL has learned that long-term rentals are primarily done by foreign corporations or government entities, and Kenneth is becoming effective at targeting important, long-term sales.
• Assets spread thin with inefficiencies costing over $15,000: Running the business has been a challenge as our assets are spread very thin. Current assets include 88 unit (including one VIP unit), a large truck, one exhauster and a pickup truck that can pull the VIP unit or the newly-built trailer to transport unit. KL had to pay for third-party trucks to transport the units to the British Army and is currently renting a large truck full-time (combined cost in Q1 was $14,000) to service the British Army business to which KL has dedicated the exhauster. All the units in Nairobi are serviced manually, which is unhealthy and unpleasant for our staff. The low number of available cabins has forced KL to rent units from competitors on occasion (Q1 cost = $615).
• Most urgent need – a reliable large truck. The biggest business challenge is currently the large truck, which has served KL well since the company’s inception but is now chronically breaking down. The portable sanitation business is not viable without a reliable truck and exhauster. We are working on plans to purchase a new truck, exhauster and 60 more loos and invite individual donations to make the purchase possible.

Today, KL employs five Ngong Road Children Association (NRCA) graduates full-time and has employed 57 high-school graduates part-time as Associates since inception. KL’s Associate Program allows recent NRCA high-school graduates to gain that very valuable first job experience and earn income. “Sales and Operations Associates” are hired to keep the cabins clean and stocked with materials at events and act as ambassadors for the organization. The Associates program teaches NRCA graduates how to be good employees – show up on time, do a good job, and dress properly – skills that students living in the slums never see demonstrated by adults in their lives yet are critical to the charity’s mission of transforming lives through employment. Associates make 500 Kenyan shillings a day plus transport and a meal. (For context, 500 Kenyan shillings covers about a quarter of a month’s rent in the slums). Almost 1,000 day-payments have been made, injecting $5,000 into the slum economy in earned wages.

2018 is off to a very strong start for Karibu Loo, largely due to several significant long-term rentals and having the right people in place. We are optimistic 2018 will be the year the business starts to earn profits and will pay a dividend to Ngong Road Children Association (our sister organization in Kenya). Here are the highlights:

• $2,000 in profit in January: The portable sanitation business in the U.S. is primarily based upon long-term rentals. It is virtually impossible to build a successful portable sanitation business by only supplying to events. However, events have constituted most of our business to date in Kenya. Long-term rentals are an essential ingredient to profits as they ensure a steady stream of revenue to cover costs.

In January, Karibu Loo rented out 66 of 89 units for about 15 days to a unit of the British Army that is training the Kenyan Army and another 10 units to a Chinese construction firm for the entire month. In addition, we have weekend long-term rentals at several churches. Together, these long-term contracts plus normal event business generated just over $2,000 of profit in January.

• Issues. As always, there are issues to be overcome. The biggest challenge faced by the business today is that our truck has become very unreliable. The truck has served us very well on treacherous roads since 2014 but is increasingly prone to breakdowns. We have had to outsource movement of loos and cleaning services when the truck was not functional, which cuts into our margins. We are building a new trailer that will be pulled by our pickup truck and can carry six loos.
  

A second challenge faced by the business is receivables. We have worked hard to reduce receivables, but getting customers to pay on a timely basis in Kenya is a recurring problem. We have the right staff and board in place to improve upon this issue in 2018 and beyond.

• Growing the business. We are preparing to order a new truck, as frequent breakdowns has become a real impediment to the business. Meanwhile, we are evaluating the long-term potential for the British Army business and will decide whether to order more cabins and an additional exhauster in April. Our sales leader is young, energetic and is getting results, so we must have loos available for him to sell. We are confident the business will contribute to our charitable mission of educating children in 2018 and that we will also be able to invest in growth.

If you are interested in supporting Karibu Loo with a donation to purchase the new truck and support business growth, please contact Development Director, Lacey Kraft, at lacey@ngongroad.org or 612-568-4211.

Paula Meyer
Founder and President

Karibu Loo is off to a very strong start in 2018, largely due to several significant long-term rentals. Here are the highlights:

Long-term rentals. The portable sanitation business in the U.S. is primarily based upon long-term rentals. It is virtually impossible to build a successful portable sanitation business by only supplying to events, however events have constituted most of our business to date in Kenya. Long-term rentals are an essential ingredient to profits as they ensure a steady stream of revenue to cover costs.

In January, Karibu Loo rented out 66 units for about 15 days to a unit of the British Army that is training the Kenyan Army and another 10 units to a Chinese construction firm for the entire month. Both of these clients are candidates for long-term contracts. In addition, we have weekend long-term rentals at several churches. Together, these long-term contracts plus normal event business generated just over $2,000 of profit in January.

Employment. Five of our graduates are employed by Karibu Loo in marketing (1), operations (3), and accounting (1). In addition we employ many recent high school graduates as “sales and operations associates” whose responsibilities include keeping the loos clean and well supplied at events around Nairobi. This is a good way to provide income for these students and teach them basic workplace etiquette – showing up on time, dressing appropriately, speaking confidently with clients, and following through on responsibilities.

Issues. The biggest challenge faced by the business today is that our only truck has become very unreliable. The truck has served us well for the past several years but is increasingly prone to breakdowns. We have had to outsource movement of loos and cleaning services when the truck was not functional which cuts into our margins. We are building a new trailer that will be pulled by our pickup truck and can carry six loos.

A second challenge faced by the business is receivables. We have worked hard to reduce receivables, but getting customers to pay on a timely basis in Kenya is a recurring problem.

Growing the business. We are considering ordering more cabins and an additional exhauster. We have had many days in January and February when the constraint on business volume was lack of available cabins and the logistics of having only one exhauster and truck has become too risky. Meanwhile, we are raising funds to replace the old truck immediately.

Marwa’s four-year-old birthday looked slightly different than other four-year-old birthdays. She still had several of her best friends and cousins running around with cake in their hands and singing “Happy Birthday.” But instead of inviting her friends to bring gifts in celebration of her birthday, she asked for money to “Send Sam to school.”

Sam was the student she gravitated to when Marwa and her parents looked at students who needed sponsorship on the Friends of Ngong Road website. Her parents think she connected to him as a peer because he looked younger than the rest of the students. Marwa loves school and wanted Sam to also have the chance to go to school too.

It wasn’t without the nudging of her parents, however. They recognized that Marwa as an only child was experiencing holidays centered around herself. Birthdays and Eid celebrations all unintentionally included a focus on what material item she would unwrap. They wanted her to focus on more than presents at celebrations and to learn the joy of sharing. So they taught her about kids not having the chance to go to school. They looked through pictures on the Friends of Ngong Road website together and excitedly talked with Marwa about what a great choice she was making to invite her friends to bring money for school instead of presents.

The day came, and Marwa had a big decorated box for her friends to drop their gifts of money. When she presented it to Lacey, Development Director at Friends of Ngong Road, she proudly shook the coins in the box exclaiming that it would help send kids to school. Her smile said it all when Lacey said Sam was now going to be going to school.

Marwa got a taste for sharing and helping out friends across the world. Her birthday wish came true and Sam was going to school. He has since been sponsored full-time by another family, and Marwa plans to help send another child to school on her birthday next year.