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Mango Tree
Be inspired: Old flip flops and bottle tops help education in Uganda
Take some bottle tops and grain sacking. Then some used plastic gerry cans, flip flop foam, bamboo cane and bicycle spokes. Add a liberal sprinkling of creativity and a dash of innovation. What have you got? A business.
At least that’s the recipe Craig Esbeck used to develop Mango Tree, a social enterprise based out of Uganda’s capital, Kampala. Founded in 2000, the company uses locally sourced materials to make innovative educational tools. The bottle tops turn into draughts boards, the flip flop material into alphabet pieces, the grain sacking into health charts.
The idea emerged from Craig’s experiences as a primary school teacher while working with the Peace Corps, a large US volunteer agency. Based in a rural school in Eastern Uganda, he saw that, like so many schools in the district, resources were scarse and school supplies limited. Blackboard and chalk was the standard offering. While the national curriculum called for interactive games and materials to be used, few were available and those at hand were prohivitavely expensive. Plus, if ever books were donated to the school, Craig noticed that all too frequently, they would be locked inside inside a cupboard, ‘to keep them nice’.
And so Craig saw a need for educational tools, made out of locally available materials to make teaching more fun and effective. Importantly, because they would be produced out of familiar materials the likelihood of them being actually used in the classroom was much higher. “I wanted to do something which would encourage teachers to try some other ways of teaching”, Craig explained, “to start to shake up the paradigm of learning and education”.
To begin, he sent a call out to the community asking for old flip-flops that he could recycle. Soon bags and bags arrived, giving him the basic resources to make alphabet charts. When the charts proved popular, other ideas for products emerged; snakes and ladders from grain sacking, draughts from bottle tops; Mango Tree as a business started to take root. Alongside developing educational games, Craig also designed training programmes for teachers in educational methods to compliment their teacher training and integrate the new tools into their practice.
Walking into their offices teams of designers and artists, sales personnel busily develop and produce new products. A lightbox room at the back of the premises houses a team of graphic artists who transcribe the charts in local language versions. Overseeing the production Nathan Walosi, a young graduate of Kampala’s Makerere Business School, checks the quality of the products to guarantee consistent high standards, while leaning over a large desk Goretti Nabakijje Muwanika, a fine arts graduate, designs new charts. “We have been able to attract some great talent”, Craig explained, beaming a smile at Goretti.
“At the core of what we do is a commitment to growing a private sector in Uganda which operates responsibly towards the community and the environment”, Craig explained. In an already crowded charity sector in Uganda, generating profits rather than being solely reliant on donor grants for expansion is a huge bonus. A portion of the profits are then channeled back to school scholarships for children who otherwise would not have access to education.
Mango Tree’s impact figures rank up well as proof that new job and educational opportunities are being created in Uganda as a result of the business: over 25% of Uganda’s government schools have been supplied with products; over 12,000 teachers have been trained to use the products; and in excess of 875,000 children are using them in the classroom.
Walking out of their offices, with a map of Africa made out of grain sacking hanging on the wall, is a reminder of what can be achieved across the continent when resourcefulness, business skills and a soulful of desire to make a difference are combined. Walking into any typical Ugandan classroom is a reminder of the need.
For more information visit: www.mangotreeuganda.org
With thanks to the Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund and Connect World for their generous support for this project.
Words and Images by Clare Mulvany
