About Made To Clean Social Enterprise

Its been two weeks since my last post, a hectic two weeks if i may say. Schools have reopened and preparing the children to go back to school is never easy. Its worse now with COVID19 and all the precautions that have to be done for their movement and at school. After staying for so long at home, the little ones actually do not want to go back, Any way, we went through the preparations and they have started well.

So last time i was talking about how i transitioned from being a banker to the new me, the Social Entrepreneur.

After my time at YALI ( Young African Leadership Initiative) In 2018, I convinced my partner that we needed to pivot our way of operating into a social enterprise that works towards economically empowering marginalized women within targeted rural and poor urban communities in Zimbabwe. Thus, MADE TO CLEAN http://www.madetoclean.co.zw/, was borne out of a recognition for the plight of poor women and single mothers who are employed under less than ideal circumstances within the field of Domestic work.

Through research i learnt that, 38% of women in Zimbabwe’s rural and poor urban areas are unemployed mainly because they have had little access to formal education. Due to this lack of education, they resort to being domestic workers. Furthermore, since this category of employment is largely deemed informal by the Government, no set standards exist for the work which these women are asked to undertake.. In essence, many of these women are forced to work as modern day slaves with little option for a better means to provide for their families.

MADE TO CLEAN seeks to address these issues by bringing a standardized and professional approach to Domestic work in Zimbabwe, providing training and support to both the targeted vulnerable women, and the families within which they are employed. Established in 2018, to date, we have held 4 training sessions, benefiting a total of forty (40) vulnerable women and have placed more than fifteen (15) of our graduating students in full time job placements while another fifteen (15) women remain in the company’s books registered as part time house help with intermittent job placements based on demand. On average, our graduating women receive 40% increased pay over non graduates while our participating employers/ families report having better skilled and more reliable workers.

In addition to the training, MADE TO CLEAN also intervenes in cases of employment disputes between the families and the women and works to ensure a safe working environment for Domestic Workers.

So that is information about my Social Enterprise. Being a social enterprise is never easy as there are not many who actually understand what one means by the term Social Enterprise ( SE). The term is not recognised in many countries in their Company Acts/ bills and therefore are not recognised for the type of organisation they are. Getting started on that will require a lot of writing, so lets save that for the next posts. Look forward to discussing what Social Enterprises are, their origins and what is expected from Social Enterprises.

Till next time....