Seaweed Center in Zanzibar

Over the years students from Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship have conducted several projects all around the globe. This year, 20 talented young entrepreneurs decided to make the world a better place and enhance the development of Tanzania, more specifically, Zanzibar.

The project was brought to life because local women earn unequal wages and they have lack of knowledge within business. Above all, they lack of production capacity. To counterweight the problem, the goal is to build a production facility in Zanzibar where local women could produce different goods out of seaweed. The facility will be named Seaweed Center.

The project focuses on long term collaboration between the involved actors and will have a specific focus on stimulate the economic activities in the under developed country Tanzania as well as strive for a open-mindedness in order to reach a equal society with beneficiaries for the women.

The Seaweed project has decided to spread the social entrepreneurial concept to the low developed country Tanzania, more specific Zanzibar, where over 50% of the population lives below the basic needs poverty line, a country which has the same problems as Uganda. Tanzania is in strong need of assistant from third parties in order to improve the living conditions for the population.

Seaweed Farmers in Paje, Zanzibar

The community of seaweed farmers in Paje consists of around 450 women, who earn an average income of less than US$ 1 per day harvesting and selling dried seaweed.

The reasons for the women’s alarming living conditions have been the lack of tools and facilities for the proper harvesting and treatment of the seaweed. Currently, once the seaweed is harvested, they have to dry it and store in their homes under very poor conditions and limitations. There’s no possibility for them to create any higher value of the seaweed but only selling it as raw material at very low prices.

As a way to improve the livelihood of the women seaweed farmers in Paje our aim is to build a factory facility, where all of the 450 local women can produce a variety of products from seaweed, such as soap, shampoo and manure. This would increase their economic independence, and at the same time, hopefully reduce gender inequalities in Zanzibar.

Partners

The Seaweed Center in Zanzibar is a collaborative project between students at the Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship 2010, the School of Intellectual Capital Management 2011 and the Rylanderska Foundation in Sweden, the Zanzibar  Adventure School, Dar es Salaam University in Tanzania, and the local women from the village of Paje in Zanzibar.

Team

CSE Class of 2010

• Andreas Pfister
• Annelie Blomdahl
• Arta Mandegari, Vice Project Leader
• Carl Svantesson
• Daniel Alvarado, Treasurer
• Elisabet Ehn
• Erik Andersson
• Erik Gulbrandsen, Project Leader
• Gustav Nilson
• Jacqline Jonasson
• Johan Lantz
• Jonas Mårtensson
• Kati Nikopensius
• Lai Kim Lim
• Markus Holmberg
• Mikael Arthursson
• Oscar Johansson
• Rizwan Ahmad
• Roberto Mena
• Wei Jan Wang