BULAWAYO A group of street kids in Bulawayo have set up a car wash cooperative, which is now competing with well-established car washing ventures in the city. (Pictured: These street kids have formed a car washing cooperative in Bulawayo)
People do not have money to donate to anyone these days. Times are tough. So we decided to form this car washing cooperative in order to survive. Before we formed this cooperative I could hardly raise a dollar per day through begging, said Arippa Ncube, one of the founders of the project.
Ncube, who hails from Lupane in Matabeleland North and has been living on the streets for three years, said he and his colleagues decided to form cooperative in January after realizing that members of the public were no longer generous with money and foodstuffs.
We were given our cleaning equipment such as work suits, buckets, mutton cloth and brushes by a certain good Samaritan who has asked not to be named. We have managed to buy more cleaning materials from car washing proceeds .We have appointed a treasurer among ourselves who keeps the money and we share the takings each day after business, said Ncube.
The street kids charge $3 to wash and polish a car. Most established businesses in the city charge between $5 and 10, depending on the size of the vehicle.
But the kids are facing problems. We do not have powerful cleaning equipment such as blowers. We are also having problems with police and municipal workers who are always chasing us from our cleaning points. We are of no fixed abode and it is very difficult to operate business under such circumstances, said Ncube.
Post published in: News