Water Relief Africa Business Proposal

Executive SummaryOur company, Water Relief Africa wishes to use kindness and generosity to educate and
give the people of Harar, Ethiopia access to potable water. We wish to make our systems that
provide them with water cheap and accessible, with an infrastructure that can be developed along
with the rest of the country and Africa as a whole. One ambition of ours is to focus on the
problem of the lack of sanitary water, and to create a system that can bring the clean water that is
needed to families in demand.
The overall goal of Water Relief Africa is to bring disease-free, potable water to those
who are in need, as well as education and job opportunities on how to build and sustain their own
systems that gather water. This will be done by using rainwater catchment systems, and storing
the harvested water after collected, to drink, clean, cook, and bathe with. We are looking to
provide jobs and give information about rainwater harvesting, and though these job
opportunities, we can affirm our services will last a lifetime. By providing these jobs, we can
also guarantee that our systems will be payed for and that we will make revenue and become a
sustainable business. In addition, on average, Harar collects 75mm of rainfall during the spring
and summer seasons, and can receive 14 days of rain out of the month
(http://www.worldweatheronline.com/Harar-weather-averages/ET.aspx). These averages show
that our services can work and last. Our company is choosing to focus on the area of Harar
because of the style that the roofs in Harar are built, grouped together, and made slanting
downwards. This will make it possible for our rainwater catchment systems to thrive, without
having to completely rebuild the house.
Currently, there are only three employees, who are also founders of the company on April
of 2015, there names are Claire Larson, Keiran Eagen, and Levi Palmer. The business would use
the jobs that we have created to acquire employees to keep the corporation alive. Our business is
looking to expand to a much larger area using the money we get from investors and our products.
Eventually, our company would like to use the income that has been gained over time, to branch
out to other areas that are in need of our services. This will make it so we can expand and help
others outside of our focus area, Harar, Ethiopia, and, in the long run, gain more funding to keep
our business running.

Water. 2006. Canaidafrica.wordpress.com, Canada. By UN Human Development Report.

Product DescriptionAt Water Relief Africa, our main objective is to bring resources to Ethiopia that can be
built to catch rainfall, and be stored as potable water for those who lack due to poverty. We want
our services to be affordable as well as built in order to last for a life span. Each catchment
system will be built with the same aluminum foundation, and created to fit each person's house.
The aluminum will not be custom built, but ordered by us, as we will then assemble what we
have ordered to the house as a roof. Our goal is to eventually have each house in Harar, Ethiopia
to have a personal rainwater catchment system and storage system to bring as much water in as
possible.
The rainwater harvesting systems are built with an aluminum roof base, as aluminum lets
water fall off into the gutter easily. The aluminum catchment roofs will be built at a large
declining angle in order to let more rainfall at a faster pace. Large decline roof angles also lead to
less contaminants being caught in the rain water. After the water is caught on the roof, the water
will fall into an aluminum based gutter, then flow into a downspout that carries the water into
storage areas. If there are contaminants caught, the storage systems will have purification tablets
that can clean the water in order to make it drinkable. The business would like to have all
resources made of the same material, and be sturdy as well as long lasting, and rust-free. In
addition, aluminum is also fairly cheap, affordable and easy maintain.
The area of the roof is one of the most important aspects in collecting rainwater.
Obviously, the larger the area of roofing, the larger amount of water that is going to be collected.
Our goal is to give the resources and information on how to frame a roof that can be as large as
possible, but fit to the individuals house, without being oversized or causing spacing issues.

To find how much rainwater can be harvested, our company will use, as well as teach the
following equation to those who will be harvesting:

http://rainwaterharvesting.tamu.edu/catchment-area/
The storage containers will be aluminum based as well, and will be made to hold up to
100 gallons for one house. Our goal is to create the catchment and storage system in order for the
water to last as long as needed, and until the next rainfall. From the storage system, the water
will be available during all hours of the day for personal use. The storage systems will be located
at the side of the family's house for the water to easily run to. We would like the storage systems
and evidently the rainwater catchment system as a whole to be personally operated by the family
and volunteers/employees that work for Water Relief Africa.
Market AnalysisWater Relief Africa (WRA) will first be located in Harar, Ethiopia and will eventually
expand to more towns and cities in Ethiopia. In 2007, there were 33 rain harvesting systems in
Ethiopia. A small percentage of these are a system that could be like ours. At a glance, the
current rain harvesting potential in Ethiopia, in meters cubed per roof per year, (m^3/roof/year) is
an average of 78, a minimum of 20, and a maximum of 120 inches of rainfall collected.
(http://www.bibalex.org/Search4Dev/files/419439/442767.pdf) Our potential customers have a
need for clean and cheap potable water. Currently, most poor families struggle to obtain clean
water because they simply cannot afford it. Our goal is to bring them clean water that does not
require the customer to walk for miles to get water. We are planning to target families that make
an average of $500 a year or under.
Generally, our company will be focusing on those who are in the most need of water due
to poverty. In 2004 and 2005, 39% of Ethiopians lived in extreme poverty. Five years later, that
number dropped about 9% and resulted in 30% of Ethiopians living on the poverty line of $0.6 or
less a day (http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/ethiopia/overview.) We are focusing on these
people because of how little they make, resulting in no access to basic necessities including
water. Our wishes are to find these people by collecting an income status from those who wish to
use our services. From there, we plan on working around their yearly income, to price our
products accordingly in order to keep our business sustainable. In addition, we will be focusing
on families of 3 or larger. This way we will have created a solution that will affect a greater

population, and be passed on by the word of mouth, onto generations to come. We will also take
a trip before hand to see and assess those who need the help the most and pinpoint areas of
greater need.
As a small business, Water Relief Africa recognizes that we will need a way to create an
income to keep our systems available. WRA will push to create an affordable product so that all
families who are in need of our services may have access. To create a cost, we will look into the
yearly income of each family, and work around that amount. On average, the yearly income of an
Ethiopian adult is $470, per capita (Gross National Income, Atlas Method.) With this amount, we
can start to focus on those who make $500 or under, and start by charging families and groups of
people with a small amount, monthly, for our product and education. We can assure that we will
charge a reasonable amount by receiving a report that states who in the family has a job, and how
much they are getting paid. To start and keep our business going, we are hoping to charge a
minimum of $1 a month for our assistance and resources.
We estimate each rain catchment system could be anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000
depending on the size of the storage tank. This price does not include the shipment and
processing and handling fees. Our estimation for the shipment fees could be anywhere from $500
to $800, depending on the weight of the materials. This payment can be paid off over time, and
can be paid in the smallest increments depending on the familys income. The employees can be
paid in water, as well as money to buy and share our services. We estimate we will pay at least
enough to afford the water from our rainwater catchment services, to be able to pay the amount
off.
Our competition includes businesses like the Ethiopian Rainwater Harvesting Association
(ERHA.) ERHA works with Ethiopias climate to fix the problems that the droughts have caused
in Ethiopias abundant agriculture. Our company hopes to work together with companies like
this, instead of looking at them as competition. We would like to learn from their ideas, and
even improve upon concepts in tackling a large issue like droughts and water deprivation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7113576.stm
The graph above shows how the average rainfall affects the income of the people of
Ethiopia. Water Relief will work with the rainfall in Ethiopia to raise the standard of living, raise
their personal health, and keep the GDP growth high.
Marketing StrategiesWater Relief Africa strives to market our rainwater catchment systems by identifying that
our products are affordable, strong, and durable. We would like to show that our systems are easy
to build and maintain as well. Our plan is to advertise through our website, and by word of
mouth. Our website will include information about the business, what we do, the founders, and
how to contact us. In addition, our website will include an area where you can donate money, as
well as sign up to volunteer to help build and/or educate those about our business in Ethiopia.
Furthermore, we are pushing for large corporate investors to support our business, and donate
funding to help start our business.
Another key aspect to our marketing strategy is placing our logo on the water storage
area, in order to be seen by others. After this is done, our business can be spread through the
word and the image of our logo on our systems.
In addition, we will be using a social media website, Twitter, and other social media
accounts. Our Twitter account will be used daily, with up to five posts a day. Our website will be
updated a couple times a week, and if we start to use Facebook it will be used up to five times a
week. WRA would like to reach a goal of at least two hundred followers on Twitter. We
understand that a huge portion of our customers have a lack of access to internet making it
harder for us to reach them. Thus, we will be focusing on spreading the word about our
organization and its goals in and around through our logo and volunteers or employees.
The first two years of our business, we will be working strictly on donations and
kickstarter funds from investors. We will do this to show families who we are and what we do,
and convince them to work with us. After this two year period, we can start charging families a
small amount, to keep our business running and sustainable. Throughout our work, we will
constantly be accepting donations as well.
Organization and Management PlanOur business is privately owned and operated online. We also serve from employees and
volunteers in Harar, Ethiopia, and from local employees in Durango, Colorado. The three

employees that are involved and have created Water Relief Africa equally own 33.3 percent of
the company.
We will start by having around 6 to 8 employees including ourselves. These employees
will be helping to educate and demonstrate the model for rain catching and help the people of
Harar to understand the use and management of the models. Two of us will be helping with
management and finances while the other will be working on the project by seeing how it works
and where it could possible improve. The groups will be reporting their findings through
business reports to make revisions and look upon problems that may arise. We will being doing
this for two years until our organization starts up, and we can being to run it from management.
After this, we will hire others to replace us and help with the expansion of the organization.
The employees that we will be looking for to hire will have at least some experience in
teaching, and have the want to help others in a different country. We would also need someone
who knows the area and culture of Harrar and other areas of Ethiopia. We will look for
employees who have a good track record and commit to working with us.
The employees that we have to start include the three founders, who are starting the
company to begin. By word of mouth through our logo and social media websites, we are hoping
to hire 3 to 5 more employees that are willing to take on the tasks of solving the problem of a
lack of water in Harar, Ethiopia, by using our systems. Our business will also be using volunteers
to donate their time to educate those on how to use the rainwater catchment systems. The
volunteers must have at least some knowledge on the systems, and be willing to spend a lot of
time on teaching others. They must be willing to work on advertising and spreading our business
by word of mouth. The volunteers must also help with financials and running the website. For
volunteers to become employees, they must be working with us for at least two years, and have a
history of working with small businesses.
We will be working primarily from Durango but begin in our focus area of Harar. Our
first startup trip will be to get to know the area and the people who we will be eventually helping.
Then, our business will be making trips to Harar as needed. The trips to Harar will be made to
ship materials there, and to first educate those on who we are and what we are doing to help
them. Through these trips, our company is also hoping to find volunteers and people who are
willing to help stop the problem, and become permanent employees.
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