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I wrote a plan to stimulate enterprises in Developing Countries through company & trade development. Since I was trained as a lawyer, with little entrepreneurial experience, I decided to be trained on-the-job and got a sales management position in the field of cocoa trade. Lastly as a commercial director of a fruit juices and soft drinks company, I felt it was time for action towards realisation of the plan and I quit my job (37).
Developing Countries b.v. was established in 1995 and is based in The Netherlands.
The first assignment was the development of a community based tourism project Ghana, Africa and marketing it to tour operators in various European countries. We created "Discovery Village", a vibrant mix of adventurous encounters in authentic African settings on the one hand and comfortable stays in western style huts on the other. Tourists join locals in their daily activities, like cooking local dishes at their homes, dancing, drumming, working on a traditional farm, fishing in a wooden canoe, weaving and the like. Discovery Village enables local people to share into the profit of international tourism in sustainable way.
Algemeen Dagblad, a Dutch national newspaper published
an interview with
us. VPRO radio broadcasted an interview as well. KLM sponsored us and published
an article on the project in their national magazine 'Dear Agent' (for article,
view trackrecord Discovery Village.
Arke Travel, part of TUI, as well as other tour operators, took our project
into their travel brochures. Investors were engaged, both local and European.
We managed the whole project for 4 years, untill and including the pilot
stage in Kokrobite, near Accra, Ghana.
Another assignment was the set up of Discovery Interior
Trading (1995), based in Kockengen, Holland, dealing in African
decoration and gifts.
Dealing with small and medium sized African
enterprises (SME's) on a daily basis, we acquired major business and trading
experience. With the membership of www.ifat.org the
IFAT (International Federation of Alternative Trade), Discovery
Interior Trading has officially become a fair trade wholesaler/importer.
Fair Trade Organisations in [clickable link naar jpeg ‘fair trade, herfst
2003'] Holland, Germany, France, Northern Ireland, Spain and
Italy have become regular customers, besides many others. Discovery
is now a successful marketing/import organisation for about 80 grass root
producers in Africa .
View our Track records for information on other projects we did.
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Founding story