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UniquEco is a non-profit organization started in northern Kenya by two local women, Julie Church and Tahreni Bwanaali. Since 2006, one year after starting, UniquEco has collected over 75.000 tonnes of discarded flipflops that has washed along the shore in the Kiwayu Island area. Today their employees consists of 24 - 30 Nairobi-based skilled men and women and over 150 women collectors in the north coast. Monthly incomes range from Kshs 8,900 – 16,000 (or € 90 - € 163) for labor workers and Kshs 30,000 (or € 305) for managerial positions. Those living along the coast are paid per piece, which varies from € 0.15 - € 8. Before UniquEco the men with previous jobs worked as fishermen, tailors or carpenters. Many of the women were unemployed or relied on beading and general housework for survival. Church says the biggest contribution UniquEco offers its locals is the financial reward in their own homes. "It allows the women to build more durable homes for their families, using concrete rather than mud, buy vegetables for their under-nourished children and have a greater say in village life, where previously they were ignored or worse."
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