In David's blog you've been able to read about the first Johari events that took place in Scotland in March.
In Kenya Johari Johari Design organises regular events and has achieved exceptional exposure in the media. Through a great network of people that support Johari and the Seed of Hope training centers there are now several Kenyan TV presenters that wear the Johari designs such as the presenters at the National Lottery show and 'Project Fame' (equivalent of the X Factor). Also Miss Kenya wears the clothes during Miss World competitions.
In this blog Deborah Ross, Johari director, describes some of the recent events organised in Kenya.
South Africa Tourism/Village Market
Friday 23rd March – Sunday 25th March
This event was run in conjunction with the above two organisations and was a combination of a three day exhibition and a fashion show on the Saturday night. The events were held at the Village Market - a large shopping and entertainment complex on the outskirts of Nairobi. The event had a lot of positive media coverage, including a live interview on Capital FM, and TV coverage.
The exhibition allowed us to display our goods to shoppers. Some purchased jewellery whilst others signed up for more information or made orders for clothes.
The show itself was very well attended and had many of the ‘who’s who’ of Nairobi were there. It was an excellent opportunity for us and very successful.
Saturday Nation/True Love East Africa Magazine/Eve Magazine
We have a very good relationship with both of these publications and this continues to bear fruit. Both magazines have given us very good coverage over the last two months which has been drawing customers into the shop.
Braeburn School – Made in Kenya – exhibition
This is a large private school in Nairobi which caters mostly for an ex-pat community. They recently held an exhibition titled ‘Made in Kenya’ which was boosting locally produced goods. This ran from March 10th-16th and gave us some good exposure. They are planning to hold a fashion show with the same theme in the coming months and have invited us to participate.
Samantha’s bridal fair/shows
This was a bridal/weddings fair run by the largest Weddings Magazine in East Africa. It was a four day event running from March 15th-18th. The exhibition itself went on throughout the four days and there were two fashion shows each day. This event led to a lot of new customers and a lot of exposure for Johari. The exhibition was attended by thousands and each fashion show had an attendance of about 400 people. This was not only a great opportunity to meet new customers but also to mix with other people in the fashion/weddings industry, and to show them that we have quality service and products to offer.
DALC beauty pageant
This was an event held on Friday 23rd February at Jacaranda Hotel, Nairobi. We not only dressed the contestants for the countrywide competition but I was invited to represent johari on the panel of judges.
Simama
This was an event organised by Johari in conjunction with local musician, Sarah Mitaru, held on the 9th February at Titan complex. It was an event that targeted the media, fashion and music industry and was very successful for Johari. The fashion shows were interspersed with Sarah’s performances and a brief introduction to the Seed of Hope and Johari program. One of the highlights was Charity’s testimony of how Seed of Hope has changed her life. The event entitled ‘Simama’ (Swahili for ‘stand up’) invited the guests to stand up for the girls involved with Johari.
Deborah Ross
