A new use for broken pallets

Meet Nahili, one of our 2021 Unilever Heroes. Every year, in the Heroes Awards, we recognise a handful of employees who have gone above and beyond their day job. Against the difficulties of the last 12 months, their stories are even more remarkable, bringing help and hope to communities around the world. We are deeply proud of them.

Around a quarter of the population in Ethiopia live in poverty (Opens in a pop-up window ). In cities, access to employment is difficult, as people migrate from the rural areas and the urban population swells. Some 19% of the city population in Ethiopia are unemployed (Opens in a pop-up window ), and young people are the hardest hit.

“Things can be really hard here,” says Nahili Bekele, who works as an admin assistant specialist in Unilever’s factory in Dukem, south of Addis Ababa. “I have always had a passion for the people in my community and my local area. I knew something had to be done.”

Having your shoes shined is part of the urban way of life in Ethiopia. “It’s just part of the culture,” Nahili explains. “People get up in the morning and rush out to work. And everywhere you go, there are shoe-shining stations so people can get their shoes shined before work.”

Many of the shoe-shiners are hardly more than children, who have moved into the city from rural areas. “They are working as shoe-shiners to support their families and siblings back home,” she adds. But up till now, many of their shoe-shine work stations have been very basic, forcing the shoe-shiner to lean over, leading to poor posture and back strain.

Transforming old pallets

In May 2020, an idea was born. Nahili was walking in the factory compound with her line manager and they saw broken pallets lying around.

She realised that the wooden pallets used to transport raw materials and products could serve a further, socially valuable purpose. Why not use them for shoe-shining stations?

“We took the broken pallets that our factory would have disposed of and transformed them,” Nahili explains. The Dukem factory team, inspired by the concept of a ‘factory with purpose’, together with other local employees and members of the local authority, worked to construct the stations. The broken pallets were turned into portable seats and raised footrests for customers, making the work of shoe-shining at once more professional and more comfortable.

Once the shoe-shining stations were complete, the Dukem community and government officials were invited along to celebrate with staff from the Unilever site. The young shoe-shiners were given brushes and shoe polish as well as the stations.

The results of her socially enterprising idea have been impressive, and the opportunities generated have impacted over 3,500 people.

Creating employment and hope

Shoe-shining may be a modest occupation but for young unemployed people, it can be the first step on the ladder of employment, giving them a sense of empowerment. “It is giving hope to these young people, working there as shoe-shiners to support their families,” says Nahili.

Ethiopia is the fastest-growing economy in the region (Opens in a pop-up window ), according to the World Bank, but Nahili would like to see the gap between the fortunate and less fortunate narrow. She recognises that she comes from a more privileged background but this only increases her empathy for the less privileged.

“It means so much to me to be able to make an impact,” she says. “I feel lucky that I have the resources and support to carry on improving the livelihoods of the people that matter most to me.”