clareakoth2020-spec/soko-safi-bot

A youth- and young women-led climate-smart circular economy bot transforming marketplace hygiene and household economic strengthening for small-scale traders in Kisumu County. # Soko Safi AI ♻️❄️ > **Empowering Women Traders, Eradicating Post-Harvest Waste, and Securing Children's Futures Through a Closed-Loop Circular Economy.** Soko Safi AI is a youth- and young women-led, climate-smart social enterprise designed to eliminate critical post-harvest losses, economic vulnerabilities, and environmental degradation in open-air marketplaces across Kisumu County, Kenya (initially targeting **Ahero** and **Kibuye** markets). By integrating a **biogas- and solar-powered walk-in cold storage hub** with an automated, localized **WhatsApp AI chatbot**, we turn rotting organic marketplace liabilities into affordable, climate-smart operational assets. --- ## 🔗 Project Showcase & Live Links * **🎬 Live WhatsApp MVP Bot:** Chat with Soko Safi AI (Send: `join science-making`) * **📱 Project Demo Video:** Watch the MVP Prototype in Action * **📊 Investment Pitch Deck:** Soko Safi AI Google Slides Deck * **📁 Field Pilot validation study and technical appendix:** Read the MVP Appendix Documentation --- ## 🛑 The Context & The Socio-Economic Pain Points In bustling East African open-air hubs like Kibuye and Ahero, ambient tropical temperatures ($22^\circ\text{C}$ to $33^\circ\text{C}$) accelerate the decay of volatile produce (kales, coriander, tomatoes, avocados, and mangoes), triggering **40% to 50% post-harvest losses**. Because resource-constrained women traders cannot afford commercial refrigeration, they are trapped by immediate "clocks on rot." This drives severe socio-economic and public health consequences: * **Forced Child Labor:** To beat the clock on rot and cover multiple split selling locations simultaneously, mothers are frequently forced to pull their children out of school to hawk produce or manage secondary stalls, trapping families in intergenerational poverty loops. * **Household Stress & Economic Vulnerability:** Extreme spoilage forces predatory bulk liquidations at a fraction of market value, starving household incomes. * **Chil …