“Giving your clothes new life to help local community”
We talked with Nemanja Kantar, who is part of the team responsible for the marketing and sales of Social Cooperative Humana Nova in Croatia. Social Cooperative Humana Nova encourages the employment of the disabled and other socially excluded persons through the production and selling of quality and innovative textile products made from ecological and recycled fabrics for the needs of the domestic and the foreign markets.
Which is your role and duties within the Social Cooperative Humana nova? Which previous experience are you bringing in and which new competences are hoping to acquire thanks to INNO-WISEs?
Humana Nova last year opened new team responsible for marketing and sales that I am part of. My role is both sales and promotion as a junior employee. Through my experience I was working with numerous disadvantaged groups, as a part of team and as a leader. While I was working in Humana Nova’s Reuse center in Zagreb I’ve worked directly with people with disabilities which gave me insight to difficulties that they experience during work hours and understanding of their needs. My hopes aim towards managing and marketing competences.
How do you think to use the tools and competences gained through the project and how do you think they will improve your day-by-day skills and in general your WISEs competitiveness?
By developing my competences in managing, I will become more aware of work processes and know how to upgrade them to satisfy needs of disadvantaged groups. As of tools such as databases, customer managing system, IT solutions for resource management etc., I will use them accordingly to the needs in my fields of work. In everyday work environment with such tools and more competent workers, work collective strives and as a side effect, Humana Nova becomes more competitive on market.
Why do you find the project interesting and decided to participate to the experimental phase (pilot action)?
This project is well-designed and I decided to participate to expand my network and upgrade my knowledge and competences. Outcomes of this project are of practical use and can be implemented with ease while giving us a head start thanks to this pilot action making me and Humana Nova more competent and competitive.
The public administrations are using WISEs and in general social enterprises to deliver their services, how can the WISEs be more visible and able to be valuable provider?
WISEs as any other enterprise has to achieve communication upgrade inside organization to get to next level of presenting itself on the market and to become valuable provider of services and/or manufacturer of goods.
What dream do you have for the future of your social enterprise? Or how do see Social Cooperative Humana nova in the next three years?
Humana Nova is a happy place where people work with smile on their faces because they do not have minimum wage. Activities of their jobs are all good for planet and for community in which Humana Nova Reuse centre is. We reuse, upcycle and recycle everything that is possible to save and prolong its lifetime, from clothes, books, LPs, furniture, machines, electronics, appliances, decorations etc.
We earn a lot of money and use it to finance projects of other non-profit organizations and by this we empower our community and spread our mind-set.
We are the change!
