Hi All,
Following chicken slaughters and special dances with ancestral sticks, the Kayafungo people wished the interns good-bye today. Tears were shed and coconuts gifted as the interns loaded into vans to return to Mombasa.
Over the past week, potential fellows diligently compiled the last components required for their social business models and advocates finished interviews, collected stories and completed survey research. The initiatives facilitated by the interns are remarkable and stories inspirational.
This Week’s Highlighted Projects:
As an advocate, Nick is focusing on issues associated with the stigma of having and speaking about HIV/AIDS in the Kayafungo Community. Following interviews with families personally affected by HIV/AIDS and tracking trends in testing, he is writing a research paper, which will be published with the University of the Pacific’s Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship.
Xin is reviewing the Ministry of Health policy regarding HIV/AIDS and breastfeeding for her advocates project. She was shocked to learn that the Ministry recommends that mothers who are HIV+ breast-feed their children, although the child may contract the virus through the milk. Xin is interviewing individuals affected by this policy and is writing a persuasive paper regarding the situation and possible alternatives to HIV+ mothers breast-feeding their children.
Rachael is following the fellowship track to initiate a poultry farming business with single mothers. This initiative will create jobs and also address malnutrition. With her community partner, she plans to educate the members on the importance of protein in diet and to create a system whereby the mothers sell both eggs and chickens in a widening market.
Using her public health and veterinary background, Leslie S. is an advocate for Rachael’s fellowship project. To demonstrate the problem of malnutrition in Kayafungo and how a poultry business can alleviate protein deficiencies, she intends to give a presentation about her findings to her public health class, write an article accompanied by photos to be published in an electronic newsletter and edit a short video.
Jessie is developing a micro-finance lending institution in Kayafungo. This institution aims to offer small sums of money in the form of loans to the Kayafungo community using a group loan scheme. Interest paid on the loans will go to fund financial literacy classes to improve business practices and money management.
The interns will stay in Mombasa for the next three days as we do final presentations and concluding meetings. They depart on Sunday evening and transfer through Nairobi, London and then to Washington DC. I bet you are excited to get them home and hear these stories in person!
The 2010 ThinkImpact Fellows arrived in Mombasa yesterday morning and are excited to stay in the new apartment and follow up on the initiatives they started in Kayafungo as interns last summer. Alexandra Crosson is developing a soap-making business with a local women’s group interested in health promotion. And Laura MacArthur is bringing together farmers in Kayafungo to share knowledge and mobilize local assets to combat starvation through a micro-drip irrigation business and demonstration farms. You can follow their blog posts over the year on the ThinkImpact website.
In national news, Kenya is likely to see a new constitution as citizens flocked to the polls yesterday to vote on the referendum. We witnessed a historic day as Kenya voted to pass a law that will drastically change the current constitution bequeathed by their former colonial power. The final results will be announced tomorrow.
Larry Street, Meredith’s dad and professional photographer, helps me reduce my pictures and optimize their exposure for emailing. He is now out of town photographing. We will send pictures when he returns in the next few days.
Peace and love,
Lily





















