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Kelly, Marty, Rachael and Casey learning to dance
Letter from Managing Director, Lily Muldoon, in Kenya:
We are concluding another great week in Kayafungo. In addition to our grueling fieldwork, we are getting to know our homestay families and enjoying the Giriama culture. A women’s group dressed Kelly, Marty, Rachael and Casey in traditional skirts and taught them their hip-shaking dance style (pictured).
In Kayafungo, the interns performed the capacity inventory analysis and compiled their results in asset maps. ThinkImpact relies on asset-based community development practices to identify where and how to implement new initiatives and social businesses. An alternative to traditional needs-based approaches that focus on a community’s problems or deficits, our approach helps community members understand their talents and resources. Each intern is acting as a facilitator, not a direct implementer, to catalyze change in Kayafungo.
Nick and Kelly discussing community assets with students
Following the initial assessments, the intern has the opportunity to partner with an inspired community entrepreneur who shares similar passions and has motivation to initiate a social business. For example, Paul performed a capacity inventory with the Kayafungo nurse who works in the government-run dispensary because he has an interest in health improvements and sees her as a potential resource. Nick and Kelly are pictured discussing community assets with students from the polytechnic school.
This week we are starting our Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis. ThinkImpact has developed this monitoring and evaluation program that relies heavily on the fieldwork of the interns. This impact measurement is an opportunity for us to thoroughly appraise our effects in the community. Using the SROI methodology, we take into consideration the social, environmental and cultural aspects of a community by expressing social value relative to investment. For the next two weeks, the interns will visit our past projects including: two schools, a dam, a sanitation program involving the construction of latrines and hand-washing stations, a community health trainer program, and a library project. Using ThinkImpact resources and our own creativity, we will identify indicators and conduct a variety valuation methods to value our social impact.
Excursion to Ngomeni One Love Island
For a pleasurable excursion, half the group visited a magical island in the Indian Ocean. Sunday through Tuesday, Jessie, Paul, Stephanie, Anna, Xin, Paddy, Rachel G. (team leader) and Abdallah (country director) ventured to Ngomeni One Love Island for a break on the beach. The group is pictured having fun and eating in the main cabana.
A friend of ThinkImpact, Madi, has started an ecotourism project for community development in his coastal village called Ngomeni. Off the coast is a completely uninhabited island where we enjoy the beach, collect seashells, swim and relax in a tree house.
Meals on the island consist of coconut rice, shrimp, crab and fresh fish. This is a pleasant contrast to the peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches we eat daily in Kayafungo as we conduct the assessments. Local women from the Ngomeni village are employed to cook. We enjoy this excursion because we can appreciate the culture of the Swahili people of the coast and simultaneously give back positively to the community.
A non-profit called World Wide IMPACT formed to facilitate the initiative and is constructing a website to support the Ngomeni Eco-Tourism Community Development Project. Click on the “Photos” section to view the project and the island.
Saul meeting with the Kenya GDIs
Saul Garlick, ThinkImpact Executive Director, visited our Kenya site last week. He met individually with each group to address any concerns, answer development questions, and reinforce the program and curriculum. Saul is pictured discussing with the entire group on his first morning.
Everyone is spending the night in Kayafungo tonight and pass their regards.
Happy Birthday Anna and Arianna!
Letter from Managing Director, Lily Muldoon, in Kenya:
After a full week in Kayafungo, we are quickly becoming accustomed to village life. The interns are familiarizing with their homestay families and growing acquainted with typical Giriama practices. They spend the mornings and evenings cooking, collecting water on their heads, and doing chores with the families. During the day the interns meet in their small groups with their team leader, review the ThinkImpact curriculum and plan for the day.
For the first several days the interns observed daily life to increase awareness about community infrastructure, relationships and resources. Working in pairs, they gathered information by performing a scavenger hunt, facilitating capacity inventory and asset mapping in the town centers, health clinics, homesteads and businesses. Leslie S. inquisitively questioned families about their use of eggs to supplement protein deficiency and plans to research more about starting a social business to sell eggs .
Birthday celebrations!
We spent Sunday and Monday night together in Mariakani for clean showers, laundry and Internet. Arianna and Anna had birthdays over the weekend and we celebrated with a frosted cake, singing and candles (pictured). We were all happy to have time to reunite after the first homestay experience. Interns shared stories about fascinating meetings with empowered women’s groups and visiting schools. We mostly enjoyed sharing hilarious incidences of trying to live comfortably with a family who has no electricity or running water.
Saul Garlick, the ThinkImpact Executive Director, arrived on Monday for a site visit and to spend time learning from and guiding the interns. He will be joining the teams in Kayafungo for the next two nights before he returns to continue running the organization from the Washington DC.
Attached you will find a picture of the group in front of the Kayafungo Chief’s office with the Chief and his Assistant Chief. The rains are starting to clear up so the van is not stuck as frequently. In the next picture Rachael, Nick, Leslie M. (now called “Marty”) and Jessie have fun together although the van is stuck, yet again, behind them. In the last picture the class enjoys their first formal Swahili lesson.
The group in front of the Kayafungo Chief's office with the Chief and his assistant
Rachael, Nick, Leslie M. and Jessie in front of the stuck van
The class has its first Swahili lesson
Hope the US is treating you well.
Here is our latest photo of the Community Center!
Take a look at the latest photos of the Community and Business Development Center in Uta, South Africa. They broke ground in late December and now the center is well on the way!
Posted by David Lamb and Julie Walz, Fellows
When we began creating a scholarship project, we hoped for this day: when the first official recipient would be selected to attend a private high school and then move on to university, fully funded. When we could tangibly see the life that we had changed. But this day was always hypothetical; an elusive goal in the future.
Now that the day has actually come, it’s incredible. And a bit hard to wrap our heads around.
The Mundzuku Foundation in partnership with MAD and the Buffleshoek Trust awarded the first scholarship to Ncane Mabunza, in December 2009. We got to know Ncane well during our time in South Africa and she’s a wonderful girl: a very bright student with excellent English. She loves acting, singing, chairs her high school debate team, and wants to become an engineer. Unfortunately since we are no longer in South Africa we have been unable to help facilitate her transition to the private Lowveld High. Yet the ThinkImpact country director, Megan, and the other fellows have been crucial in this process, driving her to interviews and helping her to shop for school supplies before beginning her first day on Wednesday. We are confident that Ncane will succeed, both at Lowveld and beyond.
The Mundzuku Foundation along with ThinkImpact, the Buffleshoek Trust, and their private donors are truly beginning to change the face of education and the opportunities available to students in the Manyeleti region. Three grade 7 students in the past three years have also been selected to receive scholarships to Lowveld. Which means that in addition to the four lives that have been drastically altered, the scholarship recipients are an inspiration to their peers who begin to see that opportunities are available. It’s an incredible accomplishment and we want to express our sincerest gratitude to all the supporters and donors that made, and continue to make, opportunities possible. We are changing lives, one education at a time.
Posted by Claire Bristow and Sarah Whitney, Fellows
We began our Fellowship by conducting community interviews throughout June and July 2009 with our youth partner, Forget Sithole. By reacquainting ourselves with the community and collecting information regarding the need for a safe and open space in Uta, we were able to base the development of the community centre entirely around local interests.
Conducting personal interviews with about 200 community members, we collected information for the
development of the project and identified interested community members to begin the formation of a project committee. It was vital to develop a committee that represented the whole community: men and women, youth and elders, empowered and marginalized. Approved at a community meeting on 23 July by the Community Development Forum (local political body) and the Induna (traditional headman), the Uta Community Centre Project Steering Committee (PSC) was finalized as a group of thirteen members dedicated to the development of the project.
The PSC voted on positions within the group and began to develop their vision of the community hall based on the data gathered in the interviews. Committee members visited community centres around the Manyeleti region to gain insight into the successes and challenges of similar initiatives. The PSC prepared a report for the Induna and the CDF detailing their plans for approval. The CDF and the Induna have agreed upon the location, size, and purpose of the building. The rights to the land are being secured through the Amashangana Tribal Authority.
For construction, the Project Steering Committee has chosen to work with a contractor from the area based on his experience in the community. The PSC is organising the purchase of materials available locally and the contractor has hired labour in coordination with local leaders. Seven of eight builders hired for construction are members of the Uta community, generating local income and a better sense of pride and ownership.
The planning and development of the community centre has been defined by the Project Steering Committee’s dedication to the needs and desires of the community. We have completed capacity-inventory and asset-mapping activities with the committee members based on the Asset-Based Community Development model. We want to ensure that the work we do is facilitating sustainable change in the community, rather than simply placing a band-aid on poverty.
The Uta Community Centre is not solely a physical resource, but a starting point for the growth and development of community programs in health, education, entrepreneurship, and empowerment. The Project Steering Committee has taken this vision and expanded upon it. As a group, they have based the plans for the community centre on the desire for space for community meetings, business and computer training, health and fitness education, gardening and feeding-schemes for poverty reduction, and drama and cultural performances. Committee members have begun to shape these ideas into plans for community groups and initiative to be incorporated into the centre once construction is completed. Some of their stories are described below.
Construction of the community centre began on 2 December. Currently, the foundation has been dug and cement is being poured. After the holidays, the brickwork will begin and the centre should be completed within four months. The centre will feature a large hall for community meetings, with a stage for group performances. Incorporated into the centre will be four smaller rooms: a business development facility, a space for health and fitness initiatives, a storeroom, and a kitchen. The stand on which the centre is being built encompasses space for a large community garden and the land will be enclosed with fencing. There are toilet facilities in place and the Project Steering Committee is researching options for a water source. All of these features will ensure that the centre is a safe and open space for the entire community. Each aspect of the centre will be utilised by different groups within the community, led by members of the Project Steering Committee and other local leaders.
