“I don’t want to be cliché and say that this summer was “life changing” but it was pretty extraordinary. I not only learned what poverty is really like and the role of non-profits, I learned a lot about myself. I wouldn’t change this summer for the world. I strongly recommend that anyone interested in doing an internship think big and take a risk, because you never know where you might end up.” Read the whole article by Chelsea on her ThinkImpact experience

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.

Back in Mariakani again and had a short time on the internet to connect with the outside world. I feel so oblivious to what is happening globally, as the only news we get here is in Kiswahili and primarily focused on the health of Raila Odinga (the Kenyan PM) as well as the upcoming vote to change the Kenyan constitution. It is quite nice though to disconnect from technology and just enjoy talking to people and spending quality time with others!!

So to quickly summarize this past week, the interns moved into the second chunk of our work here in Kayafungo, where we started with capacity inventories. Basically, we go around our subareas in Kayafungo, mine being Mbalamweni which is soo huge, but absolutely beautiful with palm trees and lush green everywhere. Along with our translators, we just go to different homesteads and ask people about their skills and talents. The point of the capacity inventory is to tap into the resources and assets that community members have, so as to get a better idea of the strengths of the community, as well as meet people that we potentially will establish partnerships with to launch a social business or advocacy project. It has been really incredible to find out about the hidden skills and talents of everyone we met. Nick and I met this incredible man Michael who just talked to us for about an hour and a half while grazing his cattle (and my feet were getting eaten alive by fire ants) about his crazy life experiences doing just about every job. He, along with several other community members I met, were very inspirational because they told us point blank that they didn’t want handouts, as USAID and the traditional aid system has focused on doing, but rather that they wanted the training and knowledge so that they can pull themselves out of poverty. So that was pretty incredible to hear their amazing mentalities and that they want to achieve for themselves…and that is exactly what ThinkImpact and my own personal philosophy on development is, that just handing out money to impoverished people (though out of good intention) ends up being detrimental and creates an atmosphere of total dependency, making it virtually impossible to break the cycle of poverty.

So after we met people and just found out about their skills and talents, the second half the week was asset mapping, where we made lists of the groups, institutions, physical resources and prominent individuals existing in our sublocation, just to get a good overall view of the community and what strengths it has to offer. It is so crazy that we have only been in the community for 2 weeks, since I already feel that I have learned SOOO much about Kayafungo, Giriama tradition, Kenya, and just the daily lives of the people in Kayafungo. And I’m slowly picking up Swahili as my host family patiently drills it every night while we make dinner! It really has been an incredible learning experience.

Okay, really must run now, but everything is going great, feel like I’ve been here forever and definitely feeling at home! Next weekend we are going to an island called Ngomeni, which should be incredible, so I’m already excited for that!!

Kelly Souls

GDI Kenya 2010

Written 6/21/10

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.

1. Arianna Pattek is a student at Georgetown University

“My name is Arianna Pattek and I am a sophomore hailing from sunny south Florida. I can’t wait to spend my summer in Kenya! I am looking forward to building lasting relationships with my fellow interns and the community members I encounter while learning as much about their culture.”

2. Nick Taylor is a student at the University of the Pacific

“This summer, I’m looking forward to really applying what I’ve learned these last four years of undergrad to a real grassroots operations. It will be an amazing eye opener to what’s really going on in development, as well as hopefully becoming a stepping stone to other life changing possibilities! “

3. Leslie Sadeghi is a student at the University of Tennessee

“I am excited about spending my summer in a place completely out of my comfort zone, learning about a new culture, and meeting so many new people. I hope to learn more about addressing poverty issues, public health, and misconceptions of the developing world.”

4. Lesley Martin is a student at Fairfield University

“I am excited about working in Kenya because I will be challenged everyday.  Each day will be a new and different type of learning experience.  That is why ThinkImpact is so unique because it forces you to think outside of the box in order to face challenges that the village and community experiences.”

5. Kelly Souls is a student at Georgetown University

“I hope to fully immerse in Kenyan culture, form relationships with community members in Kayafungo, and successfully empower the people of Kayafungo to create positive and substantial changes in their lives.”

6. Stephanie Parish is a student at the University of Michigan

“I am extremely excited to immerse myself in the Kayafungo community for 8 weeks. I want to understand better what it means to live there and what changes need to be made. Entering the experience with the knowledge that I am not the expert, I hope to learn enough to assist members of the Kayafungo community in creating their own change. I hope that as a group, we can make an impact through the ideas we develop and the relationships we create.”

7. Patrick McLennan is a student at Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver

“My name is Patrick McLennan and I’m a M.A. Candidate in Global Finance, Trade and Economic Integration in Denver. I’m really excited to complement my academic learning in the classroom with professional experience in the field.  Everyone I’ve talked to that has been to Kenya explains that there is a rhythm to the country and the African continent as a whole, which sounds amazing!  I’m really excited to not only do good work for the people of Kayafungo, but to bring my experience back home to my program and my future career.”

8. Jessie Blekfeld-Sztraky is a student at Mary Baldwin College

“I am looking forward to this upcoming summer opportunity to live, work, and understand the Kayafungo community on a personal level. I am excited to work hands-on and understand the difficulties developing countries face.”

9. Paul Wood is a student at the California College of the Arts

“I’m very excited to be a part of such an interesting interdisciplinary team of GDI’s.  I’m curious of how this trip will will shape me as a designer and person.  I’m especially thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from the local community of Kayafungo, to be open to their way of life, and to discover how design can play a role globally, in addressing extreme poverty.”

10. Casey Anson is a student at UC Santa Cruz

“I am currently a Junior majoring in politics. I have worked on development projects in Mexico and Arizona, and I’m very excited about working in Kenya for the summer.”

11. Anna Gilmer is a student at Tufts University

“I am extremely excited to participate in ThinkImpact’s GDI in Kayafungo, Kenya this summer. This internship will be the beginning of my relationship with Kenya and with Africa as a whole; it is a region I have always wanted to get to know, and I will now have the opportunity to start doing so. The mission of ThinkImpact and the ideology that seems to be behind their model of development work is one with which I identify very strongly. I can’t wait to learn from the people at ThinkImpact, as well as from my fellow GDIs and the people of Kayafungo. It’s going to be a great couple of months!”

ThinkImpact would like to welcome our guest blogger, Fehmeen Khan. to BigThink, to tell us about her experience with microfinance and the work she is doing.

–

There are four choices for those who realize we’re in the middle of a microfinance revolution: oppose it, watch peacefully from the sidelines, occasionally support the idea in accordance with one’s personal capacity, or become an active participant of this noble cause.

I chose the third option.

Microfinance Hub was born the day I made this decision and I haven’t looked back since. The aim was to create awareness about the penetrating social implications and remarkable financial returns of this phenomenon, and a website seemed to be the most effective method of achieving this feat.

I had no exposure to this field prior to late January 2010; in fact, all I knew about it was that Professor Yunus, the ‘father of microfinance’, won the 2006 Noble Peace Prize and that my dad had only just joined a local microfinance bank.

But that was enough to get me started and I soon came across ThinkImpact’s blog, as well as a few other valuable resources that welcomed me into the complex yet fascinating world of microfinance. It did not take me long, however, to realize there was a relative dearth of information about this topic, despite the honest efforts of many well-wishers, and I thought I ought to do my part in filling this gap by shifting the focus of my site.

As a result, over the last couple of months, I’ve covered various areas related to trends, challenges, technology, services and the economic impact of microfinance itself, and in effect promoted other people’s efforts as well as my own.  Many people from around the globe drop by my site each day and show their support in their own way; some leave comments, others subscribe, yet I attribute my greatest pleasure to simply being able to help answer their questions about microfinance.

No wonder my dreams continue to flourish. I know one day, maybe after a couple of years, Microfinance Hub will live up to its name and become a central source of simplified information for anyone interested in microfinance. Now, my aim is simply to educate others about this idea, so somewhere down this road, when the World Bank is forced to eliminate the concept of the poverty line because no one lives a life of economic deprivation, I can look back and be glad that I played a part in this revolution – a small part that was commensurate with my individual capacity.

Name: Fehmeen Khan

Website: Microfinance Hub

URL: http://microfinancehub.com

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.