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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.
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.
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 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.
Posted by Saul Garlick, Executive Director
We are in the midst of the second phase of our Global Development Program in Kayafungo, Kenya. As we speak, the students are working hard to complete monitoring work on our past development projects. They are meeting with community members and leaders, teachers, students and partners to understand the impact that the Secondary School we built is having on students lives, to learn how youth are benefiting from the latrines we constructed at 14 schools, to see how behavior has changed in a community that received our Community Health Training workshop programs and finally, to see how families are benefiting from the new water dam built at Katsangani.
The group remains motivated and hard working, and we are excited to
see how their efforts lead to new projects and initiatives that will
continue to create opportunities for others in such a poor, rural
area. Life in the homestays has proven very rewarding and informative, and students have actually been requesting to spend more time in the local homesteads than at our small motel that is 15 km away. The cultural immersion is intense and exciting, and the group has really enjoyed it. Yesterday we spent the school day with the Youth Polytechnic, a wonderful community run school where children learn practical skills (construction, carpentry, metal work, auto repair) so that they may get jobs in the future. This was so inspiring, and we joined them for sports in the afternoon.
Posted by Saul Garlick, Executive Director
Last week, SMRC asked its supporters to help us build a Dam and a Secondary School. We were running short of funds, and your help would get us past the finish line. Well, you did it, and here are the pictures to show your impact. Thank you so much!!!
Posted by Saul Garlick, Executive Director
Lily Muldoon, project director of SMRC, was featured in the National newspaper in Kenya for her outstanding work in Kayafungo and her commitment to the people in that location. The article can be seen here.
Posted by Saul Garlick, Executive Director
Three days ago we sent an email to our members and supporters to help us complete a classroom and water project. We were not only going to fall short on funds needed to complete the minimum project goals, we were going to cancel final touches that would make our work more effective. Instead of committing 450,000 Kenyan Shillings to building a dam, we were going to downsize to 350,000, which would render the project limited. We nearly couldn’t complete a classroom. Because of you, that all changed! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Saul Garlick, Exec. Director
With Lily and Vanessa working hard in Kenya on our Global Development Internship, there is action for SMRC in the community. In addition to being busy with logistical planning, two projects continue to consume our Project Director, Lily’s, time. We are building a Secondary School classroom at Mwijo, a village in Kayafungo, Kenya, and a dam with the community for rainwater collection. Get involved: http://tinyurl.com/bo6wb8
12:00 AM Nov 01, 2008
A Letter from Lily Muldoon from Kayafungo, Kenya
Dear Friends,
Hope you all are doing well. SMRC has just received a $40,000 Rotary Grant for our Kenya Water Project, and I am proud to report that our project is progressing quickly here in Kayafungo, Kenya. We are half-way through with our first series of health workshops and are nearly complete with the construction of our first latrine. Read the rest of this entry »













