Exactly What is Sustainable Community Development?

I have a personal mission.  To educate people in the U.S and in the western world about the difference between charity and sustainable community development.

So here I am on my soapbox.

There is a place and time for charity... like Haiti after the earthquake.  Charity is  temporary assistance for people who've lived through a natural disaster and need immediate funds for food, shelter and medical needs.  In the chaos following a natural disaster, people don;t have access to resources and are simply unable to organize and take action on their own.  

But charity is a temporary solution.  What must come next are programs that empower people, are locally operated and find creative solutions to become financially stable.

Initially funding for most U.S. non profits working in developing countries comes from two main sources...grants and individual contributions.  But many profits fail when relying totally on donor funds.   During the economic downturn resulting from the banking disaster in the U.S., donations dropped dramatically and scores of non profits in the U.S. were forced to close their doors.

Ideally, as an international non profit program grows and matures,  funding should include a greater percentage generated by local fundraising efforts and income generating activities associated with the programs.  This only happens if the non profit has a strong board of directors "in country" who are committed to the success of the program and want the program to eventually be locally "owned and operated."

This is called "sustainable community development."

Based on my strong belief in the concept of sustainable community development, Just One Person started working toward the goal of financial sustainability and local ownership right from the beginning.  

Initially, we relied on U.S. donor funding and we worked hard to develop a program for girls that is regarded as effective and valuable by our stakeholders....schools, parents, governmental agencies and employers.  Once we established and operated our program for two years, we registered in Kenya as an NGO and we invited several key members of the community to join the Board of Directors.  Our Board members all work in areas concerned with youth development and as a result, have a wide range of contacts in agencies and other non profits that share our mission and are are potential partners in achieving our goals.

The next step continues to be the most challenging but it's very crucial to perpetuating our programs. We launched our sustainable income generating activities.  We're fortunate that our executive director is an experienced entrepreneur.  We currently have several small businesses in the start up phase...some which generate small funds now, but several that will take more time to become profitable.  Among those businesses we've started are poultry raising, an apiary, mushroom production and manufacturing charcoal briquettes.  In addition, we employ several women to produce products that I sell in the U.S.

It's been slow going...but thanks to our committed and involved executive director and the support of our local Board, our goal is to reach 80% sustainability within the next three years.

Only by engaging the community and developing financially sustainability, will Just One Person be able to extend our outreach to future generations of girls who will be prepared to contribute to the social and economic well being of Kenya.

New Friends In Kenya.

This is Emma, our Just One Person executive director, her mother and her two aunts at her mother’s home in the village.  As you can see, Mama Emma lives in a traditional mud walled house on a small piece of land called a “shamba  The kitchen is attached to one end of the house and is split into two parts, the cooking area and the cow’s stall.  The cow lives inside so that it is protected from theft from neighbors.  The cow, “Mama Junior”, definitely noticed my white skin. While she stared at me intently, I could see the wondering look in her eye, trying to make sense of this alien being.  Emma’s mother and her sister grow maize in the backyard and some grass for the cow. Emma’s father and one brother are buried in the front yard.

While we were served chapatis and chai, a mentally ill woman appeared in the open front door.  She was only half dressed and as thin as a rail.  The scoop is that her whole family suffers from mental illness and it’s believed that the family must have committed a grievous wrongdoing to be suffering from this illness.  Mama Emma was very put out by the interruption to our visit and she somewhat unwillingly gave the woman some chapati and chai while insisting the visitor stay seated outside the door.  Later I found out that this same woman makes the rounds of the neighborhood every day for her meals and she had already visited the house earlier in the morning for breakfast, so today she taking advantage of my visit to double dip.  

The village was far off the beaten path in a place I had never visited before.  Driving through the countryside, I discovered that in this part of Kenya, time has been suspended.  People don’t adhere to a schedule that is dictated by time.  They eat when hungry and sleep when it’s dark. They get as much work done as possible during daylight hours, knowing that whatever else needs to done, will be done tomorrow or the next day.  People walk long distances to visit neighbors or relatives at no pre-arranged time, and are welcomed when they show up at the door. The pace of life to me as a westerner felt very surreal.

I wonder if it would be possible to learn to live with time suspended after having been governed by schedules since I was a baby…naptime, dinnertime, bedtime, time to go to school, and time to go to work.  Probably not, I think that probably my identity is too closely tied to the value of adhering to a socially acceptable schedule. 

My 2012 Africa Reading List

Kakamega is about 20 miles north of the equator and that means that every 24 hours there is 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night.  There's not a lot to do after dark, so I crawl into bed, under my mosquito net, and read and read and read.  Thank God for the Kindle.  In the old days, most of the weight in my suitcases was from the books I brought.  Here's some of what I''ve read so far...with my starred reviews

Patient Zero **                 A Framework for Understanding Poverty***
The Lock Artist***           Creepiosity*
Growing Up Amish**     1222***
                                    Defending Jacob****

Does anyone have any good suggestions?

Take a trip to town with me in Kakamega

I'm settled into my small room at my host's house, Kelly Nelima.  The cat has come to lie on my bed to keep me company today. I like to think she remembers me from the other years (this is the 4th year I've stayed at Kelly's) but I think she just likes a soft bed and some attention. It is very nice to have animal company.  I'm sitting and having a cup of coffee, made from instant Starbucks which I always bring with me.  There is a small breeze so it's nice and cool with the windows open.  For the second year in a row,  it has been very hot and dry here but they are expecting rain soon.  I'm not sure the expectation is tied to a weather forecast, which seems unlikely, but more to a positive attitude in hopes of influencing the elements.

Kakamega is growing by leaps and bounds, literally.  There must be 4 or 5 new 4 story buildings.  Apparently several major universities have opened branches here. So in addition to the students at the local university,  Masinde Muliro,  there are students from all over the country taking classes at these local branches.  Also, several new banks have opened.  It occurred to me yesterday when I was at the bank with Emma, our Just One Person executive director, why credit is so important in developing countries.  People living in poverty have access to only a small amount of money at a time. They can't really save because there is a cultural tradition of giving money to relatives or other people when they ask. A bank  loan fills the gap when people need to pay for things like school tuition or new business inventory.  Then with the small money they make each day, they are able to pay the loan back over time. 

 

The banks aggressive loan marketing has practically replaced the micro finance institutions in town.  The largest micro finance institution here, K-REP has closed it doors after 10 years because they weren't able to create enough profits to support their business and the funding from their big donor ran out.  I think one of the major reasons for micro finance failures is that, compared to banks, the cost associated with administering MFI loans is high.  A micro finance officer must approve the loans, provide business training, and pursue collections by attending borrower meetings each week.  The bank solves this problem by being an uninvolved third party.

The newest thing in transportation in Kakamega is the motorbike, or piki piki. 

 

 Just an aside, it is funny that almost all of the modes of transportation in Kenya have names that include 2 identical words....piki piki, boda boda(bicycle that carries people on a seat on the back) and the tuk tuk(a three wheel scooter with a cab).  My guess is that the words approximate the sounds the vehicles make...

There are hundreds of guys with motorbikes in this small town.  They buy them using a bank loan that's secured by the motorbike.  I don't see how they are able to pay back the loan.  With so much competition, they take only a few passengers each day.  It would be interesting to know how many are surrendered to the bank when the loan is defaulted on.  My experience tells me that with so many banks in the loan business,  the piki piki owners do what many people do in such a situation.  They pay off the first loan by taking a new loan from a different bank, therefore deferring the payments over a longer period of time and racking up more interest expense.  The banks are making a pretty good profit from this scheme.

Each and every year that I come to Kakamega,  I have a better understanding of the intertwined relationship between poverty, economics and Kenyan cultural traditions.  I also am beginning to understand the Kenyans perspective on westerners and money.  Just like us, the only thing most people know about each other's countries is what they see on TV.  We think there are lions and snakes lurking outside of people's houses; the Kenyans think that westerners all live in very big houses and have an ATM account that never runs out of money.  Until we experience one another's cultures, those beliefs will undoubtedly persist.