Here is a bit more of that story…

Late one night in September of 2002, my mother was watching TV and was struck by a commercial. It was one of those commercials where they showed  children who are orphans and asked for your sponsorship. Most people change the channel but my mother was moved to help and immediately signed up to sponsor an orphan.  A few weeks later, she received a letter with a picture of Benard, a 12 year old boy from Kakemega, Kenya. He was wearing a blue school uniform and an awkward smile. She took that picture out and proudly put it in a silver frame on her mantle right next to a matching silver frame with a picture of me.  She now had two children.

Immediately, they started writing letters back and forth and soon created a wonderful friendship.  My mother learned about his love of Manchester United, the fact that he wanted to be a pilot and the names of his best friends in school.  He learned that my mother dreamed of being a writer, she loved to Salsa dance and that he had an American sister named Nyla. They would sign letters “love, your son Benard/love, your mother Stephanie”. When I would call my her she would give me the update about Benard-” …he is struggling in Swahili but acing Biology. ”  As the years passed, their relationship deepened and even though he lived across the world he became a part of our small family.

When my mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2005 the dream that kept her fighting was that once she beat cancer we would go to Kenya to meet Benard. Late during those sleepless nights, we would hold hands and we would imagine this trip to meet my brother. On January 2nd, 2006 my mother passed away and after weeks of grieving I boarded a plane to Kenya to fulfill her dream and meet Benard. I felt an overwhelming urgency to introduce myself and tell him in person that he was greatly loved by my mother and that I was his sister and now we would care for each other.

When I saw Bernard for the first time he was a quiet, shy, 16 year old boy who could not look me in the eyes. In his hand he held a copy of my favorite picture of my beautiful mother. The same one I kept in a frame on my bookcase because in it she is laughing and whenever I saw it made me smile. In this moment however it made me sob and this made him cry as well. Benard had already lost his biological mother and father and now we shared in the loss of our mother.

Then it dawned on me,  I had never had a little brother before. I was an only child raised by a single mother and the day my mother passed I had never felt so alone. I felt like my whole family had been taken from me. Meeting Benard brought me hope because I was not alone in my loss and we had each other to get us through the sadness. That night I promised him, as my mother had promised me, that if he worked hard in high school I would do everything I could to help him go to college. We ended the night, stargazing and talking about the mysterious ways of the world.  We knew that wherever my mother was she was smiling down proudly on her children.

Since then, every time I visit Kenya, I get to see Benard. I have watched him grow, finish High School and make the decision to become a Clinical officer. We no longer send hand written letters to each other but instead send email and Facebook messages. He tags me in the pictures that he wants me to see or posts announcing he has aced his exams or won his rugby match.  He is overcoming all the challenges the world put against him and continuously inspiring me!

People might take one look at a picture of us together and call this post a “white savior” story but the truth is Benard saved me.  Meeting him inspired me to create a meaningful organization that I am completely passionate about.  He also saved me by becoming my family at a time I felt so alone and forsaken. Watching how hard he has worked to become the man he is today inspires me and shows me the true potential and progress that is possible.  It shows me that when people care enough to connect, give and love each other despite everything telling them not to, they can truly change the world.   This is what I learned from my mother.  This is what Benard teaches me.  And I hope it is what you take away from this post.

I often look at that first picture my mother got in the mail of Benard and I think of her putting it in the silver frame. I think about how life is painful and unpredictable but connects us in the weirdest ways if we rise to the opportunity.

Now on my bookcase, next to the beautiful picture of my mother laughing, I have a new picture.  It is of me and Benard. In it he is a man and we are surrounded by his best friends from school and every time I see it, it makes me smile.

Click here to get involved with Mama Hope and donate to our newest campaign: Build the future: $50k in 50 days.

Graduate Student at USF in International Studies

Foreign Aid Horror Stories: What can be learned from them?

As an humanitarian and international studies student; I, like most people, look for ways to help those in need and hope that my efforts make a positive impact. Recently I came across this article on foreign aid disasters. The article talks about seven of the worst (although there are more) foreign aid schemes that had the opposite of intended effects leaving the country worse off than it was before. The schemes that stood out the most included the “One Million t-shirts for Africa” project headed by Jason Sadler. This project proved ineffective because giving away free stuff is first of all, unsustainable, and secondly assumes that the recipients want these t-shirts. In reality, dumping free or unwanted goods into less developed countries damages their local market economy creating a revenue decrease for local manufacturers and business owners. The same result happened with TOMS shoes as noted in the article. By shipping free goods to these peripheral countries it creates a rift in their markets and does nothing to solidify their prosperity in the long run. Where is the transfer of knowledge? Or the transfer of economic growth in this situation? Why don’t they manufacture the shoes in-country? I’m sure most of these organizations mean well but there are more effective ways to help people out of poverty. The first way is by asking them what they need, not assuming bags of t-shirts, shoes, or wheat is going to solve their problems.
http://http://matadornetwork.com/change/7-worst-international-aid-ideas/

Well-known author and former World Bank Research Economist, William Easterly, identifies a paradox of how imposed free market reforms do not work in developing countries. It serves to endorse my statement that external, top-down solutions are not the best ways to go for international development. He states that, “free markets work, but internationally imposed free-market reforms often don’t. The reason being top down solutions overlook the bottom-up perspective and how western markets don’t function well in low-income African societies. Markets everywhere emerge in an unplanned, free, adaptive way. I think even Adam Smith would agree with this free hand of market evolution. Therefore, the free market emerges from the bottom-up through complex institutions and social norms that aren’t so easily identifiable from an outsider or through a western lens.” (White Man’s Burden by William Easterly: 60-61).

After reading this article on the 7 worst international aid ideas, I was struck by the misguided altruism and paternalism that seems to run rampant in international development. FYI- International Development, broadly stated, functions to promote better, i.e. more equitable, standards of living economically and socially for every man, woman and child. Each one of those solutions held against this definition is a marked failure. In contrast, Mama Hope and other local, on-the-ground organizations that care more about making-a-difference than marketing-a-difference, are making significant progress delivering on the promise of International Development.

Mama Hope does not assume what a community needs, nor do they send market destructive goods that destabilize the economy. Instead, Mama Hope works with preexisting local institutions to design projects that the people want and will be able to manage and operate without international dependency. By working with 100 percent local labor and local community leadership, the people these projects aim to assist are able to provide better standards of living for themselves. In this way, the solutions last longer and continue to grow and adapt as the community dynamics change. Sustainability and self-sufficient projects are at the core of Mama Hope’s philosophy; they identify with the people and their ability to create their own solutions. Larger organizations, including the World Bank, lose that sense of locality when creating projects they believe solve the world’s problems with blanket solutions or . . . t-shirt and shoe solutions . ..Mama Hope is about sharing resources, cross cultural exchange, and working to assist in the building up of local African communities.

Learn more about the story of Mama Hope:

Mama Hope works in close partnership with local African organizations to connect them with the resources required to transform their own communities. So far, we have achieved our mission by funding the completion of schools, health clinics, children’s centers, clean water systems and food security projects impacting more than 76,000 people.

I recently wrote a new blog post with some updates about what’s going on in Bawjiase, including fundraising updates for new projects!

www.laurenghana.blogspot.com

For those of you who want a quick update, we have recently launched the
new United Hearts Website!  A great aspect of the new website is a blog, where I will be posting most of my updates
from now on.  Please check it out, share it with your friends and family, and give us your feedback!  www.unitedheartsghana.org

And, current fundraising updates: We have $880 and 3 days left to grant my birthday wish for the United Hearts Fish Pond!  I am fundraising $2,400 for my 24th birthday on March 1st, which will pay for about half of this sustainable project.  For more info, please take a look at my birthday wish, and consider donating to help enable a sustainable community for the best kids I know

http://wishes.causes.com/wishes/445295?bws=fb_stream_wish

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far, and has spread the word about this new project and our new website!  I am constantly amazed at the tremendous generosity of all of my friends and family, you are making such a difference at United Hearts!

Lauren

Greetings, my name is Lauren Wright and I have just spent 9 months in Bawjiase, Ghana in partnership with Mama Hope for the past year in order to build the new United Hearts Children Center.  Thanks to the amazing support of friends and family, I was able to raise over $35,000 for the new United Hearts orphanage, in which our children and staff moved into their new home on December!  This has been such an amazing journey; and it’s thanks to all of the amazing people who support United Hearts that this home is now a reality!

Now I am embarking on a new project, one that will continue to support the amazing children and staff at United Hearts.  I am fundraising to create a Sustainable Fish Pond, which is a project that will not only support the dietary needs of our children, but will also bring our center a viable source of sustainable income and support the local economy.  I will be returning to Bawjiase for 9 weeks this summer, and hope to complete this project while I’m there.  If you would like to read this project proposal, or read more details about the fish pond, shoot me a message!

While the total project will cost around $4,000, I am hoping to raising $1,000 for my birthday on March 1st.  I believe that through supporting United Hearts in becoming self sufficient, we will create a future community of adults that are dedicated to the future development of the Bawjiase community.  And it’s people like YOU who can make this a reality.

For more info about United Hearts, check out our new website: www.unitedheartsghana.org.  Thank you for continuing to support these children, you are unlocking the potential of an amazing community!

To give to or share Lauren Wright’s Birthday Wish, follow the link below:
http://wishes.causes.com/wishes/445295?bws=email_to_friends&m=1ac83f93

130 Participants!  72 Locations!  2 Continents!  2 minutes and 15 seconds long!

Call Me Hope is the second video in our Stop the Pity. Unlock the Potential Campaign which began with Alex Presents: Commando.  With this piece we wanted to push the theme of interconnectedness from observational to participatory.  We wanted to bring our friends and family in Africa into collaboration with their U.S. counterparts.

To the right are the people we live, laugh and work with on a daily basis in Africa.  Program directors, project beneficiaries, and neighbors… they are our dear friends and partners in Mama Hope’s mission.  To the left are the Americans that form our other Mama Hope community… resilient, forward-thinking, committed and involved individuals joining the movement to change the stereotypes that have blanketed an entire continent since guilt-based fundraising took over the development world.

Mama Hope Founding Director Nyla Rodgers works with Call Me Hope co-director Joe Sabia in the back of the Impala Express (Photo by Bryce Yukio Adolphson)

The idea for the Call Me Hope video was born in the back of bus near the border of Kenya and Tanzania this last July.  My colleague Joe Sabia (digital artist and filmmaker) and I were wolfing down nadazi pastries and playing mental ping-pong with Stop the Pity campaign ideas.  We’d amassed a lot of outlines exploring perceived contrasts and hidden similarities between our African and American communities, but hadn’t fully tapped into the energy that each of these communities exude.  Our Mama Hope partners on both continents needed to have a say in the project and to actively participate in its creation rather than act as displays to be captured and presented. After much deliberation and many samosas, the trifecta of our film concept emerged:

1. Call and Response

In Africa, it’s hard for us to finish a community meeting without a call and response song session.  Back in the States, YouTube is swamped with people singing along with their favorite songs.  It is a universal concept.  Done.

2. Split Screen
Naturally we couldn’t bring both sides together, so we needed to facilitate some sort of interaction (ideally clever). All the better if we could film people in their natural Africa/U.S. settings and have them match up.

3. Paul Simon
Honestly, we were tossing around some pretty ho-hum ideas until Nyla Rodgers, Mama Hope’s Founding Director, threw her unending love of Paul Simon’s Graceland and “You Can Call Me Al” into the mix.  It was the obvious choice both in tone and meaning (far outweighing Gary Numan’s 1979 hit “Cars”).

Gracie at the Moshi Girls Vocational School in Moshi, Tanzania. (Photo by Bryce Yukio Adolphson)

We started our Call Me Hope journey by assembling a team for this past summer’s Stop the Pity campaign: Nyla; Joe; and myself, Mama Hope Visual journalist and Founding Member, Bryce Yukio Adolphson.  We tasked ourselves with expanding the scope of what nonprofit video content could be.  In line with our Stop the Pity message, we aimed to show the direct opposite of helplessness and hopelessness.  We needed to present the truth that we experienced in Africa: capable individuals full of potential.

Each African community had a different take on the project.  Participants in the urban areas got it right off.  Like most of us here in the States, the idea of acting for the camera is fairly ingrained into their culture.  From Facebook to the movies, they’ve seen and experienced just as much as we have.  About 60% of our friends in the film actually knew the song and perked up immediately upon hearing it.  Our rural partners were different.  The idea of participating in a way that went beyond allowing access to their lives and a few interviews took some explaining.  Having worked with Mama Hope for the past five years, they were perfectly accepting of me and my camera.  Their trust was earned, but how best to explain what we were up to?

We eventually took to carrying around a rough cut on my phone.  Everyone would crowd around watching video footage of people singing Paul Simon’s lines and, of course, children dancing.  The smiles were infectious.  People instantly understood the message and their involvement.  Afterwards, it became difficult to put a cap on the number of participants lining up (there’ll be a much much longer cut when we go back next year).

Bryce Yukio Adolphson reviewing footage with community partners Amathe and Lucy in Kambi Garba, Kenya. (Photo by Amy Vaninetti)

Joe Sabia and Raffy Marty visit the Mama Hope projects in Kenya and Tanzania. Here is the first hike of many with partner project OLPS Director Anastasia Juma.

Jane Kanango harvests tomatos at the Mama Rita Rose Garden in Kisumu, Kenya. The garden provides nutrition to over 800 people living in the community.

Anastasia and Paul give us a lesson in bow and arrow garden defense.

Joe makes a friend named Phien.

Raffy's impromptu travel log with Helen, a member of the Mama Hope sponsored Woman's Micro-finance Group.

Dorcas, another member of the Woman's Micro-Finance Group, shows us her sewing business in Kisumu, Kenya.

Wherever we go, children tend to follow. We're a little like the Pided Pipper.

Mullen, Program Director of OLPS, gives a tour of the Children's Rescue Center in Kisumu, Kenya. Mama Hope is currently raising funds to complete this community initiated project.

Raffy does his best to help out with the Children's Rescue Center bricks. He later admits he has no clue how the rock working crew manages it day in and out.

A Mama Hope induced stampede at Nyomonge Primary School (aka a game of Mr. Fox).

The longest congo line in the history of East Africa.

Joe teaches geography and American slang.

Raffy plays netball with the Mama Rita Rose Garden women. Netball is basically basketball without dribbling.

... and with a soccer ball.

Nyomonge community meeting. Their most pressing need: water.

Amy dancing with the women of Nyomonge (a continuing theme).

Bryce getting down at the Mama Hope house party with with OLPS and project beneficiaries on our last night in Kisumu, Kenya.

Joe and Nyla editing on the way to Moshi, Tanzania. Total bus time: 30 hours in 4 weeks.

The Mama Hope team is now in Kisumu, Kenya. Yesterday we went out to visit the 87 women who work in the Mama Hope garden. I think we surprised them by showing up, because upon arrival they saw us from across the field and thought we were just a bunch of tourists… as we came closer they recognized us and the greetings of smiles and handshakes began. An African handshake is very different from how we greet in the U.S, and the handshake varies depending on the tribe you are visiting. It reminds me of when I was little and had a secret handshake with all my friends in order to enter our secret clubhouse. The main tribe in Kisumu is Luo and their handshake consists of 2 hand twists and 3 different had positions. It takes a couple times to get it down.

The women shucking away

When we got to the garden, half of the 3 acre field of corn had been chopped down and was in piles on the ground. We quickly learned that today was harvesting day. They do not have big machines to harvest crops as we do in the U.S. so everything is done by hand. The men were in the back of the field chopping down the corn stocks with machetes and stacking the stocks into 6ft tall piles. The women were gathered around the piles removing the corn cobs from the stock. The women were certainly excited that they were going to have two more helpers… because in Africa, when you are accepted as part of the group, there was no sitting on the sidelines and watching. They quickly put us to work shucking the corn. Now this in theory sounds easy… you take the corn stock, find the corn, break it off and then you’re done right?… Wrong. Here is how it’s really done. You grab for a stalk on the very top of the pile so it’s not buried and easier to remove. The stalk is bigger than you in height so it is pretty awkward to pull it out of the pile and stand it up without hitting the person next to you. I learned this lesson fast when I hit Pauline, one of the Mama’s next to me, in the head with my stalk. Thankfully she did not have a baby on her back. Then you find the corn cob which is covered in husk. To un-husk the corn you take a nail and cut the top of the husk, this is because the husk is a lot thicker than it looks and it would take forever to split it with just your fingernails. Once you cut a hole in the top of the husk, you begin to peel back the layers like an onion and tear them off one by one. Once you have done this comes the hardest part, getting the corn off the stock. The Mama’s made this look easy, but for me I would twist and pull as hard as I could and eventually it would come off. The Mama’s all got a kick out of this. They were probably thinking to themselves “Little American… why are you so weak?” Apparently doing office work at home in front of a computer has not prepared my arm strength for corn husking. After that day I questioned the renewal of my gym membership, thinking to myself “some good my working out has done.”

The men and their machete's

Corn husking in 90+ degree weather with no shade is not easy. I have to give it to the women for being the hardest workers I have ever seen. They started husking at 7am and by the time we arrived at 11am they were half way done with the field. By 2:00pm the entire 3 acre field (the size of 2 and 1/2 football fields) was harvested and being loaded into a truck to take to the mill. Once at the mill they pick off all the individual kernels of corn with their hands and then put the loose kernels into a machine that mills it into a finely ground flour which they call maize flour. The women use the maize flour to make numerous Kenyan dishes to feed their families and then sell the surplus at market to generate income. There is actually a shortage of maize in Kenya right now, so cost’s are a lot higher then normal which makes it an even more profitable crop. Corn is a staple of a Kenyans diet. The profit made from the garden allows the 87 women who work in the garden to support an average of 6 children, which includes paying school fees so they are able to get an education, an opportunity these women didn’t have when they were young. It is very interesting to hang out with the families because most all the women are uneducated and do not speak English but their children are fluent. So we often ask the children to be our translators. It is wonderful to see this new generation of youth living up to their potential.

The meal we ate for lunch with the women. The brown dish is Ugali which is made from the corn flour and eaten with almost every meal.

People wonder what we’re up to when we’re out with our project communities.   Here’s a taste…

Travel from Nairobi to Maai Mahiu: 2 hours.

Tuesday, June 28, 3:37pm: Visiting the chaos of Ngeya Primary School's 1700 student recess. It's crazy to think that the garden we fund here feeds them all daily.

Tuesday, June 28, 4:28pm: Attending the Ngeya Primary School Environmental Club meeting

Tuesday, June 28, 5:30pm: Plotting future projects with CTC youth and CTC Founder Zane Wilemon

Travel from Maai Mahiu to Isiolo: 7 hours

Friday, July 1, 3:08pm: Cell phone math with the New Jordan Women's Group in Isiolo, Kenya.

Friday, July 1, 5:48pm: Greg Mortenson got it wrong. It's 3 Cups of Fanta.

Saturday, July 2, 2:49pm: Flash mob dance off with our Kambi Garba water project community.

Travel from Isiolo to Arimet and back: 2 hours

Monday, July 4, 11am: Tie-Dye madness with the NJWG micro-finance group.

Monday, July 4, 1:48pm: Haight Street, Kenya.

Monday, July 4, 4:45pm: Poultry project is well under way in Kambi Garba.

Monday, July 4, 5:53pm: Kambi Garba partner Sarafina Lokoel pumps iron at the USAID gym in honor of the 4th of July.

Travel from Isiolo to Kisumu: 12 hours

Thursday, July 7, 2:52pm: Corn shucking with the women of the Rita Rose Garden in Kisumu, Kenya.

Total time in Matatu buses: 23 hours in 2 weeks.