Posts Tagged → africa

Introducing Resolve Network

“There is a saying, ‘together people are strong.’ We could not have achieved this success alone, because working in isolation, it weakens you. What one woman alone could not do, we can achieve together”   – Mapendo

I first met the Founder of the Resolve Network, Vijaya Thakur, at a Kiva event two years ago. It was just one of those things. We clicked instantly. I was so inspired by her story, her energy, frankly her resolve. We talked about microfinance and women’s issues and how those issues changed in different parts of the world.

We stayed in touch and our relationship took a turn towards true friendship when we took a 8-week OpEd Project workshop together in 2011. I continued to look at the work Vijaya was doing at Resolve and looked to get more involved in her growing organization by offering tips, advice and counsel.

It is with great joy and truly an honor that I can share with everyone that I have officially joined Resolve Network’s Board of Advisors. I will act as an advisor on a range of topics but will focus my attention on social media, online fundraising, increasing donor engagement and expanding Resolve’s digital toolbox. It’s now my turn to reach out to some friends for advice and counsel as I join the amazing team, Board of Directors and other Advisors to help grow and scale Resolve’s work in the Congo and soon in other countries as well.

If you’d like to learn more, read below! You can also make a donation HERE.

More about Resolve:

Resolve Network builds peace from the ground up, empowering those most affected by chronic and systematic conflict: women. Through our work with women in Eastern Congo, Resolve reconstructs how peace is achieved and fosters creative and self-sustaining solutions. Our programs focus on developing comprehensive and dynamic networks of support for women peace makers, affirming their agency to enact their own visions of peace.

In the last year, we: 

› Launched 10 village microfinance cooperatives.

› Empowered 500 people to rise out of extreme global poverty.

We multiply our impact when we unite. The women of our program matched you step-by-step. As their businesses became profitable, they joined together to organize community building projects so: 

› 1,500 farmers grew more food and better fed 15,000 people thanks to a sustainable irrigation program.

› 20,000 people gained safe access to clean drinking water

› 30,000 at-risk people gained access to safe latrines, cutting their risk for cholera by 80%.

I personally believe it’s so important to support these small organizations that are nimble, cost-conscious and dedicated to helping people directly on the ground – minus the red tape. I am really looking forward to being part of this movement in a more dedicated way moving into 2013.

WaterAid & Instagram: A Photo Diary To Show The Impact Of Clean Water

I came across another great use of social media for social good/awareness that I wanted to share. This one is from the UK-based WaterAid. They have taken to Instagram and created a photo diary showing how a community will benefit from clean water and what kind of impact that can have along with sanitation on the lives of 134,000 people in Malawi.  It’s called The Big Dig campaign and can be found on Instagram @thebigdig.

According to this Mashable article, WaterAid is currently digging 34 new boreholes and 43 shallow wells, training more than 2,100 hygiene educators, and bringing 20,500 latrines to schools and homes.

So far, it’s raised more than £2 million, without the government’s match.

The campaign started in June and ended in mid-September. In-country staff followed a 17-year-old boy named Howard from the village of Bokola, whose life will be significantly impacted by a new well in the village. To give you some context, in Malawi one in eight children dies before his or her fifth birthday. The average life expectancy in the southeast African country is 52 years.

In an age where photography and visual imagery becomes increasingly important, I really like this use of “on the ground” photography to show real-time impact.

I’m on the hunt for more innovative social good campaigns. If you have any to share, leave it in the comments or let me know!

Support The Adventure Project

It’s always a telling sign when my favorite friends are suddenly all telling me that I simply have to meet someone because we’re from the same cloth and we’re destined to know one another. That is what happened with me and Becky Straw this fall. And honestly, everyone was right. We have tons of friends, passions and travel experiences in common and Becky instantly become a woman I not only wanted to be friends with but great admired. Soon it was my turn to be telling people about Becky and her new nonprofit, The Adventure Project. I’m proudly on the host committee for tonight’s Join our Nice List: A Celebration of Global Entrepreneurship honoring The Adventure Project and invited Becky to share her story of how The Adventure Project came to be and what we all can do to help.

If you’re in New York tonight, come on out and join us (RSVP here). For everyone else, consider making a $20 donation to buy a cookstove or shopping in their online store.

And now, Becky’s story.

*****

“People will tell you that it can’t be done. And you know what? They’re wrong. Nothing is ever impossible,” Gayle said matter-of-factly, before finishing off her glass of wine.
I admit I have ambitious dreams, but Gayle’s statements are not what I usually hear at happy hour. I was sitting in the clubroom at The Sheraton in Times Square, surrounded by five phenomenal women. Gayle Lemmon was speaking at the TEDxWomen conference in two days, and her friends gathered around her hotel room to hear her practice.

Gayle’s book, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, has recently become a New York Times bestseller, chronicling a young heroine working as a successful entrepreneur under the Taliban. I had been invited because my nonprofit, The Adventure Project, works with female entrepreneurs around the world.

To say Gayle’s speech resonated would be an understatement. She shared her stories behind travels to Afghanistan and Bosnia in her quest to meet heroic businesswomen thriving in conflict and post-conflict settings. I remember thinking, “Could I twitpic this, or would that come across as totally uncool?” She was bold, smart and honest. My mind kept repeating, “I want to speak as boldly as her.”

I want to speak out like her, because I share her beliefs.

A few years ago, on a ten-hour bus ride across Tanzania, I remember having a crisis. Too often, our aid dollars excel at giving, but lack long-term sustainability and measurable results. I knew it firsthand, and read it from theacademic articles strewn across my lap.

I know if more people invest in high-impact social enterprises, we can end extreme poverty. I came to theconclusion that I like charity, because it makes me feel good to give. But I want to support entrepreneurs, because I know it will change the world.

Two weeks ago I was in Haiti. I had not visited the country for a year, and I was hoping, quite frankly, it would look a lot better. The tents are still there, but most aid workers are not. Our hotel was almost empty. Two years ago, right after the earthquake, I slept in a tent in a hotel parking lot – every room in the capital was booked.

Last year, The Adventure Project supported the launch of a stove enterprise in Port au Prince. The stoves keep families from cooking over open fires, breathing in toxic smoke. The program now employs five women vendors, who earn commission selling the stoves at affordable prices. The stoves are also made locally, providing jobs for 15 masons.

On her stoop, under the hot Caribbean sun, I had a brief conversation with the best selling stove vendor. At only 19 years old, Noelle has sold 142 stoves in the last six weeks. We chatted about her business, her family, and what she purchased with her net profits (she invested in more stoves, of course).

I asked her, “Since you’re so young, what do you dream of becoming when you’re older?”

Noelle replied in two words, “The mayor.”

I smiled and thought, here’s a girl living in one of the poorest places in the world. Half a million people are still living in tents and 70% of the population is unemployed. Many people are eating only one meal per day, because all their savings have dried up. And yet, she’s a thriving entrepreneur. Noelle is selling stoves everywhere. She’s in the market, making house calls, setting up a display on her small stoop. She doesn’t just sell one stove to one customer, she sells multiple stoves to one customer. Delivering them in wheelbarrows.

I realized we may have given her that chance – but she took the opportunity, and ran.

Gayle perhaps said it best on Thursday, standing on stage in front of thousands of inspired minds, “We must move beyond micro-hopes and micro-ambitions for women, because they have so much greater hopes for themselves.”

And that is why my co-founder and I launched The Adventure Project.
*****

The Adventure Project is helping Haiti again this year, and we want to get 10,000 stoves into the hands of these vendors. To meet demand, they will expand the business to hire ten additional women, and support the four current vendors, and the one future mayor. Every $20 donation enables a stove to be sold to a family in need. Learn more at: www.theadventureproject.org

Celebrate Epic Thanks This Thanksgiving

Welcome to the season of Thanksgiving. It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving the past few years without #EpicThanks, a project of Epic Change by my good friends Stacey and Sanjay and their countless amazing friends, volunteers and supporters. Epic Change amplifies the voices and impact of grassroots changemakers and social entrepreneurs. I’ve written about their fundraising projects here, here and here. I thought it was time for another voice to be heard!

Make a donation HERE.

This is a guest post written by Adriana Mistick, a junior at Wheaton College. She also happens to be my sister! This past summer she had the incredible opportunity to go volunteer with Mama Lucy at Sheperds Junior School in Arusha, Tanzania. This is her story.
***
Addy and the students from Sheperds Junior School, Summer 2011

I’ve sat down to write about my summer in Tanzania so many times without ever being able to find the words orthe descriptions that are just right. I’ve decided now that it was one of those experiences I will never fully be able t explain or attempt to show with photos because what I really want is for everyone to be able to go and experience it for themselves.

It was early this year when I decided I wanted to do something different for the summer. I was about halfway through college at that point and had been lucky enough to take some time off early in college to help me get my head on straight. Now I guess you could say I’m focused. On what, you ask? Water and teaching kids, or teaching anyone I can, about water and our environment. I’m a self-proclaimed “water junkie”. Thinking about my summer and not knowing where to start, my sister Sloane (maybe you guys know her??) was eager to help me find a good match in terms of location and program. The moment I told her what I was thinking she had something perfect in mind but still worked wonders by facebooking, tweeting and emailing a personal ad for her baby sis.

EPIC CHANGE. That’s where Sloane’s mind was from the start and from the moment she first told me about meeting Stacey Monk at a conference and following their progress, that’s where my mind was too.

Epic Change has worked to raise money for a school in Arusha, Tanzania called the Shepherds Junior School. They have done this through various campaigns like TweetsGiving, To Mama With Love and even more recently were able to bring two of the star students, Gideon and Leah, from the first graduating class of 7th graders allthe way to America to tell their story across the country.

The school itself, Shepherds Junior School, was started by a woman named Mama Lucy, the most inspiring woman I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Sloane connected me to Stacey, Stacey to Mama Lucy, and then Mama and I had a brief email exchange before deciding that I was coming to live in Arusha for two months to work at the school. Even luckier than just being connected to this incredible woman was that my college thought it was a great idea too and awarded me the Davis International Fellowship, which came with a hefty grant, that made it possible for me to go. My favorite perk of the fellowship has been telling my story at different events and presentations on campus this year.
Each interview goes a little bit differently because there is so much that I want to say. My favorite questions are along the lines of, “What surprised you most about being there?” or “What is the most important thing you left with?”, “Did the experience change your thinking about the future?”

And my responses go like this:

They have some of the best smiles I have ever seen, you know those smiles you can see in their eyes. They truly hung on my every word and would spend break times coming up to me and asking more and more questions about anything. “What is the deepest lake in America?” or “Is there HIV/AIDS in America?” and “What is your favorite food in Tanzania/America and why?” to “How does the rain fall?” and “How does water become a cloud?” – without me even prompting them. I’ll be honest, the questions about the deepest lake in America or how many national parks we have I actually had to look up and come back with the answers another day. Thehave an undying thirst for knowledge, unlike I’ve ever seen it before.
In terms of changing my thinking about my future and the world’s future it comes down to one word, HOPE. It can be easy to feel defeated by many news stories and through studying climate change and listening to seemingly endless debates in politics that leave us with no real answers or solutions but seeing and working with the people at the school and the children there inspired me and gave me hope. It reminded me that people are stronger than we think and often times deserve more credit. The teachers at that school give up almost all of their time, even weekends, to teach and help those kids. Many of them go home in the afternoon when school gets out and will go to visit children in their village that don’t get to go to school and will tutor them, for free, from home. Knowing that there are people that committed to the future help me to believe that the future is going to be a good place. Those children at Shepherds Junior School, dreaming of becoming astronauts, doctors or teachers, I believe that they can do it. I know that if those children succeed, they will honestly make our world a far better place than we ever could have expected.

For my future, I now feel that I, myself, can make a difference. One person alone can be powerful, and change making. One person can start a school from nothing. One person can inspire hundreds or thousands of more people.
I am now one of the many inspired by Mama Lucy, Stacey Monk and Sloane Berrent.

And that’s why this year I am thankful for the places I have been, the things that I have seen and most importantly the PEOPLE that I have met.

Asante sana,
Addy

Ghana On The Horizon During November

The big news continues! Last week I relaunched The Causemopolitan and can’t tell you how much it means to me the incredible response I got from people all across the globe.

This week I am excited to announce a trip that has been in the works these past few months and has finally all come together.

I’m headed to Ghana!

My partner-in-crime Taylor Davidson and I have talked a lot about the way we want to contribute in the world, and we know photos, videos and stories can have a huge impact. I also have a connection to Ghana because of the Cause It’s My Birthday series from last fall and then also Kiva has a presence there and from my time as a Kiva Fellow I have been wanting to visit other countries and field partners.

My friend, Drew Meyers, who I first met through microfinance, helped with the birthday series and is just an incredible friend and like a brother to me, is going to be in Ghana in November with his friend Dan. They are volunteering for the microfinance institution Lumana Credit as part of their around-the-world journey.

With Drew there, the connection to Lumana, and a little bit of malaria nets left to deliver from Cause It’s My Birthday, it’s just too much coming together and too big an opportunity to pass up!

Taylor and I will be joining Drew and Dan in Ghana from November 8th until the 20th. We’ll be leading a few malaria net drops with local charities and NGOs, planning a “tech day” visit around Accra including Google’s office there and few startups we found through BarCampAccra and BarCampGhana, visiting a few cooperatives, exploring the countryside and making the most of our time there.

We’re always looking to make the most of our travels, and certainly my trip to Ghana is no different – and here’s where we could use your help!

  • People to connect with — Are there people in Ghana – whether they be techies, social entrepreneurs, or just amazing individuals passionate about what they do — that are “must meets” while we’re there? If so, I would love an introduction to see if we can coordinate something with them.
  • Connections at technology companies based in or near Accra – As I mentioned, on the November 11th, we’re looking to organize a few “tech visits” in Accra.
  • Tips, tricks or otherwise about Ghana.

I can’t wait for this trip, and to share much of it with you during and after with the content we create. I’m also going to be writing about what it takes to set up a trip like this (which has been a ton of work believe me)! If there are other things I can do to help YOU, as always let me know.

Here’s to Ghana!