Project Matoso, Phase One: Reconnaissance
Phase one of a project is the reconnaissance. In Early Jan of 2009 I went out to Kenya with a desire to understand more about what life is like in rural Africa. As I traveled I, as well as so many other westerners who travel to third world areas, was filled with ideas that I would like to implement in order to improve the quality of life of the friends that I was beginning to make in those areas. What I quickly realized was that there was not something that I could substantially do for everyone and every condition that I saw, but there were certain things that I could do under certain conditions. I decided that the aspect of humanitarian work that I as an individual could approach and actually impact was on the level of rural community development. At the rural community level you will find people very distant from education, infrastructure, resources, trade and often times food and water. Through observation and discussion I learned that with only thousands of dollars, one could assist in the development of these areas in a way that could improve the quality of life of such communities members for generations to come. In that, the reconnaissance began.
Having benevolent goals and even a sustainable and progressive model alone does not warrant success. The project location needs to carefully be chosen. In searching for the right place I began to realize the characteristics that would support a successful project. We were looking for a significant level of need matched with a significant amount of potential. Several factors played into the potential equation: possible water availability, decent physical resource availability, soil potential, manageable social and political conditions and most of all, trustworthy leadership. In retrospect and even in the midst of an ongoing project we have come to realize that in choosing the right location for a project NOTHING is more important that working in an area that presently has benevolent, selfless, hard-working, respected and trustworthy leadership.
Matoso is a village on the shores of Lake Victoria nestled in the Southwest corner of Kenya. This village contained all the factors that I was looking for. As we lived among them for several days, eating and sleeping with them, we began to ask as many questions as possible in order to develop as comprehensive of an understanding as possible of the disadvantages that oppress them on a daily basis. I sat down and met with the local leader and discussed what I had observed and I asked him what he would like to see improve in his village. His wife and him brought many wonderful ideas to the table and I shared ideas that came to me, simply as a result of being raised in the west and obviously seeing the things that were lacking. We set up a plan and developed a relationship. I told him that I would be returning to America in order to raise money for Matoso and that I would return as soon as possible. I went home, recruited some friends, officially created our organization and we began raising money and planning our project. I spent many nights on skype, talking to Maurice, the local leader via his African cell phone in order to prepare the details of the project. Several months later we had the volunteers ready to travel to the other side of the world, a clear plan in place and about $10,000.
Project Matoso: Phase Two
Crew: Our team consisted of four individuals.
-Kris
-Cory
-Nichelle
-Jill
After almost 100 hours of travel we arrived in Matoso ready to get to work. We had brought duffle bags full of all the things that we were not interested in looking for in Kenya, including solar panels, batteries and laptop computers. We were able to borrow a home in the community we would be working in and set up shop there. We organized several community members to make us two meals a day and we got to work. For the next two weeks we worked around the clock in order to accomplish our objectives and fulfill our mandate. Our project consisted of four main pillars.
Community Center
The central aspect of our project was our community center. We needed a building to serve as our headquarters as well as a venue to educate the community. We spent the two weeks that we were there simultaneously building the structure as well as building the organization to bring life to our building. We hired a contractor to oversee the construction. We as well as volunteers from the community worked very hard in order to complete the project. While the building way underway, we began to shape the functionality. We recruited and hired a manager. Then we hired a teacher who would be teaching ages 5 and 6 basic primary education in the mornings. We then began to recruit and train individual already skilled who would be able to teach music, computers, chess, driver’s education and in the future, other topics that open up serious doors to development for the community. As a generality, Africans are used to paying for school and for classes. With this as a norm, were are able to charge a small fee for each of the classes, which will weed out those who do not have real intent, as well as create a sustainable model in which the teachers are supported by the classmates and there never presents a strain on SCHAP financially, no matter how many teachers we have teaching. The community center symbolizes the nature of our projects in general; bringing some small capital and vision, then mobilizing the individuals and the muscles of the locals to add fuel to the vision and thereby empowering them to empower themselves.
Waste Management
This was an effort of our project that we were very proud of. In observing horrendous amounts of litter on the ground, one would first assume that they are lazy and careless. A deeper analysis discovers that the root of the pollution lies in the fact that they have no system in place. We take for granted that our waste management system evolved organically as our waste evolved. For rural areas of Africa, non-biodegradable waste came onto the scene a couple decades ago with no plan or system in place to manage it. We realized that picking up the trash ourselves would not be able to have any sustainable impact on the community. Although it might be pretty for a couple days for a photo op, when we left, the wrappers would continue to fall on the ground. If you did not have a trash can in your bedroom, and then a large one on the side of your garage, a man with a giant truck you conveniently comes to your home and takes it away for you and multi-million dollar landfills that stretch for acres and acres you would inevitable drop your trash on the ground as well. Conclusion: create a system and educate the community on that system. We started by digging two micro landfills. The pits were 6x9 and 5 feet deep. We had to eat through the dry soil and rocks and the blisters were abundant. Once the wholes were dug we built block walls inside the pits in order to make them permanent. One of the pits was designed for physical trash and the other was designed for biological waste, with the purpose of serving as an organized community compost pit. The next phase of the operation was to build trash cans out of 1 ½” by 1 ½” lumber that stood about three feet tall. We lined them with chicken wire and we placed them in various parts of the community. Each receptacle came in a pair: one for physical waste and one for biologic waste. We held several different community meetings in which we sat down with the leadership in some instances and sought to gather the entire community in other and teach them the principles behind waste management and the system that we had helped them to create. One on of the last days that we were there we gathered about 100 children together. We had brought with us new T-shirts and cotton dresses from America. Each child was issued a trash bag and a mandate to fill it three times with trash from the grounds of the village and empty it in the newly constructed landfills in order to qualify for their prize. Hours later the Village was no longer covered in trash and we heard people saying, “Matoso is clean now!” Lastly we hired a garbage collector who will be responsible for emptying the public receptacles and taking the trash back to the landfills, as well as organizing the dispersal and use of the newly collected compost. Reports are that the community is still clean and the system is successful.
Micro-Loans
The third pillar to our community development plan was to institute a micro-lending program. In so many cases, the most significant hurdle to progress is the lack of capitol. A family may merely subsist for years and years, fighting meagerly for survival. This same family, if that had been able to make some basic capital investment of $500 for some tools or resources, could have been able to generate a healthy living and lifestyle. A micro-lending system is far more sophisticated than simply giving people money. There must be education, plans, accountability, collection and perpetuation. We began by announcing that we were going to be giving out two loans for new fishing boats (Matoso’s main resource was fish from the lake). As we began to have applicants we educated them on the nature of the loan and the terms and conditions. We helped them to create a business plan and we interviewed references. We helped them to develop repayment plans and savings plans. We worked for days and days interviewing potential recipients and reviewing applications. Throughout the process we began to educate the community regarding the matters that we were teaching our applicants. The applicants naturally shared the qualification process with the community. Towards the end of our project we selected the two recipients. We taught the manager of the community center how to administer the collection of the loans and laid out for him the commitments that the two qualifiers had made. The most important factor in this process was that we announced to the community that as long as these loans were repaid as committed then we would be able to return in our next trip and provide a significantly increased amount of loans and for other industries than just fishing, thereby creating a social pressure for repayment.
Health Education
One of the most important things that we can bring into a rural area is information. Some of the most important types of information are details about how our human bodies work. Simple explanations about the heart, germs, STD’s, eyes and teeth can prevent physiological tragedies. Our health focus for this trip was oral hygiene. We chose this topic because I figured it was the one that could have the most impact coming from non-specialists. Once we arrived we began to announce that we would be giving a seminar on oral hygiene. We brought with us about 150 toothbrushes, floss and baking soda. On the day of our event about 200 people gathered together in order to better understand how to take care of their teeth. We explained saliva, tooth anatomy, plaque, cavities, other oral disorders, chipped teeth, need for healthy gums and how to brush and floss. Like every other aspect of our projects, we try to put a sustainable twist on everything that we do. Giving out toothbrushes and floss would not prove real intent and it would not pave the way for future purchases. We decided to charge a small fee in order to show them that they do have to make an investment in order to take care of their mouths. As proof of a successful seminar we sold EVERY single toothbrush that we had and had a blast at the after party! People approached us for days thanking us for the information.
Conclusion
We did everything that we did with less than $10,000, a team with little experience, no credentials and very little time. The root of our success was that we submerged ourselves in the community. We ate what they ate, slept as they slept and played as they played. Because we were really able to connect with them on their level, we had no problem recruiting volunteers, mobilizing people and establishing trust. With those things in place, a group of four college students could accomplish anything. In addition to that we worked with local leaders throughout the entire process and helped empower local leaders to lead people and teach the community the things that we had taught them, so that much of the vision was delivered to the Kenyans by Kenyans. We are extremely pleased by this last project and look forward to our opportunity to visit Western Kenya as soon as possible. We have already been asked to come back and carry out similar projects in other communities in the same region. With your help and support we can make this a reality. Please take a moment to visit our donations page if you are able. Also, for further detailed information, please visit my travel blog @ coryglazier.blogspot.com.
