Muzungu reloaded

Wycleef, a 37-year old albino Kenyan man, tells us his story. It goes without saying that it is not easy to earn a living in the greatest slum of Africa and even more so when you suffer from racial discrimination throughout your whole life. 

However, today, after many years of struggle following the death of his parents during which he did not lose hope for a better life, Wycleef is now the proud owner of his business and he is husband and father of two lovely girls. Today he waves good morning to us with an honest smile on his face. 

We can’t help but feel overwhelmed when we hear the story of this man, who, fighting against all odds, has managed to change his life thanks to a microcredit. 

Thank you for teaching us how to believe…

‘’He succeeded because he didn’t know it was impossible’’.

Who are "Them" ?

Hi! Today I would like to explain the main motivation behind this initiative, the driving force that lead us to start “More for Them” (English translation for our Spanish name “Mas Por Ellos”). In order to understand this, it’s necessary to understand who “Them” are and the reality they face.

Today we went on a fieldtrip to Kibera to interview the people who were going to start out microcredit program. Although we had been there before, this trip turned out to be an awakening and revealing experience for me. Let me try to convey what I felt by telling you a little story. I was standing with the interviewee in the middle of a narrow street which seemed to be the natural flow for a river of black water when a man approached me asking for help for his niece. He handed me a notebook written by a child and I started reading the page he pointed at. The story tells how she was playing in the river when she suddenly saw people running because a fire had started. She decided to go with them. Once they reached the fire they all tried to extinguish it but their efforts were not enough. The story ended there. When I lifted the eyes from the paper I saw a 7-year old girl, with a burnt face, staring at me. Next to her, the man who continued begging for help and the interviewee with a sad look on his eyes due to the lack of attention I was paying to him. I had never felt so powerless and experienced such a deep sadness. I cried. Nobody noticed. I was crying inside.

Kenya is a place where everyone says hello smiling. However, Kenya is also a place where most of the smiles hide what we would consider dramatic life experiences; kids walk through garbage, they live surrounded by flies and their houses are no bigger than what your bathroom would be.

My name is Pablo, and before deciding to move to Kenya I suffered many sleepless nights. Now, I couldn’t be happier. I am determined to fight to change this reality. I am aware it is impossible to change everything, but one thing is clear, nothing is going to change if we don’t try.

Now it’s time to write the hardest part of this blog: asking you to help us with our project by telling our story to your friends and relatives (Facebook is a good way to do so). You will help us a lot by just encouraging your friends to “follow” us. You can participate in “Mas Por Ellos” in a very meaningful way even if you are not in the field with us.

Imagine for one second it works and that in a week we have 10.000 followers… Achieving this outcome depends, partly, on you. 

“Nothing changes if nothing changes”

When experience overcomes expectations

I start writing this post in the airport in Kenya after saying goodbye to Erick who brought me here. I can’t stop thinking of how I will answer to the question I will be repeatedly asked when I get back to Spain; ‘‘How was Kenya?’’ ‘‘How is the project going?’’ Incredible, real...it’s difficult to explain everything I’ve learnt and lived these days.

The first few days we were busy looking for an apartment. Our aim was to find one with big rooms where we could fit bunk beds where long-term volunteers could stay. For this, the apartment needed to be near Kibera, where all our efforts are going to be focused for the development of this project. 

After some days of walking through the neighborhoods of South B. and Langata, we came across the ideal apartment in a surprisingly quick and easy way. Moving was a difficult story. In only one pick up truck we piled up all our belongings and furniture Erick had given us, and held it all together with ropes, making a three meter tower. This can only be seen in Africa! What a team!

Installed in our apartment, we got ready to close the plot deal. We travelled an hour from Nairobi, near a small village called Kangundo. Red land, green vegetation, just as I imagined Africa. An incredible landscape. The idea was to find an ideal place to build the orphanage and the school, a place where kids could grow surrounded by a healthy environment and a place where a secondary school could really make a difference to the children of that area.

Before I arrived, Alvaro, Bea and Erick had already visited the area, so this time we knew where we were going, or at least thats what we thought, but as always, difficulties kept coming our way. There was always something wrong with the plots of land; we saw plots between valleys with incredible conditions but that ended up not being for sale; the plots that were on sale had owners which couldn’t be reached; plots that had none of our requirements; plots that were sold for 5 times their real price. This really began to burn our energy.

After weeks of problems, we all decided the best thing was for there not to be any ‘‘muzungus’’ (white people) when we visited the lands, so Erick spent the weekend in Kangundo, where his girlfriend, Monica, lived. It was the only way to close the deal once and for all, if Erick did it on his own. Not long after, we almost had a plot of land, one which had everything we were looking for and which we ended up deciding to buy! We arrived at Kangundo with little hope, but Erick is AMAZING and he reached the expectations. Even more, he overcame them.

(photo; andrea de sancho)

In spite of the problems we had with the land, we didn’t want to stop moving forward in other aspects. Not everything is easy, especially not in Africa. There are moments of frustration in a project like this one, cultural differences which need to be overcome, and impotence. It’s important not to drive to despair and to keep moving forward.

We were in Kibera several days and we met a lot of small businessmen with different businesses. These would be our first contacts for our microcredit program which will start as soon as COOFUND starts working. We visited orphanages in Kibera and Mathare Valley. We met a Kenyan architect, a geologist and our new lawyer! 

In conclusion, we have done this, and much more. We have a thousand little stories that we will continue to tell and that made us go home every day with a huge smile on our face (although always very tired and hoping it wasn’t your turn to cook...because nothing beats Bea’s spanish omelette)! I will come back in January and it will be incredible as we will begin to build the orphanage. I can’t wait, but I don’t think I will ever forget my first face to face with Africa..where my experience definitely overcame my expectations.

Álvaro Mesonero Romanos

‘‘Give what you have so that you deserve to receive what you ask for’’ St. Agustin.

Integra-e

Not long ago, we had the opportunity to meet Jaime Moreno, the social founder of Integra-e, an example of a social enterprise created in Spain which is slowly making its way into the new technological sector.

A social enterprise is created with the aim of mitigating a social problematic. Integra-e looks to mitigate the social exclusion of young people through information technologies. In addition to this, a social enterprise acts with the efficiency of a business, but prioritizing a social benefit instead of an economical one and contributing to mitigating a social problem in a sustainable way (exclusion and missing opportunities).

Integra-e is a network of organizations and people who’s goal is to generate social work integration opportunities for young people in a vulnerable situation with prolonged unemployment, through information technologies. Integra-e identifies those young people who confronted important personal complications in life, making it difficult for their cappacities to have the chance they deserve to develop. Once they’re chosen, they enter in the integral inclusion itinerary formation, access to work and entrepreneurship support. These three phases seek, not only to contribute to the technical capacitation of these young people, but also to build in them, a real interest for new technologies that can help them grow as people.

All this work is done, exploiting idle resources by ceasing the use of infrastructure, the donation of equipment and the volunteers.

You can follow them on facebook.

Jaime gave us very good advice on how to face the challenge of developing our social entrepreneurship program in Kibera and some guidelines that will for sure help us very much.

We encourage you to get to know more about this project that is helping young people, giving them a second opportunity and the option of exploiting their huge capacities channeled through information technologies. We are sure that if you try their services, you will be greatly satisfied. 

Here is a video that explains how Integra-e works:

We want to thank Jaime for all his help and hope to be able to collaborate with Integra-e in the near future.

‘‘Don’t ask for a light weight, ask for a strong back’’.

Harmony

About a year ago exactly, my girlfriend and I were coming back from spending a month volunteering in an orphanage in Buea, Cameroon. During that month we did many things and met a lot of people, like Harmony. She was a 1 year old girl who was part of the group of babies of the orphanage. She caught out attention from the very beginning, as she wasn’t able to walk or crawl, which at her age was quite strange. She had no physical disability, but when you live in a place where there are no more than 5 adults taking care of 100 children, there aren’t enough hands to help you give take your first steps, literally. There were thirteen babies like he. The way this orphanage worked was by assigning one of the 7-8 year old veteran kids to the new baby orphans that arrived. These veteran orphans were the ones in charge of feeding the babies or changing the pieces of cloth they used as diapers. But those kids were children, and 7 year old children should play and learn, not become parents. Our work there was mainly focused on helping these kids take care of the babies. We would arrive and feed them, change them and take them out of where they slept so they wouldn’t always breathe the same filthy air or so they wouldn’t spend all day laying in their cradles that never ever dried from their own urine. 

We spent a lot of time with Harmony. She always ate with a smile on her faced and never stopped being happy. She loved looking at us, playing with our watched or bracelets and touching in amazement Elisa’s blonde hair. We decided we would teach her how to walk and slowly we did it. We did it in the only was possible; being by her side and giving her confidence.

We asked about her story and they told us that unlike the majority of the other kids from the orphanage, she hadn’t been abandoned. She had a mother and a twin sister who both died during her birth. Dying during birth is very common in Africa. They died because when giving birth in a street full of feces and mud it is very easy to get infections. Infections which can be treated with antibiotics which still haven’t reached Cameroon. 

Our month passed and we returned to Spain. One of the two people in charge of the orphanage, Mr. Fritz, promised he would write to us from time to time to tell us how things were going. His last e-mail arrived on the 20th of August. In it, he summarized how things had been going and ended the e-mail telling us that Harmony had left them. Telling us that at 12pm on the 10th of June without any explanation, she had stopped living. The cause was unknown and there were no highways in Cameroon anyway to try and discover it. Elisa and I were together when we read the e-mail and at that moment out bodies froze. We all know that children die in Africa because of the conditions in which they live, but not everyone knows that it happens to a beautiful baby named Harmony with who you have spent a month and have taught how to walk. At that moment we felt useless, we started thinking that on the 10th of june, at 12pm, we were at the beach after finishing our exams. We could have gone back after our exams, we could have taken her to a hospital that day, we could have spent 10€ on a doctor and medications, we could have saved her life. Maybe it wasn’t that. Maybe she was born with AIDS and was dying from the day she was born. One day when I was there I asked one of the workers how many kids had AIDS. He told us he didn’t know because the tests needed to diagnose the virus were to expensive.

You start to think of how you helped for that month, and then left. You left because you had your life here. Here, in Madrid, Elisa and I (especially her) help with children that have problems, that suffer the unjust consequences of drugs, abandonments and abuses. But none of these kids will die one morning with no explanation. Children that die like that are in other parts of the world, but especially in Africa. In Cameroon, Mali, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia or Sudan, more than 5 million children die a year from hunger, thirst and illnesses which in our country would be cured with a few pills.

I left, I continued by life here in Madrid, but there are people who went and stayed. People like Alvaro Perez-Pla, who left to Kenya and decided to continue his life there. Dreaming of opening and orphanage and avoiding unjust situations like that of Harmony.

Because of all of this, I wanted to write this post. I wanted to be able to transmit as quickly as possible the sensation that I have of impotence of not being able to do anything for Harmony. For all of those who read these words, you can realize that organisations like Más Por Ellos and heroes like Alvaro change the world and save lives.

Ignacio Ruiz Gallardón

‘‘What is difficult can be done. What is impossible should be tried.’’

Mama Mercy

I was lucky enough to meet Mama Mercy 4 years ago when I came to Kenya for the first time. I had gone to Nairobi to pick up my sister when she came to visit me. After 3 months in Makuyu, I was a little lost in the chaos of the city when, suddenly, a 60 year old woman appeared offering her help. It turned out she was also heading for Makuyu so we sat together during the trip. One question lead to the other and we ended up finding out that she had a project which she had started years ago. She invited us to see it.

She told us she had 300 kids in a shelter home. She talked about her ‘’kids’’ as if they were angels from the sky. She told us she wasn’t able to leave a single kid on the street and that just a few days back she had picked up a two week old baby from the garbage. Every time she spoke, you were paralyzed with her way of speaking, the warmth she gave off, the amazing person that she seemed to be and the craziness of everything she was telling us.

When we went back to Nairobi, this time it was to leave my sister at the airport, we had no doubt we would stop by and see her project. At that time I had only seen a few other NGOs from the rural areas of Kenya, some were Spanish, but I never imagined what an orphanage in a slum in Nairobi could turn out to be. In fact, I had never been in a slum.

It was Sunday and we arrived at Mathere Valley at 11am. We had a suitcase full of presents for Mercy; pads, diapers, toys, clothes… when we got off the matatu we realized it was impossible to roll the suitcase on the floor, in fact, we couldn’t even see the floor because of the amount of mud and garbage that covered it. With the suitcase on our backs, we walked down the slum until we reached the Good Samaritan Children’s Home. 

We found Mercy as soon as we walked in, and with one of her characteristic hugs, she made us feel like another one of ‘’her kids’’. We left the suitcase in the office and walked around the plot of land. As we walked around, two little children had escaped from the mass that Father Paul was giving, and were accompanying us. Mercy told us the story of one of the girls that was walking with us; she was abused by her father, and Mercy didn’t doubt one second before showing us the marks. By the time we reached Mercy’s room we couldn’t believe the unjust world we lived in. 

Good Samaritan has four bedrooms for 300 children, four holes where the kids can make their necessities and shower, an area where a fire can be made to cook, the office and Mercy’s room. We left for Spain the next day with a very different perspective on NGOs in Kenya. To find two babies that could have died if it wasn’t for Good Samaritan gave us hope and certainty that we had come across an NGO that was really making a difference, that was really doing things right and that really needed help.

My sister and I decided to have a photographic exhibition in the Pons Foundation, that very generously gave us a space in which to do it for a week. We were still in contact with Mercy and our idea was to finish the building of the orphanage. I went back in summer to buy the materials with the money we had collected from the now owners of our beautiful pieces of art. I was never able to see what had really happened with the materials I had bought. Now that I am back, I can tell you, they give shelter to the kids when it rains, they give them a place to eat with a properly equipped kitchen and they give them a teacher who gives class to those who are nor fortunate enough to have sponsors who pay for their school.

Once more, I leave Nairobi with more eagerness to go back to that small hideaway in Mathare Valley, where I was so happy a few years ago. I want to be back in Mercy’s world and be another one of ‘’her kids’’ and I feel it’s more than necessary that I share this story with all of you.

Mercy is a 60 year old woman who has dedicated more than half of her life to helping orphaned, abandoned or abused children….Remember her name; Mama Mercy. This woman deserves to be recognized for her amazing work, admired… we hope to collaborate with her for a long time and give her project the recognition that it deserves.

Thanks Mama Mercy!

If you have a moment, you can visit her web page: http://www.africacircleofhope.org/

Álvaro

"With perseverance and tenacity you can obtain what you desire; the word impossible has no meaning." Napoleon

Qwa Herini

Jambo!

I left Madrid on Wednesday, and headed for Nairobi. I had a layover in London. This is where I heard that there had been a fire in Nairobi airport. After a long wait, they told us our options: go back to Spain, wait in London or find an alternative route. I chose the last one, and 7 hours later I was flying to Uganda with a layover in Johannesburg.

The idea was to take advantage of my trip’s bad luck and meet Alvaro in Uganda for the weekend. We visited some damaged areas in Kampala and we adventured into the slum of Kamocha, where we got information on prices of schools and orphanages.

We came across a very interesting project – TLC- Treasure Live Center. This center gives informative talks on HIV, hygiene…etc. These type of programs have a lot of problems attracting people. TLC didn’t. What this organization did was attract young people with sport, music and other activities.

We met Lawrence, the present director of this program. To our surprise, the center received financing through social enterprises. A motorbike parking, a drinkable water distributer or an internet café were some of the businesses that gave life to this project, in the same way that this project gives them life. It gives them the opportunity to work and to take on projects, something not in the hands of many people from this area.

Without a doubt, it was an inspiration to us, as we aim for Más Por Ellos to be self-sufficient thanks to social enterprises. 

Back in Nairobi after an incredible weekend, I met Eric and Bea waiting for us at our small apartment in Umoja. The next few weeks will be very interesting and intense; we have little time to close a lot of deals before going back to Madrid. The idea is to find a plot of land and investigate on construction costs and costs for the maintenance of a school and an orphanage. In addition to this, we have to find an apartment near Kibera where we can install ourselves. Regarding the microcredits, we will talk with some of the people from Kibera to try and focus our program in the best way.

Hard work awaits us, but I’m sure we will learn a lot from it. Qwa Herini brothers!

Meso

"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory." Ghandi

Gift of hope

A few days ago we met Jacqueline, a Canadian girl who at the age of 17 came to Kenya as a volunteer. Coincidentally she ended up in the same organization that I worked with in 2009, and we both unfortunately left it, knowing that the donations given weren’t in good hands. The kids had everything they needed to live; a bed, food, education…but everything left over was going to the director’s pockets.

The director left his comfort zone once a month and travelled from his ‘’chalet’’ in Westlands, one of the best neighborhoods in Nairobi to the orphanage. He made sure everything was going well and he took some of the clothes donated by the volunteers. We weren’t surprised when we saw his daughters appear with something we had brought for the orphans, or that we had to pay for the paints. We weren’t even surprised when there wasn’t enough money for one of the kids to get an infection in his foot treated. The sponsors donations weren’t used correctly either. With the 25 Euros that were given each month by each sponsor, the kids collected once a month a bag of rice. However, they had to pay for the pens and books donated.

After some time living there, you realized that the incomes and expenses didn’t add up. However, it was when you stopped to talk to one of the workers when you realized what was the real problem of many of these organizations.

In my case, when this happened, many volunteers demanded explanations and instead of receiving a reply, we were kicked out of the orphanage or we ended up leaving ourselves. There was a time in which no volunteers were accepted so that the word wouldn’t spread. But not long after, Jacky had to leave the orphanage for the same reason.

Jacky didn’t finish school. She came here when she was 17 and two years after living that experience she decided to create a way to help other kids in the manner she considered the right one. It’s especially when you know her age when you realize and appreciate this gesture. When I was 17 I could only think about the weekend, going out with my friends, my summer trip or how much fun I was going to have in Christmas. She, meanwhile, was thinking of the best way possible to help as much kids as she could in some of the most affected slums of Kenya. Isn’t it incredible?

Jacky has just opened an orphanage in Donholm, a calm neighborhood near a slum, where she intends to focus most of her project. Eric had told me a bit of how she was organizing her idea. I had imagined a small apartment with a few rooms, but to my surprise, when we arrived, I found myself looking at a two story house. A security guard opened the door, we crossed a small patio and we arrived at the living room where we saw 11 little ones, eating rice and chickpeas at the table whilst a Disney movie (the Aristocats) played on the tv. Three volunteers, each from a different country, showed us the house and told us of the work they were doing. Whilst we played cards and football with the kids, Jacky told us of her idea to buy a plot of land, she explained to us how she received financing and showed us her webpage.

It was very motivating to spend the day with Jacky, getting to know an NGO so similar in so many ways to Más Por Ellos. We only spent a few hours with her, and judging by her smile and her way of telling us her story, she is submerged in a dream that has just begun, a dream similar to ours. We hope we can work with her in the future, learn from her experience and help her in any way possible.

Thank you Jacky for an amazing day and an inspiring example!

COOFUND, the key tool of Más Por Ellos

From the beginning, Alvaro’s idea of funding an NGO went together with the idea of creating an internet platform that would be useful for several purposes: receiving finance, sponsoring projects, coordinating our volunteer program…etc.

Throughout these months, we have realized it would be better to separate the platform from Mas Por Ellos so that other associations and NGOs can use it. Today, we are presenting it and telling you a little bit more of this part of the project.

When dividing our association; Mas Por Ellos and the platform, we had to think of a new name. After some brainstorming, we came up with COOFUND.

What is COOFUND? Above everything it is a tool, a tool for NGOs, private use, projects with need for financial aid, entrepreneurs, and people and organizations wanting to help. It’s the ideal place to put people in need in contact with people with the necessary resources.

How does it work? In COOFUND, people willing to help, will find many ways to do so. You can become a sponsor of a school class, with access to a continuous follow up of their academic evolution. You can also become a sponsor of a social enterprise, giving some of the initial capital needed to set up the business with access to the business plan and the business’s progress. You will also be able to donate to specific social projects like buying desks for a school or building a well.

A few months ago we won a contest organized by Trei, Emprendetreining. Thanks to this contest, we have been able to finance the creation of the platform, and more importantly, it will be done by very good professionals. It will be ready in a few months and that way you will be able to be up to date with all our projects.

Our friend Luis Pino is in charge of ‘‘drawing up’’ the first drafts, with ideas and suggestions from the whole team. He is doing an amazing job which we are very thankful for.

We will wait impatiently until the day when we can say that COOFUND is ready, so you can see firsthand the power that this tool will have to change the lives of many people.

"First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end." (Aristotle)