School of St. Jude

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20TH

Today I used my free weekday to go visit a school just outside of Arusha, St. Jude. For those of you who don't feel like clicking around the website, here is a brief excerpt from the 'About Us' section:

In 2002 a young lady, Gemma Rice (now Gemma Sisia), from a sheep farm in Australia, opened a small school in Northern Tanzania with the help of her family, friends and local Rotary Club. What started with only a handful of children and one teacher [again, in 2002] is now in 2009 a thriving school of almost 1200 children, 130 teachers and 200 staff. In January 2008 another free primary school with an initial enrollment of over 550 children opened. These schools really have the potential to influence the quality of Tanzania's future leaders.

Over 90% of the children at the school receive a totally free education as local and international sponsors individually cover the costs of not only the educational fees but also the uniform, stationery, transport, hot meal, snacks and drinks of each child. What makes this school even more special is the fact that this success comes about due to the group effort of thousands of ordinary people from all over the world coming together to do something quite extraordinary. Individuals, families, schools, church groups and service clubs are joining forces by supporting the school's various sponsorship programs.

Every day staff and students work hard to fulfil the school's philosophy of "Fighting Poverty through Education" helping our students break the cycle of poverty that has gripped their families for generations. If this is what such a team effort can achieve in six short years, then imagine what could be achieved in ten years!

Author's Note: Bolded font and bracketed comments added by me

If you think this sounds like an amazing place, you're right. I had heard about this school several times from the moment I arrived, as it has a reputation for being one of those 'small miracles' here in Africa. What the blurb doesn't mention is that in order to even qualify to attend there, your family must pass a 'poverty test' to prove that you are truly in need (While public primary school is free, it is often overcrowded and the quality of education is poor. And not only does St. Jude offer a superior education, it also offers free meals and, once the students get to 4th grade, free boarding throughout the weekdays as well). Yet even with this poverty requirement, the school still turns down hundreds (maybe even thousands) of students each year who show up for testing to be admitted into the school. And having actually now visited, and been to several other Not-For-Profits (NFPs) in Tanzania as a basis for comparison, I can tell you that I understand why the school is in such demand. The sheer scale of the place is incredible, and the resources that they have, including a large computer lab, an arts and crafts wing, several libraries, and a science lab, are luxuries that I have rarely seen or heard of in Africa, let alone all in one place.

As I was walking on the tour of St. Jude's, I couldn't help but think about something that has been on my mind a lot since I arrived in Tanzania; a Not-For-Profit's ability to deliver it's service. Specifically, I was wondering what seems to separate good NFPs from great ones (I have to believe Jim Collins would be proud of me). At any rate, here is a short list of five factors I came up with that I believe have the biggest impact on the success of an NFP:

Vision: I don't believe simply having leaders who dream big by itself differentiates one organization from another (although I do believe most people and organizations vastly underestimate their potential). However, if you have leadership that sets huge goals, and then is able to inspire others to share that vision so those goals are constantly permeated throughout the entire organization, then I think you can truly differentiate yourself. This is also important from an external marketing perspective; if you can convince potential donors and volunteers to share and believe in your vision, you are much more likely to succeed.

Networking: Everyone has heard the saying, "It's not what you know, it's who you know", and I think it's entirely applicable to NFPs. Those organizations that have a network of motivated, skilled, and wealthy people will have a much easier time staying funded and finding capable volunteers (I mean wealthy as a relative term. In Africa, any Westerner would be considered wealthy enough to have a considerable impact on the organization. For NFPs in the US, you might truly need to be wealthy to be able to make a 'significant' contribution).

Excellent Management: I think this has the potential to be a huge differentiator from one NFP to the next. When I was still at Deloitte, I spent a brief amount of time working with one of the largest NFPs in the US, and one of the directors with whom I was working told me that he believed that oftentimes the people in the organization had "hearts bigger than their heads." This isn't to say he thought they were stupid; just that their desire to do good in the world often trumped their technical expertise and ability to effectively deliver their services to those in need. Also, not being governed by shareholders demanding a profit, they often didn't have the proper incentives to force themselves to develop it (e.g., they aren't necessarily measured by how many people they help, where a business manager would definitely judged by how much revenue his department is bringing in) . Because this can be such a problem, especially with smaller organizations (e.g., St. Judes, as opposed to the United Way), I think that those organizations who do have the expertise and abilty to effectively manage themselves are at a great advantage compared to those who are just learning as they go.

Excellent Strategy: I debated this one for a while, and decided that it did indeed make sense to include, although not in the same context as a business would gain an advantage with superior strategies. Businesses have a natural incentive to try and keep their strategy and technical expertise a secret to gain an advantage over those who are directly competing with them. Almost all NFPs, with the exception of those at the largest level who compete for both donations and talent, rarely feel they are in direct competition with other organizations in their line of work. St. Jude, for instance, isn't going to try and hoard the knowledge it has gained in the last six years from other individuals looking to start similar organizations in Malawi, or even other parts of Tanzania. Nonetheless, I think NFPs can benefit from superior strategy, specifically during their inception phase. Often organizations can set themselves up for mediocre success because they simply fail to fully understand the problem they are trying to help with. Are they addressing the entire problem, as opposed to just part of it (in my AIDS thesis in college, I read about how an organization was distributing anti-retroviral drugs to HIV victims with little success, only to realize that these same people were literally starving, and therefore even with the drugs weren't able to fight off the effects of the disease)? Do they understand all the challenges of addressing the problem, including from a political, economic, and social standpoint? It's questions like these that, when properly understood, can lead to one NFP having a superior strategy, and therefore a superior organization, over others.

Success Breeds Success: People like being associated with winners. This is as true with charities as it is with sports teams. When you are a proven organization that has shown it's capable of having a significant impact, you are going to have a much easier time convincing others to donate their time and energy to help you.

Again, this is all just guesswork; I have never actually studied NFP organizations to truly understand what differentiates one from all the others. Nonetheless, I think it's an interesting topic, and one I hope to learn more about, as I would like to someday in the future (and I do mean much further down the road), start my own NFP, although in what arena I don't know. If anyone has any materials on the subject, please be sure to let me know. Additionally, if any of you have any thoughts on my criteria, whether you think I'm wrong or that I might be missing something, I'd love to hear your opinion, either publicly through the blog forum, or privately if you are more comfortable with that.

Moshi Hike

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14TH

Today I went on a dayhike outside of Moshi – a town approximately 75 kilometres East of Arusha (Click on the link and zoom out to get an idea of it's proximity to Arusha) with another one of the hostel residents, Lauren, and our guide Mtui. The hike itself was in the hills above the city, which gave the whole experience a very ‘remote’ feel, despite the fact that we were only about a forty-five minute ride from the city center. The trail took us around a forest covered ravine between two hills, which culminated in a waterfall that was several hundred meters high. However, in addition to the natural beauty of the place, I also enjoyed the chance to hike through the local area villages and farms, sometimes literally through their fields. I was fascinated by how the natives of the area were able to overcome the challenges of their geography, and took great interest in the bridges and aqueducts they constructed, the fields that were planted literally on the sides of the hills (sometimes as steep as 25-35 degrees, in my estimation), and the small quarry we passed from where bricks were excavated for houses and local buildings.

The return journey back to Arusha was also eventful, although not exactly in a pleasant way. To explain, I have to first say that transportation in Tanzania (and Africa in general, from what I’m told) is somewhat chaotic. Nowhere was this more apparent that at the central bus station in Moshi. Upon arriving back to the bus station from the hike, Mtui was immediately swarmed by a group of about eight people, each one in charge of finding customers to bring aboard their own bus (As hikes in the area are somewhat common, these ‘customer scouts’, for lack of a better term, have learned that when you see two or more white people following one native, it’s a good bet that he’s a guide in charge of arranging transportation for the whole group). Mtui literally had to throw out a few solid juke moves and then run away to prevent these guys from physically pulling him in the direction of their bus, and I even saw some pushing and shoving between them as they were trying to fight off one another for his attention. Eventually, the most persistent of his pursuers dragged Mtui to his bus, where they negotiated a price for our passage. The story should have ended there, however, somewhere in all this madness something got lost in translation, and we wound up on a bus headed to Dar Es Salaam, the capital city, which is in the complete opposite direction of Arusha (not Mtui’s finest hour, to say the least, but we forgave him). We wound up getting off the bus at a weigh station and then waiting for another bus to take us back to Moshi, at which point we boarded a third bus to travel back to Arusha. All in all, it wound up being a two hour detour on top of an already long day, but nonetheless we did finally make it home, and just in time for dinner.

Volunteer Activities

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13TH

Update: As mentioned in my post from 12/1, I apparently didn't have a clear understanding of the Umoja Centre program at the time I wrote this email / blog post. The program is actually only one year, and upon completion the Centre works to find students sponsorships to go back into secondary education (high school), or to go to some sort of vocational training based on the student's career preferences. For those students who are unable to get into either of these types of programs (and there will be some, at least in the initial classes), Caroline has worked to find them jobs which are more skilled and therefore better paying than what they were previously doing before their time at Umoja.

(Note: The following post is an extract from an email I sent out detailing the volunteering I will be doing during my time in Tanzania. Therefore, many of you may have already read its contents)


For those of you who weren't aware, I came to Tanzania independently (i.e., not through a volunteer organization), and with little semblance of a plan. All I had was a local contact in the town of Arusha, a few links for lodging and Not-For-Profits (NFPs) that I could potentially look in to, and an opportunity to meet up with an organization in Southern Tanzania for the month of March (which arose from a meeting only four days before my departure). I have therefore been very active over the last week and a half visiting various NFPs, and have quickly committed to a schedule that should keep me busy for the remainder of my trip.


My time in Africa can be split into two parts: Nov - Late Feb, and Early March - Early April.


Nov - Late Feb


I will be spending these four months working with two organizations in the Arusha area, each for two days a week. On Mondays and Wednesdays I will be teaching at the Umoja Centre (http://www.umoja.com.au/ , I am told they are doing a large update to their website in a couple of weeks, so you may want to check back on this link). The Centre provides vocational training to underprivileged youths between the ages of 14-29. Students go through a two year program. In the first they learn basic life skills (e.g., English, Health, Rights) and gain an understanding of various career options. In the second year they are trained in a specific skill such as carpentry, tailoring, cookery, etc. Due to a current lack of funding, the school employs only one full time teacher, and must rely on volunteers to fill the remaining teaching needs. Starting this week, I am filling in the position of teaching computer (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, how to use the Internet, etc.). Unfortunately, the previous volunteer who recently departed left virtually nothing to go on, so a large part of my job will include lesson planning and documenting, which will help establish a consistent curriculum for students across years and make the jobs of future volunteers much easier (You will notice sustainability is a key theme in my volunteer activities. I want to do everything possible to ensure the work I am doing can be continued by others after I leave, rather than having new volunteers start over from square one). Additionally, I will be teaching and designing curriculum for a personal finance / intro to business class, which will commence when the new class of students begins in January.


The other organization I will be volunteering with is an orphanage, Cradle of Love, which houses infants as young as newborns to about 3 years of age (http://www.cradleoflove.com/). On Tuesdays and Thursday I typically head out to help care for and play with the children for about 4-5 hours. However, I will also be spending significant time doing an analysis of their donation and public relations strategy. Specifically, I will be analyzing what they currently do to raise monetary and in kind donations, and then will be recommending and helping implement improvements that should generate an increase in donations. I have already had an initial interview with Davona, the director of COL, and it seems there will be some significant opportunities to improve (FYI, for those of you with experience in this area, please let me know if you have any information or materials that might help me develop some expertise in this area).


Early March - Departure (April 6th)


Just before leaving the U.S., I had the opportunity to meet with a friend of a former colleague, David, who works with an organization called Global Family Rescue (http://www.globalfamilyrescue.org/). They are an organization that provides financial resources to families to help them start businesses and eventually become self sufficient. They operate in both Uganda and Tanzania, and are currently supporting over 30 families in the southern Tanzania area (I'm not sure about the statistics for Uganda). David invited me to meet up with him when he comes over in early March, and join a group he is leading to tour the southern region of Tanzania and meet each of the families the organization is currently supporting. He has then asked if I would then be interested in staying on for my last three weeks to do an assessment of the organization from a strategy and operations perspective. While the details are still being sorted our and the scope of the assessment still being defined, I am fairly confident that everything will get worked out and that this opportunity will come to fruition. I'll be sure to post updates as more details emerge.

Arusha

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH

Having been here for a week, I wanted to give a brief description of Arusha. Unfortunately, even after giving it much thought, I have found it difficult to think of a good basis for comparison. While I get the impression from guidebooks and other travelers that this is somewhat standard for a mid-size African town, I find it distinctly unique from anywhere else I've personally seen or read about. One reason I have so much trouble describing the city is because of the size. I would definitely call Arusha a town, as opposed to a city, but I've read from various sources that the population is roughly 300,000. I assume this figure includes many of those living on the outskirts of town, most likely living in neighborhoods far off the major roads, because the downtown area doesn't seem near big enough to house that many people. The other reason it's so difficult to describe Arusha is because there is such a strange mixture of elements that are usually distinctly separate in American, depending on whether you are in the country, a town, or a city. To better illustrate, I will just list out some bullet points of some general observations I have made:

- The main streets in the town are well paved and maintained. There is also other infrastructure, such as the drainage system, that are very well constructed (and getting a lot of use now, as it's rainy season). However, non-najor roads, even in the downtown area, are often nothing more than heavily trodden down dirt with the occasional rock sticking up from underneath.
- While there are several modern supermarkets, both large and small, the main place for locals to purchase goods is still the open market in the center of the city, where local farmers come to sell there goods and local buyers haggle them for prices
- The streets are always full of automobiles, although rarely full enough to cause heavy traffic jams like those in large American cities (and large Indian cities, from what I am told)
- Although my hostel is only a 10-15 minute walk from the main road, it's not uncommon to see a few cows or donkeys grazing on the side of the road. Similarly, its not uncommon to see people carrying live chickens to be bought and sold at the open market
- It's very easy to see the presence of western corporations, both in the form of advertising and physical products. By far the most prevalent is Coca Cola, but other popular brands I have seen include Pepsi, BP, and nearly all of the automobile manufactures (with Japanese brands being the most popular)
- Cell phones are very popular here (again, you can see advertising for these companies everywhere) and are used by much of the population within the city
- Within minutes of the downtown area you can find people tending crops on small plots of land
- The town is the capital of the region, and in being so has many modern government buildings, including a revenue department, a regional branch of the central bank, regional police headquarters, a city hall, and an international center that houses certain UN activities
- It is not uncommon to see people washing clothes or themselves (still clothed)in the local rivers
-There are several large 10-15 story buildings in the area, with more in the process of being constructed, but the vast majority of the town is comprised of small one and two story buildings and shacks

While I feel I have learned a lot about the city and way of life here in Arusha thus far, I still have many unanswered questions? Specifically, I am curious to know in what ways the city has changed in the past ten years and how quickly it is developing into a more modern city. I'm also curious as to the local citizens attitude toward this change, and whether they have the goal of becoming more like a western city, or whether they are against it and would rather preserve much of their traditional way of life. I will be sure to ask around.

Ujamaa Hostel

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8th

Not only has the hostel lived up to expectations, it has actually managed to exceed anything I could have hoped for. For 16,500 Tanzanian Shillings(Tsh) a night, or approximately $14, they provide lodging, breakfast, and dinner. They even do my laundry, with the exception of chupi (underwear), which I am responsible for myself. The place itself is about a 15 minute walk from the main road in Arusha, which actually makes it look like it's in quite a rural location. However, the security around the place is very good. It has a concrete wall around the entire complex, with broken glass stuck onto the top to prevent anyone from climbing over it (I don't mean to make it sound like a huge estate; it's just a small concrete courtyard out front, the actual hostel, and a fairly decent size backyard). They also have a guard on duty who stays at the front gate through the night. While this may sound a tad unsettling that these measures are necessary at the hostel, it's actually fairly standard practice for hotels, hostels, and larger homes.

View of hostel from the "road"

The hostel itself can house up to 16 guests in four bedrooms (3 dorms and a two person bedroom), although apparently they aren't very busy around the holidays. As of today there was only one other guest, however, there are supposed to be several others returning in a couple days from either trekking Mount Meru (located just outside of Arusha), a safari, or from the island of Zanzibar. In addition to the bedrooms and bathrooms there is also a living room area with several couches, a TV, and a bookshelf where travels can leave behind old books and pick out new ones to take. The hostel also has a DVD player and quite a collection of DVDs, which will be nice for times in the evening when I have nothing to do, or just when I'm feeling a little homesick. While I only committed to a couple of nights thus far, designed to be a trial run, I already feel very comfortable here and have a strong feeling that I wll be calling this place home for the next four months.

Backyard of hostel

View of Mount Meru from backyard (I'll try and get a better one on a clearer day)

Bedding, complete with mosquito net

First Days in Arusha

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7th

The last two and a half days have managed to be fantastic, uncomfortable, disorienting, and productive all at the same time. For starters, my sleep schedule has been absurdly out of whack. Although I slept the equivalent of a normal night's sleep my first night of arrival (midnight - 8AM), the schedule I've been on since has been anything but. On Thursday (after waking at 8AM)I slept from 1PM-8:30PM, 9:30PM-4:00AM, and then 6:30AM - 8:30AM on Friday morning (and missed both lunch and dinner in the process). However, in the last two days I have steadily readjusted, and I think that tomorrow I should again be on a fairly normal schedule. On the rare occasions I haven't been sleeping, I have been in town with Faustine, who has been more help than I could have ever hoped for. So far I've made it to an Internet Cafe (to let the family and friends know I arrived safely), an ATM, a currency exchange, and got set up with a cell phone. My next step is to find more permanent housing and continue to explore for volunteer opportunities. It turns out that Cradle of Love, an orphanage near Arusha that was suggested by my friend Jacque (who came here last year), does not have room for me to stay on their grounds. However, Dovana, the director did make it sound as if there may be an opportunity for me to volunteer, and invited me to go visit on Monday. As for housing, I have a promising lead called the Ujamaa Hostel. It is fairly cheap and even advertises that it can connect volunteers with organizations in need. Hopefully it lives up to the hype.

Arrival

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4th

After a grueling 31 hours of traveling - from O'Hare to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro Airport, and then a car ride from Kilimanjaro to the town of Arusha - I safely arrived at my destination tonight. The trip itself was very uneventful, with the exception of an emergency landing we had to make in Nairobi for a medical emergency with another passenger (and even that was much less exciting than it sounds). The only real part worth mentioning would be the last hour and a half since landing. I was picked up by my contact in Arusha, Faustine, and his friend, who owned the car, after landing about 11:00PM local time. I was surprisingly at ease for most of the ride, considering I had no idea where I was, how to get to our destination, what my hotel would be like, and that I had only just met the two guys I was traveling with. I think this probably speaks to Faustine and his friend, both of whom were exceedingly kind and willing to answer all of my questions as we drove along. Upon arriving here at the hotel, I wasn't sure what to think. Not that I had any expectations, but again, it was the middle of the night, I had no idea what part of Arusha I was in, and it didn't appear that anyone here spoke any English. Not exactly settling. However, once I got to my room my fears were put to ease. The room is fairly plain, but is still more than I could have hoped for. It has a bed (complete with misquito net), a private bathroom area that includes a sink, toilet, and best of a all, a shower with hot water, and it even has a small tv. I spent a few minutes watching a soccer match (no idea who was actually playing), and then decided I was better off writing a few words on my travels and heading to bed. Although I haven't a clue as to where I am, and only have a small semblance of a plan as to how I'm going to find volunteer opportunities, I do know that I safely made it to my destination, and that's enough for now.