Microgrants Update - Adam

First, I want to give a few pressing updates about orphanage business - then we'll move on to Adam's summary of the microgrants project and its current status! 

• Thank you to those who have donated for Ebenezer's care. He was released on Tuesday from the hospital, but was re-admitted yesterday (Friday). His chest has remained wonderfully clear, but he's caught the flu going around the orphanage, and had a high fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. He was admitted for rehydration and observation. Fingers crossed he will be out soon!
• One of the microgrant widows, Mama Agness (not the same one Adam describes below), was also admitted to the hospital on Thursday, along with her son, Evans. He has had chest problems since he was a baby, and we offered in the course of the project to pay for him to get medical care. When they arrived on Thursday, Evans couldn't walk because of extremely severe pneumonia, and Mama Agness could barely carry him, as she had severe malaria, anemia and dehydration herself. Both are now recuperating in the hospital, and along with our friends at SperanzaTanzania, we are trying to figure out the exact nature of Evans' long term problems. Many of the possibilities will require extended, long term care, so this is an issue we will touch upon again. 
• On a more positive note, we now have two orphanage bunnies! The kids are loving getting to know them. One is white and the other is black and brown - what could they be but Chundvi (salt) and Pili-pili (pepper)? 
• The solar panels are being installed as we speak, and they should be done tomorrow! Hooray!

Now on to Adam's updates: 

Things have been going extremely well with our community outreach microgrants project! In the last two weeks we have almost completely finished the first and most intensive portion of our project. We have analyzed each family in the program, and given them each the money or materials to be successful. In a few situations there are areas still pending, due to the difficulty of both transportation and communication in Tanzania (but that can be expected!). Those should be smoothed out within a few days however, and phase one will be complete. There are a few families that really stood out in our program and I have decided to highlight a few.

Meet Baba Sunday. He and his son are both HIV positive, living in a house together with no electricity and no stable source of income. When we originally went to see him he told us of his idea of becoming a carpenter, using skills he learned many years ago. The only problem was the lack of tools. We are funding his purchase of new tools and materials to get started.. With the skills he learned from our business seminar and the grants we hope he can use the planning to start a successful business and keep food and HIV medication on his table.

Meet Agness. She is a young adult living with her grandparents and several brothers and sisters. When we met this family we found out the Bibi (grandmother, 85 years old) was digging rocks to make an income for the family. Agness wanted to help and to do so we got her lessons in baking from a local friend, as well as her own oven and a small grant to start her off.

Meet Mama Massawa. She is a widowed woman taking care of 4 children. For her business she is taking on chickens for selling eggs as well as growing vegetables to bring to market. While her business is quite similar to some of the other participants, her attitude is not. After the targeted classes we had on raising chickens and agriculture she told our partner Rehema in Swahili, “If these people don’t succeed with all that you all have given them, it is not out of lack of help. It would only be laziness on the part of the people running the business. Thank you and god bless you.”

To hear her say that means a lot to the heart of this project. We want them to feel as if they are supported more than just financially. We have focused entirely on well-rounded businesses. Her words leave us confident in our efforts.

Sadly, I am back in America now. My partners will continue on, getting each family a bank account with a small amount of cash. They will continue to check on each family, and give support in any way they can.

We hope that all of our participants succeed, and the second phase of our project is just to continue to follow up on each family and their progress, through home visits and checks of their records. We hope that what we have given will be enough. The hard work of everyone involved has already shown. I speak personally when I say we all look forward to the future to see how it all pans out.

Microgrants guest post: Riz

Hey everyone! I'm here to give you all a general update on the progress of our microgrants project, before my colleague Adam posts a more detailed version in a couple of days, but first I will take this time to tell you all that Bekka was right - Tanzania is AMAZING. Being here and working in the local community and orphanage has been much better than I anticipated, and I couldn't be happier for this experience. But now, we get down to business.

The project is going extremely well, we're ahead of schedule, which has given us plenty of time to head up to the orphanage and hang out with the kids - who've all fallen in love with us, and definitely us with them! They are amazing kids who are taken care of by wonderful, and patient mamas. Mama Pendo especially, must be some sort of baby whisperer (Watch out, Cesar Milan!), seeing as she has the magic to make a crying baby smile in seconds, she is truly an amazing woman.

We've met with a number of families who're struggling to provide for themselves, and we are going to do our very best to give them the tools and materials they need to succeed - whether it be through the kukus (chickens!), or growing vegetables.

One situation in particular touched me the most - though that doesn't discount the rest of the families we've met with. It is of a grandmother in her 80s, who lives with her grandson, Frankie. Unfortunately, both of Frankie's parents are no longer around, giving his grandmother the responsibility of raising a young child on her own. Raising a child can be difficult at times for anybody - but for this grandmother, she's doing it on an extremely low budget with which she can barely feed herself, so she sacrifices her hunger for the sake of her grandson. She told us she spends most nights crying because she doesn't see a way out of this situation. It was a very moving meeting. As we were about to leave, she shook all of our hands with such passion, and told us that she thanks God that we came to see her.

Dad watching his son
during the first class

One other situation I was moved by included the story of a single father, raising his 6-year old son while trying to improve his struggling business. We met the young child, and he was full of zest (where do kids get the energy from?!), which was great to see. We want his father to have a successful business which produces enough revenue for him and his child to have a good life. We don't want them to be neglected, not when they desperately need our help.

Hanging out with the teachers

That is why we're doing this project, to allow families like these who deeply love their children to stay together without having to make such racking decisions. We want to help as much as we can, but by giving them the tools to improve their own futures, rather than through handouts.

While things have been going extremely well, we are working with a limited set of funds which is making us pay extra attention to finances. Currently we are trying to divide our original grant pool into 15 rather than 10 grants, which means less money for each person. We would very much appreciate any donations you can provide - even a small amount like $30 can go a long way to helping us help the families. So please give anything you can! We (and the families) appreciate it greatly.

Micro Grants Project

Whenever possible, we at The Small Things believe in keeping children in their communities with whatever family they have, be it biological or adoptive. According to UNICEF estimates, as many as one in six families in East Africa is caring for at least one orphaned or abandoned child. As part of our work with Nkoaranga orphanage, we are developing a pilot program which seeks to help those in the surrounding community who are outside of the structure of an orphanage, but who are nonetheless playing an active part in caring for orphaned children. We choose to support them not just because it is the right thing to do, but also to investigate whether this is an efficient and cost-effective way of keeping children well cared for without the intervention of orphanages.

Thriving local marketplaces

The program will seek to help families affected by parental death - whether they are families caring for orphaned children, families who have lost a parent and are in danger of having to give a child to an orphanage, or young adults who have been orphaned. The program will run for 6 months, and will target from 8 to 10 participants who fit the following criteria:

• Are living in extreme poverty, AND 

• either run a struggling business OR 

• want to start a new business. 

We are targeting individuals for whom a small lump sum grant (from $50 to $100), along with business training, will realize their potential for growth to the point where they are able to sufficiently care and provide for their households in the long term. We will also build an incentive component into the program, with a further grant allocated halfway through the program if they are meeting mutually agreed upon targets. Follow up will continue for six months using personalized “report cards” created for each participant.

Adam

We have a fantastic team working with us on this project. Learn a bit more about each of them, below!

Adam Ross Russell: Adam is an American third year business student at Bryant University who will be heading up this project. He has developed a simplified business curriculum, and will be working in conjunction with Rehema and Vaileth to teach it to the participants. He will also lead the participant selection.

Riz

Riz Kaiser Din: Riz is a graduate of the University of Hertfordshire, in southern England, holding an HND in Computing, an undergraduate degree in Software Systems for Art & Media, and a Master of Arts in Interactive Multimedia/Information Design, as well as prior experience in East Africa. He currently works as a graphic designer, and brings to this project his real-world experience of running an independent/freelance design business in the UK. He has developed templates for selection interviews as well as sample documents for the business course. He will also be leading the design of the personalized report cards, and lending his expertise on creating promotional business materials.

Rehema

Rehema Mussa: Rehema is a local Tanzanian young woman who was taken in by extended family at a young age, and studied through a local vocational program for orphaned youth after secondary school. She has experience as a secretary and teaching basic computer skills in the area, and knows the community and orphanage extremely well. She will be our head translator and assistant teacher as well as primary follow-up coordinator, and is also looking forward to developing her own computer training and graphic design business further.

Vaileth

Vaileth Pallangyo: Vaileth is a recent secondary school graduate who grew up in Nkoaranga and has attended school through The Foundation For Tomorrow, the same organization that oversees our kids’ schooling. She has recently started training as an accountant. As she wrote on The Foundation For Tomorrow’s blog, “Bookkeeping is my favorite subject in school. Some students dislike it but I find balancing books challenging... And because bookkeeping is my favorite subject, would you be surprised if I say I hope to become an accountant someday? I would run my own company after gaining enough experience working in other companies. I believe this is possible. I can make this happen.” We hope this will be a positive step on her path.

Thank you to the donors who made this project possible, including Joanna Waley-Cohen, Ramya Subramanian, Dan and Ellen Hart, Ed and Susan Brubaker, Erik Budlong, Emilie Jensen,  Kate Lamb, Max and Hilde Goldberg, Todd Learmonth, Josh Brownstein, Mary Jo Carter, Valerie Lamb, Allen DePalma, Lisa and David Loeb, Michael dePascale, Penny and Peter Branden, Ben Hart, Rita and Oliver Hart, and Ellen and Michel Plantevin!