Give A Jumpstart

Fall 2008 Update

Projects

Give A Jumpstart will continue its support of and cooperation with Bumi Bwesu Youth Centre. The center will offer workshops in the community on topics such as basic business and accounting skills and monitor our projects, as well as continue their own work in youth education on sexual and reproductive health (Projects). Finally, we will be able to use their premises as a base for our operations.

After the success of last May’s social artistry-human capacities workshop, made possible by a grant from the Jean Houston Foundation, MariElena Granger hopes to teach a yearly seminar in human capacity building. (Projects, Letter from Zambia, MariElena's photos from this year's seminar).

Swiss Chapter of Give A Jumpstart

In order to better mobilize the Swiss community, Jody and newly found enthusiast Louise Vilen have formed a Swiss chapter of Give A Jumpstart with the official name “Jumpstart Switzerland.”

Personnel

Welcome aboard Suzanne Joyal, new board member, Director of Media and Public Relations (Board)

Hilary Harwin leaves the organization as vice president, but will continue to participate when time permits. We thank her for her invaluable photography, which adorns this website.

Events

San Francisco Fundraiser, July 2008, was a great success

Connecticut: October 25th 2008

Atlanta: February 2009

San Francisco: Winter 2009

New York City: Spring 2009

President's Message

2008

2007

Letter from Zambia: The Good, the Heinous, the Heartbreaking, and the Surprising

from MariElena Granger, June 2008

Dear All,

Of course, as I said in my other email, here are the specifics about the trip.

Please do not think this trip was all trial. It was as always an extreme experience. But I like those — reminds me I am alive. I did though, so very much long for one of you all to laugh with. Hassan — the Lebanese-Swiss med student was very earnest and serious about learning English precisely — we spent a lot of time discussing the difference between removing the baby - what the Swiss do and pulling or better yet yanking the baby out in a C-section — what the Zambians do. We became friendly. We would rush home in the evenings to watch "the show" from the back porch — the sunset on lake Mweru. One evening he returned to the house shell-shocked from a C-section in a woman with a perforated uterus, which resulted in massive haemorrhage and a dead child. He joined the women's group in the backyard and asked to hold the babies in turn. It's impossible, I think, for us to imagine the fortitude necessary to be a doctor.

RAY OF JOY PROJECTS

SEWING: Since the sewing class did not achieve anything between 2007-2008 (because they had no material to work with), all the children learned sewing, however there was no profit. I explained to Mr. Masonda that I would donate money for the sewing class for the very last time. I gave them 500,000K for material, which comes to $166, and 300,000K ($88US) for two teachers' salaries for two months. Currently, there are 15 students in two classes which meet for an hour a day, totalling 30 students learning sewing. Seven of those students are boys, who requested entry into the class.

CARPENTRY: USAid had given Mr. Masonda money to renovate the roof on the school. So while I was there, the school was roofless and classes were taking place sporadically underneath the shed while the renovation was occurring. So there are no photos of the carpentry or the tailoring workshop.

The carpentry workshop is going to be the real money-cow. USAid has also paid for the raw materials for desks to be made by the carpentry shop, which were much needed. But while the carpenter's shop was making these desks, it could not make anything for profit. The hammer mill is chugging along. The problem is that the electricity is very intermittent. In the four trips that I've been there, this is the worst it's ever been. The hammer mill and the carpentry shop are paying for the teachers' salaries, but the hammer mill has had to borrow money from the carpentry for necessary repairs. Stats for carpentry: also 15 students in two classes meeting one hour a day for a total of 30 students. Amazingly, 5 of the students in carpentry are girls.

RAY OF JOY SCHOOL: The most pressing issue at Ray of Joy is the increase in the numbers of students. When I started with them in May 2006, there were a little over 600 students. Now there are over 1000. The government is going to build 3 new classes. ROJ is hiring three new teachers. Our contract with the school will not cover the three new teachers. Ray of Joy doesn't want to include the new teachers in the existing contract, as it will sizably reduce their already meagre wages. The Ray of Joy bore-hole, where they get clean water, has broken. Ray of Joy had had enough surplus from our projects to buy a new cylinder. I, knowing nothing about bore-holes, enlisted Dr. Tomi's assistance and he came to check out the situation. He concurred that it needed to be fixed, because if not, the kids would be susceptible to cholera and that brackish, filthy water was inhumane in the first place. So I shelled out 450,000K ($133US) which Dr. Tomi and Mr. Musonda agreed was appropriate.

MARGARET: Margaret has bloomed under our small attention — photos following soon. She is now 15, which is interesting, because when we met two years ago, she was 11. She does not know what month she was born in — she said that maybe if her mom were alive she would know — but she does know the year. She has a year and a half of Ray of Joy left. She came to the house with a neighbour all dressed up in a suit to ask me if I could get her into an orphanage, where she could do all the cooking and cleaning, because she is worked to the bone living with her mute sisters and her sister's children. When she was at our house, she was thrilled to spend about 20 minutes playing ball with the neighbours' children. I told her that when she finished Ray of School, if she qualified, I would see if she could go to a boarding school. She jumped at the chance and asked if she could have tutoring now so that she could learn English, be better qualified for the boarding school, and speak to us without an interpreter. I left the nuns $125US for Mr. Musonda to pay for a tutor for Margaret until November. At that point, Jody, you can assess the situation.

A year ago, Margaret told me she wanted to be a nurse. She has now decided that she could be a doctor. She shadowed me for a couple of days while I was talking to the women's groups and appears to have quite a bit of English vocabulary but cannot yet string more than a phrase together. She and Mr. Musonda had already been talking about her leaving her sister and moving back into the enclave of huts where her grandfather lives. The grandmother died about six months ago, and begging was the sole source of income for the grandmother and grandfather. The extended family seems to have taken him in.

VERONICA

Veronica, you'll remember by this photo, is the little girl whose photo we use in the website in the contribution section. I missed her when I went by to visit her grandfather. She usually grabs onto me as soon as I come in, and I asked after her. They said that she had been in the hospital and had been very sick. They went to get her out of a hut, and it was like the worst picture of a starving child that you've ever seen. She was truly a bag of bones with a little skin on it. The mom told me that she had malnutrition, which didn't make sense to me as all the other children in that group of huts are raggedy and dirty but basically healthy. I thought she might have AIDS or some sort of disease that prevented her from digesting her food. I also thought that she might have been ostracized by the family, but the mom seemed very concerned about her and giving her very good care. I started taking her eggs and milk every couple of days. By the time I left, she was walking with assistance. So maybe it was just malnutrition — but why only she? I arranged that the Bumi Bwesu guys (Bumi Bwesu is a youth center which we contribute to. The guys are three young men, who used to work for Médecins sans Frontières, and who now run the center) that one of them, Mr. Grandwell, who lives very close to Veronica, would continue to take her extra protein every couple of days for a few months. I know we're not supposed to give direct aid to anyone except to Margaret, who we're sponsoring as an organization, but I did. I couldn't have not extended the gift of milk and eggs, and it's only until she's strong. Of course I worry about the ramifications once she is healthy, but the Bumi Bwesu guys are so sensitive and knowledgeable that I hope that they can extricate us from the situation once she's recovered.

KAWAMA
Well, as we have learned in Africa, it's one step forward, two steps to the side, and one step back. The roof that we had a barn-raising for — well, a vagrant made a fire in the school and burned down the roof. Mr. Chilembi, the overly slick head teacher from this destitute school, , gave me the report. The pigs bought last year were sold to put a new roof on the school. The crop was not planted because they were so busy putting a new roof on the school, which doesn't make a lot of sense since the fire was in July and planting season is in November. With what was left over, they bought the most expensive goats in all Africa. He also said that he had given away the soybeans to the subsistence farmers. The whole report stunk like three day old fish to me. Once again, I enlisted the three musketeers of Bumi Bwesu. They checked at the police station--there had indeed been a fire, but then they nosed around and found out that the soybeans had not been given to the farmers free and clear. Instead, after giving the farmers one bag of seed, Chilembi expected two bags of produce back. The Kawama teachers didn't understand the value of soybeans and could not find a market for them. On the last trip I had suggested that they talk to the Lushiba school and see how they were managing. At this point, I asked the three musketeers if they could teach the Kawama PTA and teachers a basic business course. And I said to the three musketeers that I didn't want to give any money to Kawama until Mr. Chilembi was no longer involved. The Kawama PTA/teachers had not really understood the report that Chilembi had given me as their English is minimal. They had also been thinking of removing Chilembi. Hearing the inconsistencies of the report when the 2 Bumi guys read it to them in Bemba pushed them over the edge and they removed Chilembi — as he's part of the city council and should not be a head teacher anyway. As it turns out, he was also hoarding some of the supplies for the children. Scum bag!!!!

TUCK SHOPS
Mr. Chanda, the head teacher has the financial breakdown of the four tuck-shops and he can send it to those who need it. The Kenani basic school had a nice little tuck shop that sold mostly sweets with a safe-room with bars that seems totally impregnable. The Kashikishi basic school also was running a very nice little tuck shop and had metal casing around the lock, making it impossible to open without a key. I gave each of them $100 a piece top off as both schools said that selling uniforms in the tuck shop would bring in more funds than just candy and sundries. The Nchelenge basic school tuck shop was broken into--they did not have the safety measures of the other two schools. But they were quite resourceful--after the break-in, they pooled their resources to sell uniforms in order to stay in business. The amount stolen was 877,150K, approximately $258US. Mubamba basic school also had inadequate safety precautions and had 1,000,000K stolen, $294US. I left money with the nuns that Mr. Chanda was to deliver to these two schools once they had adequate security (and not a moment sooner).

WOMEN'S GROUPS:
ST. PETER'S
I visited Jody's fabulous group of 35 sewing ladies. They gave me their financial report. They basically had $318US, which was approximately what they had when I visited them in 2006. After some discussion, they decided that they would keep the larger umbrella group and meet once a week while breaking up into smaller, hopefully more lucrative, income-producing groups. Three of the groups (baking, tuck shop, fishing) received the maximum amount that I could give, $580US; the last group only asked for $323US for a small farming project.

ST. PETER'S CHURCH SATELLITES
Through St. Peter's, women with incredibly meagre resources asked to be funded and I gave each group $147US. These six groups will also get a business course from Bumi-Bwesu.

RAY OF JOY
Through Mr. Musonda at Ray of Joy, four groups were formed, two from the community, teachers from Ray of Joy, and the wives of teachers. Each of the groups received $294US.

CHURROS
The Churros group formed last time were an amazing success. Last May, I gave them a grant of 575,000K ($144US exchange of last year) and they were incredibly resourceful. Cholera hit and they were no longer able to sell fritters to the schoolchildren because the authorities closed them down. They then started selling coal but discovered their profit was very small, so they started selling fish. They found this to be both the easiest and the most profitable endeavour. They now have a working capital of $382US — they doubled the grant and were so appreciative that we had gotten them started. It was a group of ten, so we split the group, left five of the group with the capital and funded a new group with a $294US. Both groups for the foreseeable future will be selling fish as that has worked very well for them--but if that doesn't work out, they will look after themselves and flourish (they don't need a business course!)

BUMI-BWESU
Jody put me in touch with Alex Kunda, an ex-Medecine Sans Frontieres (MSF) employee. He got together with two other MSF employees when MSF pulled out last October and they began a youth center called Bumi Bwesu, which literally translates to "Our Health." They are a wonderful trio. Nothing rattled them, nothing was too much. Alex is the head; he is wonderfully kind, a gentle, caring, intelligent soul; Mr. Grandwell is equally competent, but has a rascally sense of humour, which for my workshop was fabulous as I always used him to demonstrate; and the third, Jed, is the detail-man, does the books; he's a where the asphalt meets the road guy. I have never worked with a team anywhere that was so easy and pleasant.

When I needed help with Kawama, they were diligent and thorough in uncovering what had really happened. I left them with a stipend of $500, out of which they were to teach one business class to the Kawama community and help to supervise a very small project and also teach the St. Peter's group satellites. They will stay in telephone contact with the rest of the groups and will inform the groups when we are coming in order to prepare bank statements and proof of expenditures and capital. The Bumis gave me a proposal for $3,000-$4,000US in order to teach everybody a business course. I wish that I could have left them $1,000US in order to teach Ray of Joy community a business course as well.

I also thought that the St. Peter's ladies, as fabulous and competent as they have been over the last three years, may need a course to help them think bigger, as they have stayed in a static place over the last two years. The four groups now have juicy grants and ten people each, so hopefully they'll fly with that. I am so thrilled to have the three musketeers from Bumi Bwesu. Jody had said that she had been reading about how beneficial it can be to nurture these projects along with courses just at the same time that the Bumis and I had been discussing the same possibility — the confluence of our thoughts convinces me that this is the way to go and I am certain that the Bumi Bwesu guys are the piece that we have been missing. They were thrilled to have my business and I am thrilled to have them. As I have mentioned before with the women's groups invading the house, I think that their idea of us meeting the women's groups at Bumi Bwesu makes eminent good sense.

SOCIAL ARTISTRY-HUMAN CAPACITIES WORKSHOP
The Human Capacities class went well, actually very well. You can see my photos on Flickr. There were fifteen men, fifteen women, school teachers, people from the community, people associated with Bumi Bwesu, youths, an HIV counselor, and Mr. Chanda. The Bumis were very excited to host and organize the three-day class. The class went from 8:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. with a break, a stipend for lunch, transportation and what they call a "sitting fee." Boy, I really understand now when they tell you if you really want to understand something, teach it. I learned a tremendous amount. They did also and were very appreciative. The class is very interactive and one of the participants told me "This is not boring at all!" Of course I would do some things differently next time around, but it was a meaningful, thoughtful, fun, and hopefully supportive and life-changing (I hope I hope). They got together and wrote me a letter of appreciation, which you can find below. The course was in English as I decided not to get involved with a translator. So one of the requirements of the class was speaking English. The Bumis invited people to take the course. We originally set a cap of 20 as their room is small, but somehow we ended up with 30 and we could have had 50. We spent all afternoon before the course started removing furniture, and were able to squeeze in 30 fairly comfortably. They were a courageous, intelligent, well-educated, and sophisticated group who have lived through bleak times in Zambia. For graduation, they stated their commitment, which they had created in the workshop, received their diploma, and were photographed. The commitments, which are impressive in their humanitarian scope, are written on a huge wooden board, which the Bumis will put up in their yard. I was thrilled with the enthusiasm, attendance, and willingness of the participants, and if we get funded through the Jean Houston Foundation again, I would give an introductory course again and a slightly more advanced course. They ripped my heart out.

NOTE OF THANKS

MariElena, the organisers, participants, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the participants we would like to thank you very for giving us the opportunity to attend this workshop, the Human Capacities.

This workshop has really helped us we are not going to be the same our live are changed because we have learnt a lot of things: how to use our five senses, how to use our power and commitments to help the society, how to use the exercises to keep our bodies fit all the time, and how to overcome our fears.

We hope and trust that this is not the end, but the beginning of our change in life. Please MariElena don't forget us even when you go back. Always fit us in your programmes, assist us in any possible way that you can. Thank you very much, we wish you all the best in your work and all the programmes. God bless you.

Well, m'ladies, that's the long and the short of it, the sad and the wondrous, the successes and the flops. All in all, as always, it is a grand experience where so little can make such a huge difference. I ponder often as to what happened to Africa. I know they were steamrolled by religions that weren't theirs and brutally colonized, but the same thing happened in Latin America. Although Latin America has extreme corruption and all the blights of the Third World, it also has infrastructure and booming economies. Does anyone have any ideas?

As I write you all this incredibly long e-mail, I am filled with a tenderness for the work we do there, with the seemingly inexhaustible level of need, and the huge effort that we bring to our endeavour.

Much love,
MariElena

P.S. Jody and Jewels, I will send you all the financials in a few days.

I just received this email from Alex:

............ Hello MariElena,

Hope you travelled safely back home. Am fine with the rest of my team.

Well I wanted to inform you 2 things.

First is that tomorow we are training Kawama in small business management as discussed.
Will inform you later of the outcomes.

Secondly, the girl whom you left some money for supplementary protein food throgh Grandwell died today this morning. Very sad. So part of the same money you left is used for making her coffin and some food for the funeral house mourners.

Bye for now. Will keep you posted.

Alex

President's Message 2008: Unreasonable Circumstances

A long time ago when I was a resident in paediatrics at Babies Hospital in New York City, a young woman and her newborn baby were brought in by ambulance from the projects. It was 2:00 am and I was tired. She wanted a check-up to see if the baby was breathing alright. Why on earth in the middle of the night and was an ambulance really necessary? Because black smoke was streaming out of the heating vent. She had to get her baby out of the apartment. The elevators were out of service. Dealers and junkies hung out in the stairs, and people got raped there. So she called the ambulance.

Since then, whenever I want to holler because of the unreasonable things people do, I tell myself, take a deep breath, ask first. Then I often discover, they are not unreasonable at all, they just live under unreasonable circumstances.

You could say the same about Kashikishi, in Nchelenge, northwestern Zambia: unreasonable circumstances. People are hungry and one quarter of the adult generation is dead or dying. Who is there to teach, to farm, to fish, to care for the sick, to make a chair or sew a dress, to worry about the vulnerable children?

Our organization aims to cultivate a bit of reason in this expanse of unreasonableness. We have been around now for two years, and it may be fair to ask, are we achieving this goal?

Please judge for yourselves. Our reporting is harshly honest, as demonstrated in MariElena’s firsthand account, Letter from Zambia: the Good, the Heinous, the Heartbreaking and the Surprising and in our Project Updates. We do not hide our errors. Is it trite to say, we have learned tremendously, not only from our errors, but from our successes as well? Here are some of the lessons:

Schools are by nature institutions of learning. They are not businesses. The school kiosks are only turning a small profit. Should we not concentrate our resources on making money out of training programs, rather than establishing pure businesses on the premises? The Ray of Joy carpentry workshop, which has turned out to be very profitable, is an example of how it pays to help schools do what they do best, teach and train.

The smaller the better. The success story I am most impressed with is that of the Kashikishi Ladies Churro Cooperative. I originally thought these women were too destitute, too disorganised, and too inexperienced to make it. With MariElena’s patient facilitation they started a successful school lunch fritter business (start-up money $144). When circumstances turned against them they adapted, and then when times were hard they moved on. They are making great money selling dried fish. Is not that what Mohammed Yunus claims in Banker to the Poor, the poor are the most resourceful clients, because their lives depend on it?

Not every bird can fly on its own. Kawama community school was exploited by a corrupt head teacher, who has since been removed. We need better on-going, onsite monitoring, and in some cases outright supervision. To this end we have established cooperation with a local community health centre, Bumi Bwesu Youth Centre.

Initiative mixed with humour and trustworthiness is a rare bird indeed. Befriend that bird and help it fly higher. We have decided to support the director of Bumi Bwesu Youth Centre, Alex Kunda Chabu, in his endeavours for higher education.

Thank you to our supporters. We value your time, your advice and your donations.

Jody Staehelin, MD, President, Give A Jumpstart, August 2008

President's Message 2007

This year the rains came on time, but were unusually heavy. Ushiba Basic School is well organized, and they planted their soy crop on time (using the $100 grant we provided last year to clear the land). Everything was washed away. Kawama Community School got their money late, so they planted late (using the money we granted them for seed and fertilizer). This delay was rewarded with an abundant harvest. In Switzerland, using the best technology, we say the weather forecast is accurate for three days in advance. It helps to plan whether to wear a jacket to school. In Africa, the weather forecast rules a child’s fate.

When I worked for short stints in Liberia as a medical student, in Afghanistan as a general medical doctor for MSF, and then in Haiti as a pediatrician, it never felt right. Why treat a child for malnutrition? Shouldn’t I rather give it more food? Why treat neonatal tetanus? Shouldn’t I rather immunize the mother? On top of that, I don’t like doing the work of others. Shouldn’t I be training doctors, not replacing them?

Since I became involved in our projects in Zambia, I know for the first time: this is the right thing. I take pride in our initial achievements.

The hammer mill is finally generating income. For the first time ever, the teachers at Ray of Joy School received a modest salary in May. As a consequence, they come to school to teach, instead of looking for short-term jobs elsewhere. The boys who take carpentry are producing painted birds and fishing boats out of wood, in addition to simple furniture. Tailoring lagged behind. We had to mobilize forces, pull the three machines that we had donated last fall out of their boxes, and show some muscle with the school's board of directors to get the project back on track.

Kawama Community School has a roof and, as mentioned, produced a respectable soybean harvest.

With a donation from the Federation of American Women’s Clubs, we were able to give startup money for four school “tuck shops.” These are shops sponsored by each school that sell school materials, such as notebooks and writing materials, and snacks. With schools of over a thousand pupils each, they can turn a good profit. At our arrival this year in June, four well-written proposals awaited our scrutiny. We signed four contracts and put four schools in business.

What are our plans for the future?

We will stay true to our credo: we give grants and loans, not handouts. We foster self-reliance among our partners, not dependence.

Kawama School will start a piggery. They received money for one male and three female pigs (it is the way of the animal kingdom…).

After this first year’s pilot phase we plan to expand the school tuck shops to cover a dozen more primary schools.

A local women’s group received startup money to sell fritters to school pupils at lunchtime.

A warm thank you to our board members for their work and commitment.

Merci to our donors for their confidence and financial support.

Jody Staehelin, MD, Pediatrician (certified by AAP [USA] and SGP [Switzerland]):
President, Give a Jumpstart