Feeding Program Start

 

 

 

 

February 6, 2009 A letter from Susie Marks, ED  

To be dramatic, on January 27, 2009, Hamomi was forever changed.  In ways I had foreseen, but also in ways I hadn't even considered.  Well, let's back up for a second. In the summer of 2008, Brian Alexander Mays, who is eleven years old, raised $80 at his birthday party to help children in Kenya.  Brian donated this money to Lift Up Africa, Hamomi's fiscal sponsor.  Lift Up Africa asked me if Hamomi’s feeding program might benefit from the purchase of solar cooking equipment and we emphatically responded 'YES!' Lift Up Africa approached Brian and his family about this opportunity, and they loved the idea.  Because the solar cooking equipment would cost a little more than $200, several other friends of Lift Up Africa  also contributed toward this project, including the family of Dennis Dutton, who donated $120 in Dennis' honor

Now, this was back in August.  We bought the solar cookers from an organization called Solar Cookers International, (SCI), and we were told that they would come for a big demonstration and hand-off as soon as we had the food and supplies to do so.  But we were still in debt with a food supplier from when we decided to feed the kids on credit in March, April and May, just hoping that the money would come in to pay it off and keep feeding the students.  And then came a measles outbreak.  And then some severe coughs.  And a broken wrist.  And we continued to putter along, slowly paying off debt with food suppliers and doctors, forcing our hungry students to wait and letting our solar cookers acquire dust.  It also allowed us as a board to become sufficiently panicky about loans and unforeseen emergencies.

Then came an incredible November.  Without much warning, we had three American volunteers at Hamomi.  Two were random connections through friends of friends of family members of coworkers of friends' friends.  And one was an intern from the group Minnesota Studies in International Development, the same organization that Jamie and I studied abroad with in 2005-06.  Hamomi was quickly packed with fresh eyes, new ideas and energetic feet to get things accomplished we had been unable to get to for months.  All of them had the same assessment: the kids need to eat.  They are not eating.  They need to eat.

 

 

 

I called SCI as soon as I was settled in Nairobi.  We arranged for a date for them to come to Hamomi to deliver and show us how to use our new machines.  I gave Raphael the $25 it takes for one day's worth of food and paced my room trying to figure out what to do for the next day.  I was nervous with anticipation, but excited too, because the delivery was following a week of relative success.  It had been a week with a lot of personal well-wishes and support and a ton of networking.  I was unsure if any of these seeds would bear fruit, but we were all feeling confident that we were on the brink of some major developments.

Three SCI representatives, Margaret, Faustine and James, came to pick me up where I'm staying, we went and purchased the pots we needed for the hay baskets, and we headed down to Hamomi.  I hadn't really physically envisioned how this demonstration would go – like the logistics of where they would set up the ovens, who they would specifically be demonstrating to, and so on.  We took our off ramp to go into Kangemi, our slum, and turned down the first rocky road you have to take to get to Hamomi.  I had never driven this part of the trek before, usually walking from the matatu stop at the off-ramp, and it felt much longer and much slum-ier from the car.  I could tell from their reactions that this was not normal to go so deep into the slums for a delivery.

I started to get almost embarrassed.  We know literally nothing about solar cooking.  Maybe this is one of those steps that organizations take once they’re really developed already.  We don’t have a dining area for them to work in.  We don’t even have a table for them to set up on.  I began apologizing for the long drive and turning a bit red.  They were incredibly nice about everything, but definitely a little thrown off by our under-funded-ness.

 

 

And the demonstration began.  They made rice, beans, boiled eggs (solared eggs?), a vegetable stew, and even cake!  We learned that we can pasteurize water with the solar cooker!  We are still learning if the dirty river by the school can actually get clean and we will be testing the water this weekend, but if this will work, we will suddenly have free clean water, not only for us but for the entire community.  Parents and guardians can come get water for their households and stop drinking from the river which leads to awful diseases.  I will update more on this as we learn about it, but for now, back to the demonstration.

The Hamomi staff gathered around the whole time, learning patiently and asking all the right questions, while the crowd around them fluctuated – sometimes so big that people needed to take turns getting up to where the cookers were to touch the panels and feel how hot they were getting.

Watching the excitement from this crowd made up of the dedicated Hamomi volunteers, our students who weren't completely sure what was going on, and the strangers passing on the road who were enthusiastic to learn how these things work, I was brought back to our volunteers' shock in November.  It's hard to reconcile the ethical pull towards the need for food with the fact that we have literally no money as an organization beyond rent and one supported teacher.  Sure, there are random donations here and there, but nothing consistent enough to ward off the fear that we're going to have to stop this program after one week or end up in some pretty extreme debt again.

Once the food was prepared and being served, watching the kids so excited and grateful for a small portion of rice and beans, the attempted business woman in me disappeared and I knew the worst thing we could do was be practical.  We needed the sense of urgency, pressure to come up with the next payment, and eating needed to not be a special occasion for our students who we expect to learn and pay attention. 

I gave Raphael $150 out of pocket to get us started.  That's 6 school days of the feeding program.  Then I began to sweat profusely considering having 6 days to find more money. 

This was two weeks ago now.  The change in the children is tangible – their animation, their energy, their willingness to learn.  The effect on the entire community is everywhere – the relief for the parents and guardians and the idea that Hamomi is growing and changing for the better.

So…obviously, right?  You start feeding people and they're happier and healthier.  But it's more than that.  The tone has changed.  The pride in themselves.  The way the kids look forward to the afternoon and the way the staff is able to teach after break.  The excitement that something big is coming.  They know they've become this legitimate organization in a country far, far away in the past year, they know that rent is paid on time, they know there is a website somewhere out there with their pictures on it, but suddenly this legitimacy has brought something to them.  Suddenly the goals they have discussed for so long, of becoming a home and owning land, are actually glowing somewhere visible on the horizon.  I can see it in their eyes, in their slightly rounder faces and in the way they shake my hand. 

The solar cookers did not make the whole program so much cheaper that we can now afford it when we couldn't before, it just made us bolder and it made the demands for food more real.  We have been asking everybody we know to consider donating to Hamomi, we have expanded our Facebook cause which is proving to be a great networking tool, and we are sending links to every organization and potential donor we can think of.  Through this we have been able to gather donations to keep the program running for a comfortable month or two, giving us time to ensure the months after that. 

A couple of baskets pushed us to take risks that we'd grown a bit weary of taking, and these leaps over dangerous crevasses have led us to much higher, firmer ground.

Thank you to everybody who made it possible.  To the donors who got us out of debt, to the donors who then pushed us into trying the feeding program again and to the donors who are allowing it to continue. To the volunteers who traveled so far and gave us so much.  To the people who have donated their time and joined the cause on Facebook and sent links to friends and family.  To the people who have printed our brochures and posted them proudly at their workplaces and churches and homes.  Thank you.  Not just from me and the US board, but from the full students and the Nairobi staff who can now believe that what they have spent a decade earning is on its way.  Please continue to help us in this endeavor and give however you can.

Best,

Susie