Last year, a potentially significant donor issued a challenge to Epic Change. When we explained to her our fundraising plan - to raise the majority of our donations through small contributions from ordinary people - she was intrigued, but unconvinced. She pledged to give us $5,000 on October 17, 2008 if we could raise $25,000 in small donations prior to that date.

So far, we’ve raised $23,185.08 in funds eligible for this challenge - and we now have just 2 weeks to raise the additional $1,814.92 to meet our goal.

So we need just 73 people to donate $25 (or more!) by 10/17 - and I’m hoping you’ll be one of them. In our country, that’s a few lattes; in Tanzania, it’s nearly a full month’s salary for most.

In fact, just today we found another donor who’s agreed to double your donation if you become a monthly subscriber for $5, $10, $25 or more before our challenge grant deadline of 10/17 - up to a maximum match of $3,500. As you likely realize, subscribers provide a predictable, stable source of income that allows us to spend more time creating results, and less time fundraising. Of course, while we know you won’t want to, you may discontinue your subscription at any time - but I hope you won’t pass up this opportunity to multiply the good you’re doing.

To donate or subscribe today, click here. After you do, I hope you’ll also post a comment below explaining why you chose to donate to Epic Change today.

I once read a quote by Mother Teresa who wrote:

“What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.”

I’m hoping you’ll donate today not only because you know that each dollar you give helps to create Epic Change in the lives of some pretty incredible kids, but also because you want to prove to our potential donors that ordinary people, working together, can do extraordinary good.

PS: To learn more about Pius, the beautiful little boy who’s smiling at you above, click here.

PPS: Pass it on…

Posted: October 3rd, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: 2

An exciting update from Mama Lucy:

Unity Is Power - believe me or not!

Before Sanjay and Stacey left to return back to the US in early August this year, we had several meetings with Rachel, Kira and Mindy of Sun Strides, a nonprofit organization based in the US. They came to join hands with us so as to support and push us forward in what we’re trying to achieve. The major issue of our joint meetings was about the solar power installation for our school.

Our aim is to start computer classes by January 2009 for our primary classes. That could only be possible if we have electricity. As we’ve said before, we received 5 computers already from Epic Change this summer.

It was on Friday 12th September 2008, when Sun Strides re-visited our school and started the work. On Sunday 14th September, I couldn’t believe my own eyes when for the first time I saw electricity at our school!

Just click on the mosaic below to see larger images in Flickr.

Special thanks to Sun Strides for their fabulous job; for working and paying for the costs of solar installation. Otherwise, pupils couldn’t enjoy the computers and we would still be having dark nights.

We have been able to achieve what we have because you’ve joined our efforts. Your donations, your ideas, and entire support have brought great change to our school and community.

Thank you Epic Change! Thank you Sun Strides! Thank you all who have supported us and made us be where we are. Your support means a lot to us!

With Much Love,
Mama Lucy - Shepherds Junior School
Arusha, Tanzania.

It’s great to have partners in creating Epic Change, and we’re so glad Sun Strides decided to implement solar power at Shepherds Junior as their first project. Thanks so much to Rachel, Kira, Mindy and all of the donors and supporters at Sun Strides!

Posted: October 3rd, 2008 under The Foundry, Updates from Mama.
Comments: none

As I walked into her house, it caught my eye immediately. It was unfinished, it was imperfect, and it was beautiful. In the corner was painting a friend has been working on of brightly hued homes on the banks of a multi-colored flickering body of water. It’s a portrait of the French Riviera and, when it was commissioned, she had no idea how she’d paint it. She’s never done a piece quite like it.

And now, in its current state of becoming, it is gorgeous. As she took me over to see it more closely, she showed me its flaws, but also the tools with which she’d move past them - fancy new pens her art teacher had suggested and a ruler that would soon be joined by a protractor she’s not yet purchased. She seemed positively giddy about the protractor; the word alone, for some reason, made me smile too. While clearly acknowledging subtle imperfections, she had found the tools - and the inspiration - to move beyond them.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been glued to my couch-turned-deskchair, part of my mind occupied with creating a plan for the next six months, the other impatiently obsessed with what we’ve yet to accomplish and sometimes overwhelming self-doubt.

Though constantly feverishly busy, I’ve felt like I’m standing still, mired in a thick mud of fear.

But the past few days have been different. Perhaps it’s the cooler weather that the first days of autumn surprisingly offered Florida. Perhaps it’s the arrival of my mom’s new puppy. Maybe it’s my excitement about an upcoming trip to one of my favorite cities. More likely, it’s the support of some pretty amazing reinforcements that have recently appeared to help.

So now, I’m doing the unstuck. Somebody hand me a protractor.

Special thanks to Avi, Jason, Ryan, Nicole, Laura, Tamar, Kim, Erin and LiquidPlanner, this rad software that’s offered free to nonprofits and is helping me move through my planning binge with significantly more effectiveness.

Posted: September 26th, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: 1

I’ll admit it. I didn’t even know what the word “meme” meant. I’d seen it tossed around many times on Twitter and taken some contextual clues, but hadn’t decided to thoroughly investigate until I got an email last week from Peter Deitz, the founder of Social Actions. While we haven’t met in person, we’ve interacted a few times online and by phone and he’s exactly the type of person that makes real social change possible: passionate, knowledgeable and a natural connector of both people and ideas. In short, he rocks. Yes, exactly like you ;)

So when I got Peter’s email asking me to participate in a meme about peer-to-peer social change success stories, I decided to give the word a closer look. Here’s what I found in Wikipedia:

“A meme consists of any idea or behavior that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, gestures, practices, fashions, habits, songs, and dances. Memes propagate themselves and can move through the cultural sociosphere in a manner similar to the contagious behavior of a virus.”

In this case, a meme is a rapid-fire way for a broad group of social change professionals to share their ideas and success stories; hopefully, the result is that the ideas continue to contagiously spread propagating good like a windblown dandelion (hat tip to @kikijean for the metaphor). In some ways, peer-to-peer social change is, in itself, a meme. When my friends do something good, and let me know via email, Facebook, the phone, MySpace, Twitter, text message, etc., I might learn from them or succumb to peer pressure and imitate the same behavior.

Anyway, Peter wanted us to share our success with peer-to-peer social change, and, since last week was the first anniversary of the date we received our 501c3 determination letter from the IRS, I thought this was an appropriate time to do a quick inventory of just how much has been accomplished over the last year. Plus, this week has been the pits. After suffering Fay’s flood damage, my car’s been in the shop three times this week for over $6000 in repairs, we found out our video wasn’t selected by Post-It as a finalist, and my internet connection was down for several days - all not good. So I needed this little pick-me-up. Forgive me, for today, if I focus on the positive; certainly I could do another several pages on the lessons we’ve learned to date, the mistakes we’ve made and the things we’d do differently next time. Today, Peter asked for success stories, so that’s precisely what I’m dishin’.

As many of you know, when Epic Change started last year, we had little more than an idea, a project partner in Tanzania and two friends just crazy enough to leave perfectly reputable day jobs to reveal their inner idealists and start a nonprofit. We both invested $5000 from savings, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough to purchase land, let alone build a school, so we needed help - and we asked for it from, quite literally, everyone we’d ever known (and didn’t yet!) - via email, phone calls, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Care2, Idealist.org, VolunteerMatch, YouTube, Google AdWords, our own WordPress blog and the blogger grapevine. We used other tools like Network for Good, PayPal, Google Checkout and Facebook Causes to enable online donations. I took donations at my aerobics classes, my niece held a lemon-aid stand in our neighborhood, our friends held house parties, garage sales and clothes drives. We didn’t have any funds for services, so we asked for pro bono help from people we knew. What started a year ago with a small investment from each of us has now turned into:

• Over $45,000 raised from over 350 donors across the globe;
• Our first $35,000 loan issued to a village school in Tanzania that serves over 200 local children;
• An acre of land that was purchased, and four classrooms that were built, in less than 100 days using loan proceeds, enabling the school to avoid closure after their rented facilities had been sold by the land owner;
• Loan repayment receipts to date of nearly $2500 to date through performances and preliminary post card and greeting card sales;
• An award from the Case Foundation for our successful participation in America’s Giving Challenge;
• Partnerships with two peer startup nonprofits who have agreed to undertake solar installation at the school and the creation of an Epic Change team for the 2009 Miami marathon;
• A website that was visited over 10,000 times last month, a blog that gets over 500 views each month, a mailing list with 600 subscribers, over 300 Twitter followers and YouTube videos that have been viewed nearly 10,000 times;
• Posts in 20 blogs, including TriplePundit, GoBigAlways, What Gives? and ZDNet, and a few great print articles too; and
• Pro bono legal and PR services and free web design, graphic design, video editing and professional photography which has enabled us to pay $0 in salaries, and less than $2000 in total overhead expenses, including a mandatory $800 IRS filing fee.

Other than averting the potential crisis of the closure of a great school that serves over 200 amazing kids, perhaps our most significant accomplishment is that we’ve been able to start to foster a rare online community that includes discussion between the donors who fund Epic Change loans, and the recipients of those loans in Tanzania.

I’ll admit - maybe I’d hoped for even more audacious outcomes in the first 365 days, but as I’ve learned from my corporate experience in change management, human change is not a rapid phenomenon. It takes patience, persistence, passion and a plan. As an organization that started with little more than a good idea and the determination to see it through, we’ve come a long way…but we’ve certainly got miles to go before we sleep.

Peer-to-peer social change is possible. When you do good, your friends are not only watching, but you just might start your own meme.

For those of you who’ve been involved in our efforts - whether you’ve passed along one of our videos to friends, shared our blog or made a donation, how does it feel to participate in a peer-to-peer social change effort? Is it different from other nonprofit or charity efforts in which you’ve participated? How? Do you think our strategies have been effective? Why or why not?

For those of you who haven’t yet participated in Epic Change, there’s no time like the present. Besides, all the cool kids are doin’ it - spread the meme.

PS: Peter, I live in Florida, but I may just be in San Francisco for another conference during the October NetTuesday. I’d love to participate in the discussion there if I’m in town.

Posted: September 13th, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: 1

Just a quick note to let you know that the top 10 videos were announced by Post-It today and, despite hard work & hope, our entry hasn’t been included.  Congratulations to the finalists whose videos were selected; I invite you to check out their entries, and vote, at http://www.youtube.com/postitnotes.

I’d be fibbing (okay, outright lying) if I didn’t say that I still think ours was the best - or at the very least, one of the 10 best.  If I said I wasn’t disappointed in the outcome, it simply wouldn’t be true.  Last night, I may have even let a few choice words pass these feisty dogooder lips.

In the end though, despite the outcome, I think Nick, Zoe, Amanda, Sanjay, Tim, Nelle and all of the beautiful kids did an amazing job.  I’m pretty sure too that no one put more effort (or more TLC) into their entry.  Thousands of beautiful photos were taken; the children sang their hearts out; Mama Lucy and the teachers gathered witnessed photo releases from students’ parents; Nick and Sanjay edited ’til their poor brains turned to goo; and little Pius (the beautiful boy at the end of the video) must have said that tag line 1.2 gajillion times before we got the “perfect” take.  I am truly proud of what we were able to accomplish, how much of the story was shared, and the fact that the video’s now been viewed nearly 2,000 times - more than any video we’ve ever created - and we continue to get more views daily.  Thanks to all of you who have helped to spread the word!

I’m holding out hope that 3M will give us a call to offer a sizable donation since we made such a brand-friendly video, but even if that doesn’t happen,  I’m excited to have had the opportunity to participate, and I look forward to other such challenges.   (Trust me, there’s another one just around the corner!)  It’s part of the fun of being involved in a startup organization; we can color outside the lines a little, take some creative risks and be immediately responsive to great opportunities that others might not see.

I’m not certain why 3M decided to exclude our entry from the top 10; I’m sure that the judges had their work cut out for them, and I definitely wouldn’t want their role.  There were a few entries, several others that didn’t make “the cut”, that were very well done - check out this one and this one (and, of course, ours!) for just a couple examples.  Perhaps there was some risk they perceived from loosely associating their organization with a small school in Africa.  Perhaps they didn’t want their brand to be tied to an effort like ours, or to a woman like me (frankly speaking, it was probably Sanjay - that guy’s trouble).  Maybe they just didn’t like our video for some reason (actually, is that really even possible?).  Maybe.  I’d love to know your guess. In any case, I think they’ve passed up a golden feel-good marketing moment.

I recently read about a really interesting Harvard study mentioned in Slate that asked the question “Will customers pay more to do good?”  I’m wondering if there will be a point at which “doing good” is so rewarded by consumers that an entry like ours would be the clear winner in a competition like this one - not only because it’s “good” but because it’s “good business”? What do you think?

Posted: September 12th, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: 4

Just a quick post to share with you the first video we’ve created from the trip. It’s a special message from the kids at the school to all of you who are helping to rebuild their school. I hope you enjoy it!

I’ve entered this video in a YouTube competition that offers a $10,000 grand prize. You can imagine how valuable those funds would be in our efforts to continue the school’s reconstruction.   To show your support for our entry, I hope you’ll:

• Watch the video here.
• Rate the video with 5 stars.
• Leave a comment about the video.
• Favorite the video.
• Post a comment in support of our entry on the Post-it “One Million Uses and Counting” YouTube contest site.

If you have any questions or encounter any problems while completing these steps, please feel free to email or call me at 415.630.0631.  If you’d like to learn more about the competition, visit http://www.youtube.com/postitnotes.

The top 10 finalists will be announced on September 11th.  Once we’ve been selected as a finalist (I’m a firm believer in the power of positive thinking!), we’ll need your votes again beginning on September 12th, as the winner of the $10,000 prize will be chosen by popular vote.

Subscribe to the blog via email or RSS to find out immediately when we make the top 10 and you can begin to cast your votes.
Special thanks to Amanda, Zoe, Tim, Nelle, Sanjay, Nick, Mama Lucy and the students and staff at the school for all their fabulous work in pulling together what I’m sure will be the winning entry!

Posted: August 30th, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: 1

It’s been nearly two weeks now since I got home.  I’ve been back to school shopping with my niece, the Olympics are done, Fay has drowned my car after dumping feet of rain outside my windows and the presidential conventions are getting underway.   I’m back here, and yet so much of me is still there.  During this in-between time, I find words hard to come by.  Friends and family ask “how was it?”, and I don’t really even know where to begin.  To be honest, I’ve waited to write here until the right words came.  They haven’t yet, but I trust they will as I continue to wade through thousands of beautiful photographs and literally days of videotape.

But I did get an email from Mama Lucy - and perhaps it’s the best place to begin, as her note provides a summary of all that we accomplished together during the trip:

I’m not sure if I’ll have good words to express what is in my heart about that team who came to work with us the whole of July.

Before their arrival, I thought the main thing for them to come was to see the fruits of their efforts to rebuild a new Shepherds Junior School in Arusha – Tanzania; but after they arrived, I came to realize that, that was just a peanut within their plans! They came to work; and they mean and made it!

They had prepared a very good plan before they arrived, the major thing being fundraising issues. We did a lot within such short period of time of not more than a month. I feel so proud to mention the names of that amazing team to you! Sanjay, Stacey, Amanda, Zoe, Tim and Nelle. Let me just give hints of few things among many we partnered to accomplish during their trip:

• POST CARDS SALES: We were able to arrange, find places, and sell some post cards to some reputable tourist shops.  Already, we’ve raised over $200 USD from selling these.  The post cards feature photos of a giraffe in Tarangire National Park by Leah, a very good student in our Class IV.  We were also able to visit national parks on a field trip; our plan was also to snap beautiful photos by Mr. Tim and some of the children as well for making post cards that we can sell in the future.
• PHOTO SHOOTING: We were very lucky to have within that team a very good professional photographer Mr. Tim, who did a fabulous job! We do believe, those photos will help in fundraising and spread the word about us. Some photos were sold to parents being as one way of fund raising too!
• INTERVIEWS: As what Epic Change believes (which is very true), “TRUE STORIES MATTER!” They interviewed some parents, teachers, students and some school committee members, so as to get real stories from our school.
• AUCTION: We held a fundraising auction of khangas and vitenges (traditional local garments) brought by pupils and parents, which took place on 26th July 2008. The auction was very successful and we were able to raise not less than $700 USD.
• LAPTOP COMPUTERS: Epic Change was able to come with 5 laptops with them for our school uses. They spent a lot of time too on teaching us on how to work with them; so as to make the work much easier. Special thanks to Mr. Sanjay who was there always to show my son, William, lots of things on using laptop and now William has been of great help to our school on that. All the work of typing; and even he is there to show teachers how to work with computers.
• PERFORMANCE:  We held our closing day performance which was also aimed on fundraising. While our teachers prepared their students to share songs and poems, Epic Change assisted us with planning and preparation.  We sold entrance tickets  for Tshs 3000 equivalent to $3 USD, and even held a raffle as that was another way of fundraising.  We approached the Manager of Impala Hotel (A Tourist Hotel) in Arusha and being offered a top prize for the raffle – dinner or lunch at of 2 people at Impala Hotel.  The performance was wonderful! Pupils did very well, and turn up was good. We were able to raise about $800 USD!

Epic Change also helped us by teaching art and music classes, sharing interesting videos and penpal letters from across the world with our students, creating ID cards for our teachers as the government requires, helping me to learn a new internet tool called Twitter (which I’m still not very used to!) and creating brochures and posters that we can use to spread the word about our school.

These are just few things to mention; but they did a lot! Their trip was meant to work. And for sure, they made it! The work done within such short period of time really was beyond my expectation. No time to rest, no time to relax, no time to visit places like Maasai Bomas, Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro or Serengeti National Park!

Your trip was a very big lesson to me. I learnt a lot! With determination, dedicating time and efforts, someone can reach the goals! I promise to continue working hard.

I do hope we’ll continue working together for the brighter future of the pupils of Shepherds Junior School and our community as a whole.

Much love,
Mama Lucy.

We worked nonstop.When I say I’m headed to Africa, I think people often have the misconception that I’ll be on vacation.  Er, no.  I can honestly say that we worked harder in those few weeks than I have in any job I’ve ever had.  I think Zoe, Sanjay, Amanda, Tim & Nelle would agree.  As I mentioned in my last post, everything that we take for granted here - quick internet, easy transportation, accessible supplies - are far from givens there, so even the smallest task, like writing an email, becomes a time-consuming project.  I’m so grateful for the volunteers who joined us to share the load - and, of course, to Mama Lucy, her family, staff, friends, students and their parents whose partnership made our trip so successful, so memorable and so much fun.

As you may have noticed, Mama Lucy writes on the blog at least once per month to share stories from the school you’re helping to build - what would you like her to write about next?

Posted: August 25th, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: 1

As I sat on one of my final days in Tanzania sipping from a glass bottle of Coca Cola, I remembered just how difficult its journey may have been to my mouth.  I’d seen just that morning a man pedaling his delivery bike piled high with what I think were 4 crates full of soda bottles.  Um, yes…pedaled his bike.  It’s unlikely that a delivery truck passed by the barbeque where I ate lunch.  Perhaps it passed, but it didn’t stop. 

I can barely maintain balance on my bike with a 2-year-old passenger, let alone with a hundred pounds or more of breakable containers with liquid contents.

So much in Arusha is so difficult.  Roads are all but impassable.  On the way to school, the bumpy dirt path takes over 20 minutes to traverse just 2.6 kilometers.  The driver turns off the vehicle and steers in neutral down the hill to conserve fuel.  Internet connections are most often slower than dial-up.  As textbooks are rare and expensive, teachers meticulously copy assignments using chalk, and children copy again by hand the materials to their notebooks.  Often, they’ll have to visit a neighboring classroom just to borrow pens or pencils. Report cards, grade books and the receipts and accounts of over 200 students are tracked on paper; there are no pre-printed forms or templates.  Friday was the 1st of the month, and the line for a local ATM stretched nearly a city block.  I’ve never been to the bank here to conduct a transaction that’s taken less than half an hour.  Water must be boiled, and, for many, fetched from a distance.  Electricity and even water outages are frequent.  Everything is pole, pole (an all-too-oft used Swahili phrase that means slowly, slowly).

I am not complaining, just stating the facts. Some of it, of course, is a refreshing departure from the harried American way of life and I think this context makes what Mama Lucy is accomplishing here all the more impressive.  I can’t fathom what she could do if she enjoyed all of the conveniences and privileges made possible in my own country.

Speaking of which, I’ll be back in the US soon.  No longer in Tanzania but not quite yet home, I’m in Europe en route and will finally see my dog and my family tomorrow.  I miss them.  Already, I miss Mama Lucy too and the boisterous laughter of hundreds of children at play.  Of course, the kids are now on break from school for a month, and when I left Lucy promised to rest for at least a week as well.  While you’d never know from the overwhelming energy you sense in her presence, the last year of nearly losing the school and working endlessly to ensure its survival have surely taken a toll.

Mama Lucy makes it look easy though, a swan, I suppose, gracefully floating on the surface, but swimming furiously beneath.  I truly hope she enjoys a hard-earned respite during the school break. 

Like Michael Phelps who’ll be resting tonight to get ready for another great feat, Mama’s only just begun.

Posted: August 12th, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: 2

Wow. The past few weeks have been full and beyond my ability to describe (yet). Sometimes I find my scrivening here requires significant reflection and, for now, I’m so fully present, I’m not yet able to take a step back to fully grasp all that I’m experiencing here. That said, I am happy - and our trip, to date, has been incredibly successful. We have:

• Celebrated the arrival of the fourth graders first-ever regional exam results; they amazingly placed #1 out of 17 schools who participated in the Arusha District Eastern Zone Exam - and every student from Shepherds Junior received an “A” !!!
• Placed postcards for sale in 3 local outlets, including a reputable high-end safari hotel that has three locations;
• Prepared for a performance by the children that will be held on Friday, 8/1, to raise funds;
• Participated in the school’s auction of items donated by the parents that raised over $800 USD;
• Worked with 4 volunteers who paid their own way to join us here including Zoe, who wrote the previous blog entry, Amanda who will write below, Tim Llewellyn, an incredible photographer who captured beautiful portraits of many of the children, and his fiance Nelle, a former art teacher who spent some quality time with the school’s aspiring artists;
• Held a preliminary meeting with an organization that plans to install solar power at the school’s new site; and
• Created an entry for a video contest in the US (cross your fingers - maybe we’ll win $10,000!)

We’ve also attended a Parents Council meeting, performed some technology training with Mama Lucy & her son William, conducted a number of video interviews, created both written and video messages for our donors and supporters, gone on safari with the children and spent as much time as possible with Mama Lucy and the teachers at the school exchanging stories and ideas.

Amanda May, a volunteer who’s focused on product development, had this to share about her experience since arriving just a week ago:

Since first getting involved with Epic Change, I have heard countless stories from Stacey and Sanjay about the culture, school and the kids here in Arusha . . . It left me with very few surprises upon arriving.

As expected, every single child has touched my heart and soul in a profound way. And I won’t lie by telling you that I wouldn’t love to take them all home with me either. The new school is a refreshing testament as to what hard work and inspiring dedication can achieve. And after spending time with Mama Lucy, I can assure you that if there were even just one more like her, the world would be a more beautiful place.

Here is what I have encountered over the last 10 days that I would like to share with you:

1. “Wazungu”: two or more foreigners. It is a funny word that took a while for me to use. While in a local market last week with Mama Lucy’s son, William, Tim and I were some of the only white people there. There was a common look we were greeted with that made me slightly uncomfortable . . . an uncomfortable I have never really known before. So I asked William flat out “What do they (locals) think of us wazungu?” His answer was along the lines that they know we are rich. Rich is a very subjective term - but they are right. This leads me into my next lesson . . . (by the way, I am not rich).
2. Money does not fix everything. If you are reading this blog, you have likely given money to Epic Change (if not, donations are welcome 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) . . . and I can tell you that your money has made a HUGE difference. Your donations have made at least three times as much impact as the same amount of money collected in the States and spent here on other projects (including other schools). From what I have seen, I am pretty sure this is why: Epic Change stayed out of the way. Unlike many other Western aid approaches, Stacey and Sanjay let Mama Lucy run the show. And why shouldn’t she? She is the reason there was a school to begin with. She knows what her students need to receive an excellent education. I have seen the horrible impact that Westerners have had on this community by “trying to help”. They often choose to work against what the community leaders feels is important and make decisions that they are unqualified to make. In turn the outcome has resulted in inflated production cost, substandard quality, inaccessible location and services, among many others. There is no reason for this.
3. Smart people live in mud huts. I can tell you the people here live in very different environments and situations then most of us, and it is hard to see past that. But guess what? Smart people live here, lots in fact. And the kids at Shepherds Junior are brilliant. Imagine your kids in primary school not learning math, science and geography in English, but in French. That is what is going on here. It is a wonderful advantage for these kids, as the high schools here are English-medium while government primary schools are taught entirely in Swahili, leaving many students radically underprepared for public secondary schools and further education. It was amazing to me to see the fourth grade class learning Algebra in English . . . call me crazy, but that is pretty unbelievable.

This trip as taught me a lot. But if there is one thing I wish everyone could learn from me it is this: we can all help a local women make a priceless impact on hundreds of lives. I have looked into the eyes of these future success stories, and I promise you all that your efforts, donations and support will not be wasted. And the sooner we can help to provide the support Mama Lucy need in expanding to meet the needs of her people, the sooner more children will receive a top-notch education. 

PS: The one thing that I did find surprisingly disturbing here is western volunteerism & aid and its impact on the local culture and people. I will admit, even as a youngster I wanted to save the world one penny at a time. Whether it was an acre of rainforest, a manatee in Florida or a starving child in a third world country . . . I would have saved them all. The word “save” is going to be the lesson of the trip for me. One thing I have learned over the short 10 days of being here is that you can’t save people . . . not by making them more like us.

Posted: July 31st, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: 2

We have been incredibly busy this week; four amazing volunteers have now arrived! Since so often I share my own perspectives here, I thought it might be interesting to have some of them write what they’re learning and observing here in Tanzania. This entry is by Zoe Flanagan, a 21-year-old college student whom we met on our first trip to Tanzania, and who is working with us here now. I was excited to hear her views on our work here…and I hope you are too!

Hamjambo warafiki!

Hey everyone, my name is Zoe, and I’m going to be taking over this blog today. I am currently volunteering for Epic Change here in Arusha, and I couldn’t be happier to be working with these great people. I met Sanjay and Stacey as a fellow volunteer, on their first trip here with CCS. I was not very involved with Epic Change this year, to be honest. I signed up for the monthly donation, half out of guilt that I could not do more. But this trip has changed that.

My initial travel plans for my summer were to travel throughout East Africa to learn about the world of NGOs. I am studying Sociology and Anthropology (SOAN) at Lewis and Clark in Portland. A friend of mine who is also in the SOAN department initially planned on exploring this world with me. We decided together that we would do some sort of ethnography of the NGO culture. We recognized how large the NGO phenomenon had become and we wanted to see what made it tick. Sadly my friend was unable to come, and because of that, I was less comfortable traveling alone to do the research. I decided instead I would come back to Arusha, a town I really enjoy, and see what I could find. Quite serendipitously Epic Change was going to be here, needing help, the same time I was. So I went with this omen and decided to see what exactly it was my crazy friends Sanjay and Stacey were up to.

So what have I learned about NGO’s? Well to be honest I think it is going to take several years for me to truly digest everything I have learned. I have an inkling now, I’m getting the feeling that Epic Change has become my diving board into this non-profit world and I have just taken a swan dive in, no looking back. I am giving credit to Epic Change for being my diving board because I have been in the non-profit world as a volunteer, fund raiser, and promoter for five years now. I have always been passionate about the causes. Yet, coupled with this passion was a feeling of failure. Although I had good intentions, what I was doing was not sustainable. So far in my research of NGOs I have identified this characteristic, the lethal couple, passion and failure. In the past week I have been plagued with fits of uncontrollable excitement when I rule out this characteristic from what Epic Change is.

So what are my crazy friends Sanjay and Stacey up to? Well first, they are working their butts off. Just this week I think Sanjay pulled two all nighters back to back; the late nights were spent tackling a two hundred item to do list, and many hours were spent battling a printer with an attitude problem. I was there for the second one and that was when I realized just how much work goes into doing this right. You ask what do I mean when I say doing this, right? Well it’s what makes this project sustainable. They are working harder than ever to create the tools and the plan which will allow Mama Lucy to pay back the loan. These tools and plans to fund raise are amazing gifts because they will allow Sanjay and Stacey to step back and let Mama Lucy continue with her important work. By doing this Sanjay and Stacey are also creating a powerful new relationship. Africa has been told for too long that they need the mzungu (foreigner) and that they cannot do anything worthwhile without them. Mama Lucy already had an amazing program before Epic Change got here. Epic Change simply believed in Mama Lucy and what she was doing. To believe in a person and a cause is a powerful thing. Life threw her a curve ball and all Epic Change has done really is allowed her to keep her school. Because she has been given the power of decision in this relationship, she is now allowed to own the moment. From my point of view Epic Change has not only helped build a school but the project has shown this community that it can be built by a local.

It helps that Shepherds is a pretty amazing place. When I go there I really understand that it is the hopeful future of our world. This is a cliché, I know. Hope has been a little over used in the US this year, but not for naught. My fits of excitement have been the first moments in my life where I know I have felt hope; true unadulterated hope. These children will change the world, I am sure of it. Our world is plagued with ill-intentioned leaders, this is true everywhere and Shepherd’s young leaders are being taught to raise their voice. You can hear it when fourth grader Leah says she wants to “be a doctor so that she can find the cure to AIDS”. That is a pretty loud declaration, right? In many of the systems here Leah would be segregated into a school for the poorest of the poor. Mama Lucy does not allow this to happen at her school. This is partly why it is such an amazing place. Children of all backgrounds are learning together at the highest level they can. And they are brilliant kids, all of them.

Mama Lucy says “An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.” I have never heard it stated any better. A quarter of a million dollars seems like too much money to some. Many people feel more pulled to go to the most devastated situations with that kind of money. But don’t you think that if you educate this many children at this level and without social discrimination, those devastated situations may be eradicated in ten or twenty years? It is hard to see that, but I really think if there were more Shepherds Juniors throughout the world, the next generation could live a much better life.

These past two weeks have not only been filled with bright and shiny happy days of birds singing songs of hope. Along with my fits of excitement, there have been many moments when I feel like this is just too hard. Along with all nighters, I have witnessed the ugly side of trying to “help”. When you put your whole heart into something, the pain is much deeper when something goes wrong. I think one of the most important lessons I have learned so far is that when you are here you need to think, you really need to be self-reflective and aware of the fact that by trying to “help” you could be creating more hardships and more social handicaps. I know this sounds harsh, but I really believe it. Our presence here is powerful. I am not saying this to make myself sound important, quite the opposite, ( I think I am still figuring this out to be honest) but what I know is that in this one project, Epic Change has stepped back as much as they can, and I have never seen such good results.

Posted: July 20th, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: 2