Know Yourself

Don’t get me wrong, I love civilization.  I like people, get a kick out of cultural exchange and generally I am a social animal. Most of the time! At the same time, I am a loner; introspective, somewhat insecure and often my own impediment to civilized consort.  If you asked me to choose, I would allow that I need the former, but prefer the latter.  Yet, both of these preferences are highly interdependent. I need civilization to maintain my ego; human interaction is key to my being.  But the strain of my ego somewhat embarrasses me and drives me away from myself and away from others.  In an odd way I am experiencing the classic “six degrees of separation” that we all experience.  Except the six degrees are those between the social being and the loner that is me.  I have always been this way.  Perhaps, there is a good reason I am a Gemini.

This dichotomy is important.   The former is necessary for the latter to thrive.  For me, being social stimulates introspection.  For example, as the Executive Director of the Greater Impact Foundation, it is critical that I connect with the key people wherever they are, who are striving to enable those in greatest need to exit poverty.  This means immersing myself in different cultures across all social and economic strata in order to learn as much as possible about the organizations that we are considering and the people that run them.  That experience informs me on a business level, but at the same time it forces an introspection that causes me to constantly reevaluate my personal priorities.  All one has to do is meet people like Sanga Moses at Eco-Fuel Africa www.ecofuelafrica.co.ug , a green energy company in Uganda or Shawn Cheung, the CEO for Raising the Village www.raisingthevillage.org , also in Uganda, listen to their personal stories and observe what they are endeavoring to achieve to help those in greatest need and you cannot help turning inward to reexamine what you are doing with your own time and energy to truly have a lasting positive impact that is less about one’s self and more about the health of the global community.  Going outward to turn inward is a very positive experience for me.  When you couple that experience with the leadership of some of the organizations we work with, with the people they are trying to help, it has a compounding effect. 

I was blessed at birth.  Born into a solid upper middle class family in the U.S. I was given every opportunity to thrive.  Conversely, many of the people I meet on the road come from some of the poorest places on the planet.  Opportunity is a rare commodity.  It is not just the juxtaposition of these two realities that causes me to internalize my good fortune hoping to activate it in a positive way for those less fortunate than me.  Many factors come into play.  But, this exposure to the realities of what life is like for the poorest of the poor certainly strips away any pretense and unveils a more enlightened self and that, at least for me, is a very good feeling. 

Again, don’t get me wrong.  I spend a lot of time alone processing the experiences I have had with others like Sanga and Shawn.  It seems like two different selves interacting in a one act play that is my life and it continually reinforces my need, and maybe yours as well, to be social in order to know oneself.

Go Somewhere!

Those that know me, know that I have both mundane and eccentric interests, base and eclectic tastes, and a perspective fueled by a belief system that is fundamentally grounded in my personal experience.  This truth, coupled with my curiosity to learn new things reshapes and reforms that belief system and, not surprisingly, it is unstable, ever evolving.  For better or worse, it rests on an instability and a constantly shifting center of gravity that people might call “their reality.”  That is why when recently I was asked by someone I do not know what they could do right now that would be useful the rest of their life I quickly replied, “Go somewhere!”

This is pretty easy.  There are a lot of things one could do, but I suggested that my unknown friend get up and go somewhere he or she have never been before.  It could be anywhere, somewhere near home, but it must be somewhere s/he have never been before and a little bit out of one’s comfort zone.  I do not mean it has to be dangerous, just different.  Notwithstanding the notion that near to home seems mundane, what I would really propose is that people travel to a foreign country, not as a tourist, but as someone who wants to immerse oneself in the cultural diversity and beauty of a different country.  Stay long enough to feel the osmosis change you.  Take your time, but over time go to a variety of nations to begin to understand that diversity and cultural character informs you in a way that is impossible to do otherwise.  I said this already, but it is important, take your time.  Get a job wherever you go, it might help defray expenses, assuming that is necessary.  It is an economical way to extend your experience.  Travel overland, not by plane.  This also is key.  You will discover things you never imagined possible.  It will change you in a good way forever.

Again, those that know me know that this advice is based upon personal experience.  My reality.  But, as I noted earlier, that reality is constantly shifting.  Like the idiot I am, little did I realize that this fundamental belief that doing something outside my comfort zone, again, and, at my age, would change me yet again?  For this I have the Greater Impact Foundation to thank.

I am no Spring chicken; more of a middle age rooster absent some tail feathers.  I have spent most of my career in the corporate world.  So, when I assumed my current role it was definitely stepping out of my comfort zone.  It felt a little like going to a foreign country with only my wits, experience and curiosity to guide me.  At a minimum, it has been an incredible adventure and has continued to inform and shape “my reality” just as my travel experiences to foreign destinations did decades ago.  Some of the things I have learned have changed me once again.

The people engaged in the social impact space, most of them much younger than me have reinvigorated my faith in the future.  They are incredibly smart, motivated by a goodwill many elsewhere should consider, thirsty to learn better ways to accomplish their goals and open-minded about others.  They are wise enough to be wary, yet curious enough to explore new approaches to living a good life. 

Equally, the people I have met in far flung places, especially those struggling just to make it through another day remind me that dignity and resilience, desire and determination are not just the purview of those more fortunate.  It is a universal character and a value that we, caught up in the hubbub of the daily rat race, or the comfort of economic equanimity, sometimes forget.

No doubt, the stories in the news are distressing.  Sometimes the world seems about to disassemble. So, you might imagine that my advice is unsound, maybe outright risky.  Though, for me, falling prey to the sirens in the media and the fearmongering for ratings or cocooning to avoid the total reality of my existence is not an option.  My alternative, as the Greater Impact Foundation has allowed is to seek out the best of what the world has to offer.  It keeps me sane.

Those endeavoring to do something just, especially those more than half my age make me feel much younger than I am.  They allow me to recall why I chose long ago to go abroad to learn more about myself.  The people they are trying to help have an equal or even a greater impact on my psyche. Together, they reinforce my conviction and advice to the stranger who asked me what they could do right now that would be useful the rest of their life. “Go somewhere!”  

Raising The Village Joins the GIF Family

The Greater Impact Foundation is proud to announce that Raising The Village (RTV) has joined our excellent family of partners focused on finding viable solutions to the epidemic of poverty.  

RTV partners with last-mile villages in sub-Saharan Africa to develop pathways out of extreme poverty towards economic self-sufficiency.  And, since their own words speak more eloquently about their work then I ever could, I have shamelessly plagiarized from their own website www.raisingthevillage.org to share with you the great work that epitomizes their endeavor.

“Raising The Village works to end extreme poverty by eliminating immediate barriers of scarcity, nurturing income generation activities and building local capacity, while moving communities toward economic self-sufficiency.

[They] partner with some of the most remote and impoverished communities in Sub-Saharan Africa; these ‛last mile’ communities currently receive no government or international aid, and fall well below the threshold for microfinance opportunities.

The villages that [they] work with exist with household incomes of less than $1.00/day with some as low as $0.10/day. At these levels, they are subsisting without a safety net and are constantly pushed back further in poverty by circumstances such as illness, floods, poor harvest, and violent conflict.”

The mission as expressed on the RTV website is well framed, but the words alone do not fully articulate the incredible challenge the people who do this work face, it also does not fully frame the humanity of their work.  Sometimes, if you cannot personally experience what life is like in these villages, or see the miraculous change that that work engenders, it is just better to show the heart of the story in pictures.

Fertile land, but difficult terrain, more than women's work, but that is who does it.

Villages so remote, some only accessible by water.

Dugout canoes, not optimal especially when the wind pics up.

RTV offered a solution, but only with the villager's buy in.

Serious people with unbelievable challenges.  Look at the determination in everryone's eyes.

The Flame of the Blue Dragon

My friends at Sistema Biobolsa, a terrific enterprise the Greater Impact Foundation supports may not like me ripping off one of their stories to talk about here.  Then again, they may like the added exposure.  But, I had to share it because the combination of a very practical and affordable solution for converting biowaste to both methane for cooking and heating which saves money with a second by product of organic manure which improves productivity on small rural farms in Mexico is a great product solution especially for small rural farmers who have no access to such solutions, more often available in large towns and small cities. It is simple to make, simple to install, simple to maintain, saves money, improves productivity and is reasonably easy to pay off often within a year.  For us at GIF, Sistema Biobolsa is a poster child for the kind of enterprise we love to support.   And, while biowaste includes quite a range of organic materials, the best part of the Sistema model is its ability to turn manure into gold.  Maybe not gold, but definitely enough pesos to make a difference.  But, this story alone is not what I want to share.

Sistema has begun to integrate the benefits of the biodigester in to the social fabric of Mexican culture, preparing the next generation in a simple, but creatively impactful way to think about their future and how there are all sorts of solutions to problems if only you think creatively about  how to solve them.  I do not need to elaborate.  Watch this video.  It tells the story way better than I do. https://youtu.be/uhzOIt59wCQ

Split Personality

Shortly after returning from two plus weeks in Africa, I set out on a Mediterranean cruise with my wife and three other couples. Those that know me, know that a luxury cruise anywhere on a ship that serves thousands is not on my bucket list.  But, for good reasons I willingly went.  So, it is no surprise that the juxtaposition of the two events, one for my job to rural Uganda, Ghana and the Nairobi slums, immediately followed by one for with my family, a Mediterranean cruise experience to exotic ports of call had my mind reeling.  Some might suggest it fits my split personality.  I am a Gemini, though that is no fault of my own. 

I have been lucky. I have a comfortable life.  I have had terrific jobs. I have a great family.  Yet, ever since I was a young man and maybe just because of my good fortune, I have always yearned for the experience(s) that would validate my luck and teach me something I needed to know; offer me a purer understanding of myself. The unknown over the horizon has always beckoned me.  Like the experience of the protagonist in Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King, I have ached for something uplifting, something sacred in places beyond the horizon of my back porch, something that would help me understand the world and myself just a little bit better. In an odd way the cruise helped.

On a cruise you only unpack once and you get to go to interesting places.  But, that is not it.  The in-between, the actual cruising is even fun in its own oddly comic way. This too is not it. The sea is beguiling, especially at sunset. But that is not it either. Certainly, being with family and friends is wonderful. Not it, but close. The fact is, even though a cruise can be fun, at the same time I find the experience somewhat off-putting. The food is plenteous, though marginal.  That is not it.  The on-board entertainment benign. That is not it. The crew is always nice, especially those on the dining and hotel side of the business, often hailing from the places I visit for work.  That is not it either.

The fact is the cruise helped me because the experience was the polar opposite from my experience on the job for the Greater Impact Foundation and the excess of the cruise in juxtaposition with life for those at the bottom of the pyramid crystallizes one’s priorities.  If that is not a Gemini’s brain at work, I do not know what is.

Never ending food is a staple of cruising.  Not so where poverty is pervasive.  It seems that some of the gluttony on-board is as well.  Not so where incomes are below subsistence levels.  The inane entertainment is a cruise staple, though vacuous it does not divert one’s attention from the fact that entertainment of any grade is out of reach for those existing hand-to-mouth.  A cabin with a balcony and sublime sunsets is a stark reminder of those with no roof over their heads. The ports of call offset the monotony of the sea, but they distract you but for a brief interlude.  Then you are back on board, back in that finite world of cruising, wrapped in a floating manmade cocoon designed to misdirect you while it insidiously consumes your disposable income.  Yet, amazingly, all of this contradiction heightens one’s awareness and in that perverse way reinforces the beauty of the GIF mission.  Cruising somehow reinvigorates my energy to return to my work.  Like Henderson in Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King, I seem to have to always relearn this the hard way.

So, in fact, cruising is good for me.  It informs my psyche.  It reinforces my conviction.   It reminds me of my luck.  Oddly, it teaches me what is truly important in life.  Only a Gemini could see the downside of cruising as a good thing.

Notes From Uganda

Raising The Village, a unique social impact enterprise, partners with last-mile villages to achieve sustainable economic development as determined by the community themselves. Through innovative human-centered design, and a participatory approach to partnerships, RTV has been able to improve the quality of life and household incomes for over 10,000 people living in ‘ultra-poor’ conditions. Their holistic approach provides resources and training in five major impact areas to disrupt the poverty cycle and foster the rapid development of last mile villages.

What is a last mile village?  Think about it this way.  The villagers, many who have never ventured beyond their limited village horizon, are not living at the bottom of the economic pyramid.  They are not even on it!  They have virtually no access to government services, fail to qualify for base of the pyramid aid programs and typically earn between 10 to 20 cents at the daily household level.  This is where Raising the Village focuses its time and energy and the Greater Impact Foundation is proud to help.

You might ask, where are these villages?  To provide just a little perspective, at one point I was atop a mountain where one of the villages is located and I could see Rwanda, The Congo and Uganda at the same time (pictured above).  We were in the midst of the jungle home of the mountain gorilla in southwestern Uganda made famous as a result of Dian Fossey’s seminal research.  Remote. Beautiful. Surreal. Uganda, especially rural Uganda, is riveting.  Around every turn the unexpected is expected.  Big cities like Kampala can be amazing as well.  Urban poverty is no less compelling than rural poverty and in some ways the pressurized nature of a large city makes it more so.

500 kilometers east in the Lugazi District, outside Kampala, Eco-Fuels Africa, and a GIF partner since early 2015, continues to innovate.  The business uses biowaste to made alternative cooking fuel.  It is not a new idea, but establishing a business methodology that continues to break down barriers and gain market acceptance is.   Green fuel (biowaste briquettes) is more than just an alternative to charcoal.  It is a more efficient fuel source, less expensive, and a healthier alternative.  Gaining market acceptance in a culture that traditionally resists change is a significant positive cultural shift.  If you ever have the opportunity to meet Sanga Moses you will quickly realize why he has achieved that goal.

GIF constantly talks about the notion that great ideas, wonderful products, a rigorous business methodology and the ingrained DNA to measure everything is key to success in the social impact space.  We also know that without the right talent in place to do the work nothing else matters.  Shawn Cheung and his team at RTV and Sanga Moses along with his team at Eco-Fuel exemplify this truth.  They are honest, thoughtful and committed to doing the right thing and they are not afraid to measure results in an effort to continuously improve.  Their leadership skills seem to be a natural part of their psyche, but I know those skills are underpinned by hard work.  It is evident in everything they do and fully represented by the success of their endeavors.

Accountability Counts

When you love your job, when you love the people with whom you work, when you love the vision of a potential partner that provides jobs for the poor while doing it in a sustainable way, it is hard to say no, especially when you know that if they succeed, they are doing something very special, something selfless, something that can transform lives for the better.  Yet, it is easy to say no when you discover, sometimes quite by accident, that what you read in a report, or had been told on a call is not what is happening on the ground. The conclusion: Face-to-face due diligence in the social impact world is mandatory.  Unplanned visits help.  Here is an example why.

I just completed a three country review of eight different organizations.  A few are potential new partners.  The balance I have visited once before.  In particular, one organization already funded was very unique, providing incomes for poor farmers that required little effort on their part, but was sustainable because the business model demonstrated the ability to monetize the product the farmer provided the organization, thereby showing a pathway to profitability.  I loved it.  They needed resources to scale.  GIF was happy to help.

On my second visit I spent a day in the field to see for myself just how that monetization was performing at the point of sale.  Everything looked good, so much so, that we finished our review early.  Just because we could, we stopped in at the office to meet some of the new people, included the new CEO who had just assumed responsibility for the business.  That unplanned, impromptu visit was an eye opener.  Not only did the leadership seem to be dismissive, when I pressed for details about his plans, as if I was an annoyance added to his busy day, but also I quickly discovered that everything I thought was happening had changed.  It was not that the changes were bad.  In fact, they probably were (are) positive moves.  However, discovering it all accidentally set me back.  Moreover, the nature of the exchange was so dismissive that it was not hard to become quickly skeptical.  Rightfully so, the GIF Chairman asked, “Don’t they communicate, don’t they provide the requisite reports, don’t they realize that there are hundreds of organizations seeking resources?  It is our money and we choose who to work with, not them.  Do they not know that above all trust is essential and that trust means sharing good and bad news in a timely manner?  No surprises!”  Yes. Yes. Yes. And emphatically YES!

It is a shame.  This organization may succeed.  I hope they succeed.  But, the adage remains true, “Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.”  I am hopeful it was unintentional, but I fear I would have never know had I not been there to see for myself.  I have been fooled before.  Experiencing it twice from the same organization is not in the job description.

Almost Home

My body is home, but my head is still in Africa. 

I arrived home yesterday after two plus weeks on the road visiting enterprises in Uganda, Kenya and Ghana striving to build sustainable solutions to poverty.  But, honestly, using the phrase on-the-road is a misnomer. 

The main roads in Africa’s cities and small towns are paved and jammed with traffic of all sorts, but in the rural villages they are not.  Frequently, they are unnamed, non-existent routes trodden by centuries of foot traffic; shaped by the run off of seasonal rains and clouds of dry season dust settling where it may; often off the grid where the starkness and struggle against poverty is self-evident. 

This is not to say that urban Africa’s poverty is less compelling.  In many ways it is more so; the density and sheer numbers of city dwellers struggling is overwhelming. The Mathare and Kangaware slums of Nairobi are posters for the plight of poverty in urban Africa. 

This is not the world on a vacationer’s schedule, but they are mine.  And, in a strange way, at least for me, they are magnets for my mind; irresistible, both life threatening and life affirming, pathways to change in me and my perspective of reality. The world of those struggling to survive is not easily forgotten once one has returned to the creature comfort of home and the sheer abundance of America, despite its flaws.  Yes, I am home, but my head is not.

Africa is magnificent.  The people equally so. I am not foolish enough to dismiss the underbelly of society; those that may wish you harm or seek to take advantage, but this is a minority, no different than home.  For the most part the people are kind and warm, curious and engaging with an easy smile, disarming and open.  This counter-intuitive character seems pervasive with the poor; people with the strongest reasons for pessimism.  Nevertheless, it is true, representative in their willingness to share what little they have regardless of their condition.

There is a strength in those at the bottom of the pyramid, likely necessary to survive day to day.  It is incredibly powerful and most visible in the women.  There is the same wonder and innocence in children at the bottom of the pyramid, who play in the only world they know in the same way all children do.  There is a defiance and attitude in the men that still want control underlined by benign awareness that they are not.  The people of Africa are beautiful with all their flaws, with all their grace, on a vast continent rich in resources, both natural and manmade, in a world so different from ours one must go there to truly understand.  I hope one day to do so to see the enticing images depicted in the coffee table guide books that seduce vacationers.  The African Rift beckons. But, for now, my Africa offers an alternative option, a deep dive into the reality of life for those that struggle the most with a grace and determination rarely witnessed elsewhere.  This world is hard to forget.  This explains why I say I am home, but my head (and heart) are still there.

A Story of Redemption

Frankly, I am exhausted.  Maybe weary is a better word. On the road now for eight days, first Uganda, now Kenya, soon Ghana.  But, I have to get this out before I forget.  I cannot wait until I return home to recover and fully process the experience.  Travelling to three countries in 16 days, meeting eight different enterprises, endless car rides into remote places, a diverse range of personalities, anecdotes and stories, details, numbers, facts that boggle the mind and the completely unexpected has a tendency to rip one’s defenses away. None of that matters when you meet someone like Alex.

I do not know Alex’s last name.  Nor does he likely know mine.  But, I will always remember him as an example of the human spirit, fraught with weaknesses, but blessed by a spirit that has transformed the life of one lone solitary boy (now a man) who by all accounts should probably be dead by now.  Yet, now, at age 26, not only is he flourishing, he is also showing the way forward for those just like him. 

By age six, both parents dead, alone in Nairobi, Kenya, a child alone on the streets of the Kawangware slums in Nairobi, Alex seemed to be just another lost statistic.  Found by the luck of Fortune, moved from orphanage after orphanage enduring constant displacement, when a relative, an uncle he never knew, retrieved him from what appeared to be a lost life.  It was no better.  An outsider in an abusive home, a third class citizen in one of the worst slums anyone can imagine, abused and then kicked out.  On the streets again, alone with only his wits to save himself.  Found a cousin, a thief and drug peddler, to take him in, only to be left alone again when his thug cousin was shot.  Skilled at theft was all he knew.

Alex told me as we walked the alleys of the marketplace crowded with every sort of person eking out a livelihood if it weren’t for an ad he saw offering to be trained to sell some product that might earn him a small income, indeed, he would likely be dead by now, but that ad posted by Livelihoods to join the ISmart team offered him an alternative.  Instinctively, after surviving on the streets for fifteen years, he seemed to know that this might be his last chance.  So, he grabbed it, just as he might grab your wallet or cell phone.  He joined LivelyHoodswww.livelyhoods.org , an enterprise endeavoring to provide a way for those living on the streets, on the margin of life, a pathway out.

Today, Alex still spends his time on the streets, but now he is mentoring other that were just like him, teaching them how to sell a range of products that are designed to help the poorest of the poor improve their condition and, at the same time, help those just like him to escape the stranglehold of poverty.

Poorly educated, no marketable skills except his passion, Alex is an incredible personality.  He knows he was lucky to get out and he knows that he must do whatever he can to help others get out.  It is not easy.  The slums are unremitting, forever sucking life out of you before one’s own eyes.  It is grinding, painful, dangerous and depressing.  Yet, when you watch Alex light up as he pitches products or pushes another to sell and not be afraid it is hard not to love him.  He personifies the human spirit.  His story is one of redemption.

What Binds Us Together?

I don’t think I need to tell anyone reading this blog that it is written from my personal perspective as I try to share just what the Greater Impact Foundation is endeavoring to do to have a positive social impact on poverty wherever it exists.  Each week I seek out interesting ways to make a simple point that provides the opportunity to do just that.  I am no great writer and I often fear that I fail to achieve that nexus.  But I try.  You may feel just that as you read further.

Right now I am on the last leg of a trip, KLM from Amsterdam to Entebbe to begin a 16-day trek to three countries (Uganda, Kenya and Ghana) to visit nine enterprises GIF is either already working with, or considering a new partnership.  It is a long first leg.  In flight, I just finished watching the film, “Woman in Gold,” with Helen Mirren and, admittedly, the end of the movie brought tears to my eyes.   Then, suddenly I knew what this blog was going to be about.  It wasn’t a profound epiphany, but it was pleasing nevertheless.

The film is essentially about the preservation of a family legacy.   Yes, the plot is driven by restitution for famous artwork stolen by the Nazis from Jewish families during WW II and it is compelling, but what teared me up was the not the recovery of stolen artwork, but the underlying plotline about the importance of family.  Not just that, but also the importance of preserving those family memories, keeping them intact, and passing them on to the next generation.  This is a near and dear subject for me as I have always preached to my own boys about the essential nature of the family unit and how there is nothing more important to preserve.  It also made me think about many of the families GIF is trying to positively impact.

Today, their condition, in many ways, is similar to those families swept up and irrevocably torn apart.  War does that.  So does poverty, which the chaos of war exacerbates.  This is absolutely the truth in Uganda.  Less so in Kenya and Ghana, but countries, still for many reasons outside their control, suffering poverty that irreparably damages the family unit.   

I mentioned previously that I have had the opportunity to travel extensively over the last 40 years.  With certainty, wherever I go the single most common denominator among all people from every culture is the preeminence of the family unit.  It is without question the greatest binding force of humanity.   I have known this for a while.  Nevertheless, it made me recalibrate just a touch what the Greater Impact Foundation stands for.  Yes, seeking ways to help eradicate poverty in a sustainable and scalable way is our mission.  It is just heartening to know that pursuit also enables families to remain intact, preserving a legacy that we hope one day truly unites us all.