The $5 philanthropist

Human Capital. Knowledge Economy. The ruler of Dubai just announced he is donating a modest sum to establish a new educational foundation in the Middle East aimed at "creating a knowledge-based society" in the Middle East. The amount he donated? Ten billion dollars.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, prime minister and ruler of Dubai and vice president of the United Arab Emirates, has announced that he is donating $10 billion to establish an educational foundation in the Middle East, BBC News reports.

Delivering a keynote address to the World Economic Forum, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said "There is a wide knowledge gap between us and the developed world in the West and in Asia. Our only choice is to bridge this gap as quickly as possible, because our age is defined by knowledge."

Quite right. Our age is defined by knowledge. Want to lift any country up the ladder of economic development? Best to start with an investment in building that country's Human Capital.

Now here's your chance:

As some of you might know, I met a man named Yves Habumugisha on my trip to Rwanda. He works in Rwanda and Burundi on behalf of Food For The Hungry's Rwanda office, an international development organization. Yves' passion and his knowledge and his ideas for community development inspire me immensely.


Over the last few months, I have been raising money to pay for Yves to complete his Masters degree in International Development.

Yves has been completing the degree by online correspondence but this last semester requires physical attendance at Southern New Hampshire University.

Food For The Hungry Rwanda is contributing USD$1200 plus the cost of his airfare and Yves was recently awarded a partial scholarship worth USD $1500. This means, including money already raised through the fundraising page I created, we only have CDN $1,740 left to raise!!!

This is one of the best charitable investments you can make. Without a doubt, investing in Yves education will have an exponential effect on the communities in which he works in Burundi and Rwanda.

As those closest to me know, I have fallen in love with Rwanda and am counting down the days to my return this fall.

We only have a few weeks to go before payment is due. Please give generously!

I will be attending Yves graduation in July.

Labels: burundi, development, education, humancapital, rwanda

As promised, here is the video interview for Pod 3. Hope the Pig-e-Banks are working out for you guys this weekend.

For Hugh Boyd's Pod 3



Add to My Profile | More Videos

Labels: africa, burundi, charity, nutrition, philanthropy, pod3, rwanda

Dorm in Rugira
Originally uploaded by tomgivemeaning.

Rugira - November 16th, driving

Yesterday, I visited a school in Musema which had been targeted by the rebels in 1996. The rebels, angry that the children attending the school didn't want to enlist in the fight, burned the dormitories and eating hall. The leader of the rebel group responsible for burning that school in 1996 is now the elected President of Burundi. No matter what rationale the President has for the then need for the war his rebel army fought, you would think that upon gaining control, the FIRST THING he would do when he gained control is to ensure that any infrastructure destroyed by his own rebel army be immediately repaired.

It infuriates me no end that it is now a full decade later and this school is still not repaired. The bunk beds that the kids sleep on were burned in the fire set by the rebels and have never been replaced. Bullet holes still pot-mark all the walls and the metal beds sag and threaten to give way any day now. The kids that sleep in the dormitories with these charred bunk-beds are considered the lucky ones! Other kids who came to the school later sleep on thin foam mattresses on the bare floor of another dormitory.

After visiting this school, the dormitories burned into my mind, I drive just up the road to the local hospital. This hospital is currently being serviced by MSF - Doctors Without Borders. I share offices with MSF in Vancouver and have always admired their work. I also really admired the fact that they were one of the only organizations that during the outpouring of donations for the Tsunami relief efforts, they announced that they had reached their budget and were not accepting any more donations. Truly admirable! MSF's mandate is to go into "theatres" where there are no other "actors" providing critical medical support, most often during active armed conflicts. They were here on the ground here in Burundi when the civil war was going on, had to leave for a while because fighting grew too intense and were one of the first organizations back on the ground as fighting receded.

But here's the rub: MSF is a relief organization. Their job is to set-up the hospital, operate it for a period of time and transition a new team of doctors and staff to take-over. This assumes of course that there will actually be a staff hired before MSF leaves. The likely reality is that when MSF leaves, the hospital - which is the only medical clinic in a 10 kilometer radius- will crumble and disintegrate into a state of disrepair. Let me be absolutely clear: I'm in no way faulting MSF. They have a clear mandate. They have done their job and cannot be responsible for operating this hospital ad infinitum. But then who will be responsible? At present time, there is no answer. And so this illustrates one of the most important points for me to communicate: That we as donors MUST understand the difference between relief and development. And as fundraisers and charities, we MUST find new ways to communicate that it's the development work that makes lasting change.

So here's the vicious circle that currently exists in international funding. A "hot spot" emerges caused by civil war, environmental disaster, whatever. The urgent need is evident everywhere expressed in images and video that can easily be captured and presented as news or fundraising appeals. Donors react because they are being told the stories and seeing the images of an entire community without any medical care. They fund MSF's appeal and MSF comes into the town, does what they do best, and more images and stories come back of the difference MSF has made, the surgeries performed, the lives saved. Job well done, the donor feels satisfied, and then literally and metaphorically the lights go out. The media is covering the next hot spot, MSF moves out of the hospital and the community is left to sort it out from there. Note, I only use MSF as name of an organization to make the point.

Putting this into perhaps a more relatable context, I remember being on my BMX bike at Vic High School with my parents, the first time my training wheels had been taken off. Learning to ride the bike, one of my parents would walk holding on to the bike, steadying me and encouraging me to pedal a little faster. Then they would let go and for a few meters, I would be doing great and then invariably fall off the bike. They were there to dust me off, put me back on and start again. Eventually, I got the hang of it, and well, my parents don't need to steady my bike anymore. Some might say that this analogy is trite and I feel a little silly even feeling compelled to include this schlock but something like this analogy is needed because intelligent smart donors continually fund relief efforts with no consideration or care for what happens next. Continuing the analogy for one more moment, had my parents turned their back at the first few meters, they wouldn't have known that seconds later I had fallen off the bike, scraped my knee and cried for help . Had they turned their back, the only image they would have known was of those first few meters. They would walk away, content that I had learnt what I needed. We all know the perils of prematurely declaring "Mission Accomplished."

So then, what's the answer? Well, ultimately and in the most ideal, the big relief organizations would be more responsible with their donor messaging and fundraising activities when responding to an urgent crisis. They would make it clear that this only covers relief efforts and either offer a separate fund to be allocated only to post-relief development (if their mandate included staying on the ground when development begins) or offer a link to a respected development organization that they intended to transition their work to, when the relief work was over. This kind of cooperation and messaging is unfortunately likely entirely unrealistic.

So then, what is the realistic answer? I'm pretty sure I've got it. I just don't want to share it yet. Not because of a fear that someone else will run with it (heck, I want every charity concerned with international development to run with it) but because I want to live with it a while and write about a few of the other issues that this potential solution should also seek to address. But this may be as big a revolution as GiveMeaning itself.

But I can tell you I'm excited. The problem is enormous and when you see the problem manifested it is saddening and maddening. But it is entirely solvable. This is not the delirium of my malaria pills talking. Community by community, solutions can be applied to make long-lasting change that is ultimately made and sustained by the community itself.

Labels: africa, burundi, tomstrip

Note: Because I had only 10 minutes to upload from an internet cafe with a terrible connection, I wasn't able to post this entry written on Tuesday. I apologize for this being out of sequence.

8:39am, driving in Ngoze, Burundi - Tuesday, November 14th

We crossed from Rwanda into Burundi at about 5:30pm last night. It was another incredibly long day of driving. We drove for a total of about 5 or 6 hours yesterday. The whole time, I was sandwiched in between John and Kent in the back-seat. Both John and Kent had no problems falling asleep on our drive, leaving my shoulders available for head-rests for my friends. We couldn't stop to stretch our legs after getting into Burundi since it was already dark. It was a great relief to get to our hotel, have a hot meal and fall asleep for the first time in a room that I wasn't sharing with anyone. At around 4am, I awoke to the sounds of beautiful chanting/singing that lasted about an hour. I don't know where it came from, but it was incredibly peaceful and really helped recharge me. Finally, this morning, I had a real shower and changed into my last clean clothes.

I worry that the above sounds selfish. It's my own account of my own experience but these luxuries are not available to the majority of people here in Burundi. I am doing my best to avoid the trap of feeling guilty for what I have, but as I write this, I am overcome with a feeling that I think I have been doing my best to suppress just tremendous sadness I feel for how much of a struggle life is here. It is then that I feel totally awestruck by the happiness and strength of spirit of the people I'm meeting. Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the entire world. Devastated by years of insufficient rainfall and civil war, since about 1992, the country has been sliding into worse and worse economic shape and now about 75% of the country live in extreme poverty (less than one dollar a day of income).

But I am incredibly excited to be in Burundi because of the tremendous faith I have in Food For The Hungry Rwanda/Burundi staff that are in charge of my itinerary here. As I mentioned, I received a wonderful debrief by FHI's country director before departing Kigali. Yves Yabumujisya (Planning Coordinator for FHI Burundi) and John Nibahubahr ( Coordinator for FHI Burundi) are amazingly well-informed, passionate and intelligent and have solid grasps of the problems per each province here in Burundi.

In the briefing document that Yves prepared, he spoke about the inequitable land ownership that almost guarentees that the poorest will remain poor. The amount of land a family owns also defines socioeconomic standing in the community, further marginalizing the poorest of the poor. As we were driving last night, I thought about the potential of farm co-operatives. Then at dinner last night, I asked Yves and John about the projects they were most excited about and the first thing they mentioned was their attempt at organizing a farmers co-op in Kirundo. Bingo! FHI Burundi is currently negotiating to lease 10 plots of 1 hectare each which would support 240 families. In the structure they envision, the co-op members would receive benefits such as health care, education for their children and of course, a share of the revenue. Furthermore, because of the pooled production of the co-op, it's likely the members will receive a better price for their agricultural output and better trading conditions.

As exciting as the economic empowerment that the co-op could provide is the cultural shift that might arise from a community cooperative. I share John and Yves' hope that a model of sharing could eventually change attitudes Burundians have about class structure.

FHI's current approach for their first co-op is to lease the land from the government in exchange for a share of the revenue generated from the co-op. This is not ideal given that there are looming land-claim issues with more than 700,000 refugees currently living in Tanzania (for the most part) who will understandably want their land returned to them, never-mind the loss of equity and the risk of the government seeking to increase its share of the co-ops revenue in the future.

Still, I support starting the first co-op with a strong lease agreement and then seeking to purchase parcels of land from the wealthier (a very relative term) land owners.

We're off to Bugabira to meet with the mayor of the community. It promises to be an interesting meeting.

I am so grateful to have my time in Burundi coordinated by the amazing FHI Rwanda/Burundi team. I have a lot of respect and admiration for this team.

Also, eight years of french immersion schooling is finally paying-off! French is the second language of both Rwanda and Burundi so I am able to converse directly with the people I'm meeting as opposed to relying on a translator. I am getting motion-sick typing as we drive but this is the only time to write an entry. The schedule for my time in Burundi is so jam-packed with meetings and visits that this is the only time I might have to write. More later.

Labels: africa, burundi, tomstrip

Kids at school in Rubura
Originally uploaded by tomgivemeaning.

Note: I have one minute of battery life and in an internet cafe. Will have better access tomorrow.

6:48am - Wednesday, November 15th

Yesterday was an incredibly busy day. We arrived into Bugabira (a commune in the province of Kirundo) to meet with the mayor and to witness the seed distribution program. It was an unforgettable sight. CLICK HERE to see a picture I took at the distribution. As we were driving to the mayor's office, we noticed this steady stream of people walking the way we were driving but it wasn't until we got closer to his office that we realized what was going on. Over 6000 people were convening at his office to receive maize and sorgum seeds to plant for the upcoming season. When our trucks had carefully navigated the crowd, I got out of the truck and saw just how massive this assembly was. We met with the mayor who explained how the distribution would occur and the logistics of the operation. He also gave us an overview of the needs of his community.

There are 74,248 people living in Bugabira with about 351 people per square kilometer. There is a near total lack of wells, and most people are going to the nearby lake to collect drinking water, causing disease. There are only 3 health centers and 14 schools for this entire population.

In this community and many like it, there is just a massive need for critical infrastructure. I have begun to formulate some strong opinions about infrastructure projects and in a separate blog entry I will provide my opinions which might influence a new policy for certain projects on our site that try to fundraise for infrastructure.

The mayor couldn't meet for long as he had to supervise the seed distribution program. It was an amazing process to witness. Community leaders present the list of the farmer's in their area that will receive seeds. Then, one at a time, each community leader calls the name of each farmer on a pre-written list of names that the mayor is given. The farmer steps forward to identify him or herself and the mayor then crosses that person's name off the list. Once all names have been accounted for, the mayor gives the community leader their allocation of the seeds. This entire system is designed to prevent fraud and is the reason why more than 6000 people were present at the distribution. Amazingly, the entire distribution only takes about 3 hours to complete.

These seeds will yield crops in January and February and then, the farmers will plant new crops in February but harvest will not come until June. It's during these months that people are the most food deprived. While some NGO's will step-in, I am seeing that even the World Health Organization is lacking sufficient funding and resources to cover all the hunger crises'.

After meeting with the mayor, we drove to a much smaller community called Rubura in the province of Kayanza home to about 11,000 people. In this community, it has one of the highest land density ratios in all of Sub-Saharan Africa. The average land density is about 280 people per square kilometer but here it was over 450 people per square kilometer, the highest density in sub-Saharan Africa. In this commune, I was there to see the local medical clinic and maternity clinic. I was appalled at the lack of resources. For this entire community of 11,000 people, their only piece of medical equipment was an old rusted microscope. They have no medicine, no nothing. The maternity clinic is similarly ill-equipped. I asked the rather obvious question of "well how do you treat the really sick" and the answer I got back, very matter-of-factly: "we don't." Well then what do you do? I stammered. "We hope their death is quick," was the reply.

Further sea-sawing my emotions yesterday, as I walked out of the the ill-equipped maternity clinic, school was letting out and I was immediately greeted by dozens of school-children. The kids were so happy and excited and curious about the Muzungu's (a Swahili word meaning "person of wealth") and when I stopped to shake the hand of a few kids, this surge of kids reached out, each wanting to shake my hand. To greet and shake the hands of near a hundred kids was at least presently indescribable. I feel this need to dispel the cyncism that might arise for some readers when I talk about these kids' enthusiasm and happiness, especially after I've just finished describing the condition of the clinic. Maybe somewhere this cynicism is seeping into my thoughts as I try to recollect my day yesterday. It's easy to dismiss the kids' interest in me as hope and expectation that I can help, that I can give them something. And of course, they are obviously not without that hope. But it was clear to them that I had nothing to give other than my being with them. So I just played with them, trying to talk to one another, holding hands, and playing around with my camera. I just felt this incredible gratitude for their hospitality and generosity.

But then remembering the building that hopes to grow into a true clinic, capable of doing more than just receiving patients, I become lost again, switching from heart to head, looking for the answer. And, strong opinions are coming to me. For example: At dinner last night, I asked John why Unicef had provided notebooks and pens to the kids but not textbooks. Apparently, the government is responsible for this and while the Ministry of Education has ordered the text-books, they have not yet been printed in Nairobi. Currently there are about 5 or 6 textbooks per class (the average class being about 40-50 kids). So an idea I floated at dinner which seems to make some sense is to negotiate a text-book "loan" program. Approach the government and say "look, I'll provide these text-books today to ensure that the classes have adequate resources but only on the basis that you will give me back the same number of text-books and other resources I give. When the government makes good on the terms and provides me the books, they take those books and give them to another class and so on." The books that are repaid are either donated to other schools or loaned on the same basis. It's just the beginning of one of the millions of ideas floating around my head that I intend to crystalize in the next few weeks.

Maybe I'm being arrogant or naive but those who know me know that I can't be here without at least trying to apply my brain to the problems I witness. Everywhere I go, I see opportunity. I see all the conditions needed to make long-lasting, sustainable change, mostly in that the people I'm meeting here on the ground are so knowledgeable, organized, passionate and intelligent.

I will say that when I'm back in Vancouver, I will want to apply a new criteria to anyone who submits a project proposal at GiveMeaning to build a school, a clinic or any other kind of critical infrastructure anywhere in the world: It's simply not good enough just to build the place. If you're going to build it, don't leave it until it's got what it needs to be able to properly serve the community. Every budget for an infrastructure project should have included the required monetary resources to purchase at the very least the basic necessities for that service to properly function in the community. I see it as the only responsible thing to do.

On a personal note, I miss home a lot right now. The cell phone card that I had bought to stay in touch with my family isn't working and there just isn't a place to buy another SIM card. I listened to one of Jessie's songs on iTunes this morning, a song I've listened to thousands of times before but today, her voice was just different. Further away. Tomorrow, we will reach the capital of Burundi. Hopefully I'll be able to sort out the phone and internet situation.

Labels: africa, burundi, tomstrip