How One Blue Sweater Started A Book Club And Changed Lives

People being one of the the mentioned organizers of the Blue Sweeter Book Club and Challenge of Kibera, i remember that day very well sitting in the crowd listening to Jacqueline speak, it was so inspiring to see and hear what others are doing to change the face of poverty and the whole idea of AID in Africa.

Thanks Acumen team because with such ideas and steps that you people propose we can actually see Poverty being History because i believe people are not poor because they want to, its simply because they don't have the opportunity to change their life. The market approach on the other hand is also proving to be a good listening deceive for the poor.

I really hope African leaders and Governments can see this and learn from great people like Jacqueline Novogratz and Dambisa Moyo because a poor peasant farmer in Mbita island in western part of kenya doesnt want free maize that can only last a day the poor fellow only want is how he can plant his own food and be able to feed his family and kinsmen and have surplus to sell or keep for the future. its the high time african leaders start thinking of alternative forms of AID or Developmental Assistance.

Anyway here is what Jacqueline had to say of the event in Kibera:

By Jacqueline Novogratz: February 16, 2010 07:30 AM

In "The Blue Sweater", which comes out today (February 16) in paperback, I share the story that gives the book its title as an example of the interconnectedness of people around the world:

It all started with the blue sweater, the one my uncle Ed gave me. I loved that soft wool sweater with its striped sleeves and African motif -- two zebras in front of a snow-capped mountain -- across the front. I wrote my name on the tag to ensure it would be mine forever, and I wore it for years. At least, until freshman year, when my high school nemesis -- in one of those humiliating adolescent moments -- mocked my blossoming figure in the sweater. Mortified, I donated it to the local Goodwill, glad never to have to see it again.

Fast forward eleven years. I am jogging in Kigali, Rwanda, where I'm working to establish a microfinance institution for poor women. Several yards ahead of me, I see a young boy wearing the sweater -- my blue sweater. I run over to the child and turn down the collar. There, thousands of miles and more than a decade from where I last saw the sweater, my name is still visible on the tag.

The story of the blue sweater has always served to remind me of how we are all connected, and how our actions -- and inaction -- touch people every day, people we may never know and never meet. The story is also my personal story in understanding better what stands between poverty and wealth.

My experience with the book club in Kibera was a similar reminder of how fundamentally alike we all are in seeking the dignity and opportunity to shape our own lives.

We are in the Kibera slum, on our way to a meeting of the Blue Sweater Book Club. We turn through a gate and see Mama Hamza's community center, a building made of corrugated metal sheets for the walls and roof that glistens in the afternoon sun. The young men who have organized the event are outside, and everything looks beautiful.

Suraj, the lanky, boyish looking Acumen Fellow who works with our team in Nairobi, met a guy named Kevin last year, and began talking about his work with patient capital and development. Recently unemployed and living in the slums, Kevin was interested in the ideas, so Suraj gave him my book, "The Blue Sweater", on the condition that Kevin would read it and send him a review. Kevin kept his promise and wrote me a thoughtful e-mail that I will keep forever.

That first exchange encouraged Suraj to give the book to two more young men, including Alex Sunguti, the 22-year-old with the beautiful unedited smile who cleans the Acumen Fund office. After writing a moving, honest, open review, Alex decided to start a book club.

Now, there are seven organizers and book clubs in five slums around Nairobi. The seven organizers -- Alex and Kevin, along with Jeremiah, Dennis, Chris, Herbert, and Dickson -- are increasingly committed to being leaders in their community despite the challenges of being unemployed and of little education. Indeed, the talents of this group alone should convince the world of just how much potential the human spirit holds if only we would get rid of the structures that bind and oppress.

We pull into the community center at 4 o'clock. By 4:30, more than 90 people are seated in the room. Many are carrying "Blue Sweater" books: Jeremiah tells me that they'd asked each reader to come with at least one question about the book. For tonight is to be a conversation and not just a speech.

Alex takes the stage to introduce me. Beaming radiantly, he is most powerful when he speaks of his own experiences and provokes the audience to think about theirs:

I may not share the same experience with Jacqueline, but her story inspires me a lot. I didn't make it to advanced education after O Level. I was told to join one of the various arms of the government - like Kenya Army, Police, Navy, Security, media, banking sector among others - but I haven't gone through. It's not that I don't qualify, but I don't have money to bribe. People bribe to get a well paying job. What about the poor who have no money to bribe but have huge potential to transform the world?

He doesn't feel sorry for himself, but rather challenges the room to remember how powerful each of them can be. I sit in the front row listening, transfixed by the beauty and generosity of his words. I've never been given a more meaningful introduction.

After my talk, Kevin opens the room to questions. Mama Hamza, the woman who runs the community center asks about balance. "I want to be a leader on a better level like you are," she says. "But I am a grandmother and have so many children to care for in this community. What can I do?" I look at the petite woman with a rust-colored scarf wrapped around her head, and imagine the challenges she's overcome and the leader she must be. I start by saying we aren't talking about "better" levels, just different kinds of leadership, and go on to answer as honestly as I can.

A young woman named Khadija stands and in a voice filled with anger, lashes out, "I'm a teenager, a single mother and I don't know who the father of my child is. I have no money. I have no job. How can you say we can all be leaders? Who will follow me?"

To my right, sits Jane in her red dress with her hair pulled back. In 2001, Jane was a prostitute, HIV-positive, had no money, three children, and no prospects. By taking tiny loans from Jamii Bora, Kenya's fastest-growing microfinance institution, she was able to start a tailoring business, repay and invest again, until she had reached the point where she was a thriving business woman, a community leader consulting people with HIV, and a home owner. Jane stands, "If you would have known me ten years ago, you would never believe that I am here today, telling you that every one of you can do it. Don't give excuses. Don't blame others. Places like Jamii Bora can help you, but you have to do this for yourselves."

The questions continue for nearly two hours. I am humbled by the many that start by thanking me for writing about my failures. They say the fact that I kept failing gives them hope that they can fall down and try again and maybe succeed. These words cause a choking feeling -- how can they see me as someone with challenges similar to their own? I live in a loft apartment in New York City. I am privileged, yet here I am standing in front of a group of people who are seeing themselves in my stories, connecting to the human spirit that persists, to a determination to make things better, no matter our starting point.

Our human bonds make me feel I am standing on sacred ground: I'm not sure whether I can bear this gift, this truth somehow that is hovering right there in the hot little metal box of a room. I have a deep urge to weep, but know that if I start, I might cry until I float away. Still, I know that in those tears is also a searing hopefulness that we can and do connect, that we can see ourselves in one another. I think of Ubuntu -- I am because you are.

We can choose to feel overwhelmed with sadness or we can choose to be inspired by possibility. The challenge is to be tough and focused and to hold people accountable in concrete ways while showing up without the posturing and masks that keep us distant from one another. This night, maybe more than any single evening, reminded me how possible this is. Indeed, it convinced me it is the only way.

Africa Day is not Socialism Day!

By James Shikwati
African Executive

Talk about Africa Day and the image that comes to peoples' minds is music, drums, dancing and food! In the 2005 celebrations, I was a guest to African friends in Muscat Oman, and they requested that I should show case a 'thinking Africa' as opposed to the traditional dancing and drunk Africa!

Every year, Africans mark May 25th as an official Africa Liberation day. The date is celebrated to push for an onward progress on the liberation movement and symbolize the determination of the people of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation. A casual observation of many groups that celebrate this great day reveals that we are still entrenched in the mindset of entitlement - the belief that some other entity owes us, due to past misdeeds. Not that we are not owed- but the question is: should we put all our focus on what we are owed?

It will be difficult to effectively follow up what we are owed if we constantly stand on the international streets with a begging bowl. Entitled or not, we must build our economic muscle. This in my view, cannot be achieved through socialism where everyone is expected to be equal to everyone else. We cannot build our economic muscle by putting too much trust in our leadership who preach socialism (for populist purposes) while practicing what Hon. Prof. Anyang' Nyong'o refers to as 'parasitic capitalism!'

Guess who is holding your government hostage? Isn't it some freedom fighter elite, or friend and/or relative of the same who has been supplying biro pens, papers, chairs and fuel to the government? New leadership and new thinking have been thwarted because the 'parasitic capitalist' cannot fathom a world where he/she doesn't supply the poor African government with biro pens! Whereas capitalists create, parasites drain the system. We do not have enough of the capitalists on our continent.

Since independence, our elites have been vilifying capitalism in Africa. Unknown to them - it is purely the death of capitalism in Africa that has made foreigners to continue dominating us. That is why we are unable to exploit our subsurface wealth. Whereas capitalists see people as a resource and market; we choose to view our population as a burden; where capitalists engage in creative economy to earn a living; we simply dance and cry off our frustrations. Clearly, we must change the way we celebrate our Africa Day and turn it into an African open day for trade, travel and cultural exchange.

Our problems and challenges are of our own making: talk of press freedom, bungled elections, food crisis...the list is endless. Listen. Journalist Robert Mukombozi is deported from Rwanda; Andrew Mwenda is arrested in Uganda and his newspaper The Independence impounded. Zimbabwe joins the Kenyan queue on vote tallying fiasco. Guerilla war rages in Congo and Northern Uganda; Darfur is on fire and over 300 million Africans might starve due to ongoing food crisis. The old political order has refused to give way across the continent. Why did the African nationalism experiment collapse?

The post election violence in Kenya brought to the fore the fragile nature of our nationhood. Ethnic equations became so glaring that 'born - city' residents suddenly found themselves digging for identity. Matters were made worse for inter-ethnic marriages where groups suddenly put pressure on individuals to retreat to their ethnic safe havens.

Over 44 years of independence for most African countries and the political leadership has failed to deliver nationhood and Pan Africanism. An aerial view of Africa, especially Sub-Sahara Africa, reveals a leadership faced with double political and economic systems. Colonialism succeeded in driving native political systems underground but never extinguished them - what was in the traditional times an element of communities paying homage to the king through gifts was converted to the modern king (presidency) simply dipping their hands into the modern kitty of tax payers and donor funds. It is the kings of today who dish out to cronies.

The traditional utilitarian economy (hand to mouth) thrives among the masses while the African leadership leapfrogged to global economic system (saving and investments). It seems to me that the political leadership might well be privy to some feeling that their constituents do not need roads and other basic infrastructure as long as they can get a meal in a day!

African people have not been inspired by their leadership to seek higher goals. That explains in part the calamitous consequences the few Africans who seek to inspire go through. Why on earth would a Pan African leader deport an African journalist, detain others or raid media houses if he/she really stood for a brighter future for Africa? Why would simple summation of polls become very difficult for modern day Africa equipped with calculators and computers? "Son, you have no idea. A lot is at stake - the imperialists are using opposition elements to destroy Africa. That is why we must clamp down on their agents!" an African leader whispered to my ear. Pray tell – if the logic of imperialists is true, what type of soldiers do our African leaders wish to present to the war front? Sick, emaciated, ill informed, poor, tribal, and already mutinous soldiers!

Africa is too important to be left to the political leadership. Each of us must take responsibility to push our leadership to allow for openness on the way they run matters of state and government. We must be on the frontline to excite and incite our farmers to produce enough to feed the continent and engage in business. We should creatively merge the modern and the traditional to build a new Africa. We should not celebrate leaders who steal; rather let us produce so as to reward the best among us. Talk on fight against imperialism (if such a fight indeed exists) must provide reasoned strategy on how ordinary Africans can productively participate so as to avoid individuals enriching themselves by riding on the plight of the poor.

Open up Africa for business; free Africans to engage in business. Let African sons and daughters speak and move freely on the continent; generate a constituency of wealthy and well informed Africans - and this is achievable only through an open mind. A freed African mind is the best weapon one can use against imperialists!

Mr. Shikwati is the Director of Inter Region Economic Network

Techonomics - Cutting the Ribbon

This post is contributed by Ben Lyon.

TECHONOMICS, a new AshokaTECH Blog series devoted to shining a spotlight on the technologies that are fundamentally altering—and have indeed altered—the financial landscape in emerging markets. From prepaid debit cards to mobile banking and payments, the pace with which information communication technologies (ICTs) are bringing financial services to the previously unbanked is staggering.

Before jumping into a particular technology, though, it's important to step back and ask “Why do ICTs matter?” Put simply, the operative word in the acronym is information. Information allows us to know the market value of a good or service, avoid manipulation, determine whether or not a journey is worth our time, educate ourselves, and so on. The more information we have, the better positioned we are to make the best decisions and receive the greatest benefits.

When one party in a transaction knows more than the other, an 'information asymmetry' occurs. That is, the more knowledgeable party can—and has every incentive to—take advantage of the less knowledgeable party.

Image source: kiwanja.net

Whether CellBazaar in Bangladesh, eSoko in Ghana, Trade at Hand in Liberia, or Zain Info Services throughout Africa and The Middle East, ICT services are popping up at lightning speed to meet the demand for information outlined above. By simply typing a text message command or thumbing through an interactive menu on a mobile phone, millions of people in emerging markets now have a range of information at their fingertips. Making that information universally accessible should be the paramount mission of ICT practitioners worldwide.

the phrase “Knowledge is Power!” is deeply engrained in our psyche. Knowledge disrupts hierarchies, fosters understanding, insulates us from abuse and generally levels the playing field. Due in large part to an influx of accessible ICTs, an information revolution is sweeping the emerging world. Where and to what extent this revolution promotes financial inclusion will be the subject of future posts.

Malili: Kenya’s Planned Technopolis

from White African by HASH

I’ve had two meetings with Kenya’s Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo (Ministry of Information and Communications) in the last week. Both times a certain project kept coming up in the conversation. It’s called Malili – a 5,000 acre East African technopolis – a city built up for technology firms and it’s the Kenyan government’s way of creating a regional ICT brand.

My first thought up on seeing the pictures: it looks like Dubai has come to Kenya.

The Malili project is modeled off of other large technology and research parks around the world. One often cited in comparison is Smart Village Cairo, which currently hosts 120 companies and 20,000 professionals and they’re expecting that to increase to 500 companies and 100,000 professionals by 2012.

One of Kenya’s goals is to grow IT contribution to GDP from 3% to more than 10% in three years. This won’t happen using Malili as it’s yet to be built. In the interim, PS Ndemo has moved to secure a good portion of the Sameer Business Park, which is on Mombasa road and is almost finished being constructed. This type of space will be available for companies who eventually want to move to Malili in the future, and it also sets the stage for Nairobi being an even more prominent tech hub in Africa.

Location, Location, Location

I like this project, it shows Kenya as a forward thinking country with ambitious plans. My only misgiving is in the location. It’s 60km from Nairobi, and though the Mombasa road is much better, it’s still the most congested and prone-to-jams point on the Kenya roadway system. Yes, it will be a city all it’s own, over time, but Nairobi will still be the “place to be”, so there will be a great deal of traffic.

The airport sits between Malili and Nairobi, so for incoming people, it will be easier to get to than having to drive into, or through, Nairobi.

There’s a lot of discussion within the Kenyan tech community about Malili. It’s a big government project, with private sector participation, and Kenya’s track record of completing these types of big projects has been spotty (think Nyayo Car). Time will tell though, I’m of the mindset to not discount it. It’s time for us to start being optimistic about the possibilities that this country offers in technology.

Some, like the Nairobi tech community and the new Nairobi iHub tend to start small and grow from there. But, government has a different role to play, and it’s good for them to aim high and use their size to make big things happen.

Download the PDF:
Malili Technopolis overview slides – PDF

reBlog from Emeka Okafor: Timbuktu Chronicles

I found this fascinating quote today:

The garden around Quaye's house has a variety of crops, including cassava and potatoes. The women set basket traps in the nearby swamp to catch fish. "We get a lot of fish during the raining season," one of the teenage girls said. "That's what we cook." Growing up here, I remember backyard gardens were common in many parts of Monrovia, especially the suburbs. There were plots of land with all sorts of crops, especially traditional vegetables such as bitter bulbs, onions and peppers. But people also planted rice, Liberia's staple. Potato greens that make a delicious local sauce were cut out of backyard gardens and almost never bought from markets. My brothers and I had one of these gardens.Emeka Okafor, Timbuktu Chronicles, Jan 2010

You should read the whole article.