Saving Lives Without Spending Money

If I asked you to donate, would you? If I asked you as a Business to give, would you? I have lived through many years of being a fundraiser and with continued awareness know that more and more people are being asked for more and more money. I know from what I read in the comments section of charity facebook adverts that people are at breaking points in the asks; in fact it is generating anger and quite horrible, unnecessary comments. I also know from personal experience in the Corporate world that there is an email already written ready to send for cold caller asks and those asking for donations from business are (based on a couple of funders that I have been looking at recently) looking at a ratio in the region of 1:500 of money given to asks made.

How about I phrase my question a little differently. If I told you that you could save people from starving, you could stop the spread of Coronavirus, protect the local economy and train the un-employed from the donation that you give? Still no? Perhaps you have heard it all before. How about I then give you the option of having your donation back once all of the above has been achieved.

I have been working in Kenya for the last 15 years now and have faced many challenges. However, when COVID-19 arrived in Kenya, for the first time the weight of pressure felt like it would break me. I read endless articles from the UN and WHO and WHP who all declared that Africa would be the next epicentre of the pandemic that has swept the World in 2020. Lots of amazing insight from so many sources and I was petrified for people who I care deeply about. By far, the thing that stood out for me above all else however was an article that declared at the very outset that Kenyans feared starvation more than they feared the pandemic itself. When the second confirmed case was declared in Kenya, the country put curfews in place. Schools closed, places of worship followed and the measures meant that for the 80% or so of the people who live hand to mouth would now not be in a position to earn money in order to eat that day.

What transpired in the immediacy of that was to be true and that Kenyans were in fact prepared to risk the pandemic in order to not starve, with people breaking curfews. Orphanages began to suffer with support networks of local businesses and churches unable to help any longer, driving the most vulnerable into deeper risks. We even heard and saw stories of mothers boiling stones in order to sooth their children by fooling them into thinking that food was on its way until the children fell asleep, stomachs empty.

The pressure that I felt took me to a point of considering whether closing a charity that I worked tirelessly on for most of my adult life was the right obvious step. I would give all of the money away and everything that I had in order that people just get through the situation that they found themselves in and hope that I can save lives. The feeling fuelled by those begging for help, the photos that I would wake to each morning of children starving and in parts of the world from people who I have never met sharing pictures of children who had died overnight; people begging me to help them not to die.

Whilst I have worked in a number of places in East Africa, the home and centre of all that I do has been Magadi Ward in Kajiado County. Magadi is an incredibly dry, arid and hot place with the vast majority of inhabitants being Maasai who are livestock owners. At Memusi Foundation we have built and run 2 Primary Schools, but also work across 18 more schools with an outreach programme to support children and their families and communities with healthcare, teacher development, community programmes and infrastructure. Shortly after the lockdown measures came into effect, I read an article from an MP from Kajiado who predicted that 30% of the population of Kajiado would starve as a result of the lockdown measures. The biggest hit for the people of Kajiado and the Magadi ward was the closure of the Livestock markets meaning the those with livestock to sell all of a sudden find themselves overnight not able to trade and indeed unlock the capital that they have in their livestock. The County begging the Country for food aid.

In Magadi, people don't have bank accounts and carry little cash. If you want to eat, if you want to get medication or you want to purchase water or any other essentials such as medication for your livestock, you would sell one of your animals. No furlough scheme, no ATM to withdraw cash from, no overdrafts or credit and no box under the bed under the floorboards to be taking cash from; families overnight beginning the process of starving to death.

Through Volunteers I looked around at how other similar charities were responding and all doing so in very similar ways; food programmes for those most at need. Aid programmes for those that they serve and sadly in a lot of cases cutbacks of programmes including the salaries of staff and partial closure of programmes that help the most vulnerable. I have always held a firm belief that aid is not sustainable and can only help for a finite term; until the money runs out...and then what? My other principle is that if you ask enough questions from enough people that you can also put together a clear picture of what is happening than from one or two single lenses followed by the provision of the obvious response. The worst thing that we can do as any charity is to tell people what they want and need rather than asking the people themselves and carrying out the research needed. The end solution should always be a collaboration. Having posted on Social Media in closed groups I asked the young what was happening and what they saw solution as, I trawled the newspaper articles and the social media posts and asked...and asked...and asked questions of everyone that I knew, picking away with anyone that was willing to speak to me.

Reading until I fell asleep and walking in silence documenting process maps and holding hackathons and conference calls with myself in my head, I managed to put together a picture that would help people without the need for aid. The headwater where all problems started was the failure for a person to sell their livestock. Pure and simple. Without the ability to sell a goat or a sheep a person couldn't eat. Without a customer having the capital to purchase food, the maize seller couldn't sell their stock. The pharmacy couldn't operate. It is in fact the entire collapse of a local economy for people living in abject poverty. The solution; I would buy the livestock from those who were most in need and keep the local economy going. This would be complimented by food aid for the very needy who don't have anything to sell, with soap provision and COVID awareness and a Vitamin Programme to help boost immune system alongside the Magadi Soda Foundation and the Ministry of Health.

At this point in this article I hope that I can articulate correctly and that you stick with me whilst i explain the finer details of why I have called this programme SMART AID (the graphic on the left may help a little). 5 weeks ago I launched our programme in 5 different parts of the Magadi Ward purchasing goats and sheep (sheep are cheaper than goats) to put capital in the hands of the people who need it. My team then take the goat and look after it as part of our stock. For the livestock owner they can now feed their family (we have found that an average of 8 people live in a household). We have also traced that on average, a person then spends their income with 8 different small businesses meaning that on average a single sale of 1 goat for ￡35 will benefit a total of 64 people enabling them to eat for a total of 3 weeks as well as giving access to basic healthcare provision and medication.

Our programme is low key and we operate from within communities. Inconspicuous and no branding, we don’t role into town with a fan fair, t-shirt branded staff and are there waiting for the people who need us when they need it. We purchase from those that my team know are vulnerable and beginning to struggle; we know this and can be sure because my team know the people that they are judging and assessing their scenarios. Therefore, every single purchase and investment is done for people who need the programme the most. What we have found as an undesigned benefit is that where in other parts of Kenya that curfews are being flouted, that we have created a scenario where there is no need for a person to leave a village; meaning that the risk exposure to COVID-19 is almost wiped away.

So, what are we doing with all of these goats and sheep? Well, here is where the smart bit of SMART AID comes in. The second phase of the programme will be that we use the livestock for a training programme for those that are unemployed and have no assets. They are trained in livestock care and leave the programme with lambs / kids to raise and being their own small business. Finally, at the end of the programme, when the Country starts to emerge from lockdown and the cessation of movement rules are lifted and markets begin to function at full capacity, we will sell our livestock, giving us our money back and giving us the ability to invest back into Education....further supporting the community.

One single donation helps 64 people to eat. It helps unemployed people to be trained and start a business. It then comes back to invest in education. One donation...one purchase of a single item of livestock. It costs just over 50p and less than a single $ to save a life as well as the provision of training to the unemployed.

Back to my opening statements and about the ability to donate. If you had the ability to do good and to save lives by giving money, with an offer of getting your money back would you do it? Whilst as a charity from all of the donations that we have received at this time we are putting through the process detailed above, this programme does open up the opportunity that at the very last part of the process that indeed we can offer the donor their money back; but they would have saved lives and trained the unemployed along the way.

To date we have helped over 20,000 people in the last 5 weeks with access to food. We have supported over 22,000 with access to soap and will reach 18,000 people with access to Vitamins to strengthen their immune systems. This programme won’t work everywhere and I am not claiming that this will save the world, but I do encourage that we think differently, don’t resolve to type and of course, if you are a business (or individual for that matter), how about joining me in this mission?

You can donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/Memusi2020

Alternatively, if you are interested in lending for return as a business, please drop me a note.