Winfred Realizes Her Dream

Winfred was a student in our 2007 class. She attended the sessions we held at Kenya Assembly of God, in Bahati. I remember Winfred, because she sought me out each morning she was on site, to look over her homework from the night before. She wanted to open a bakery. At the time the task seemed daunting, but we all encouraged her to follow up on what she'd learned from her marketing survey, and to keep working on her plan.

Fast forward to 2012. Yesterday I had the opportunity to see Winfred's bakery. It opened a year ago. Between 2007 and 2011 she'd suffered a number of setbacks, including losing her mother, and suffering paralysis (which has left her with a slight tremor in her hands.) Afer her mother passed away, she struggled for awhile, but then told herself that she had to get back on her feet. She started saving money slowly, and mapped out the strategy for getting the bakery opened.

When we visited yesterday, three of her employees were busily at work: one decorating cakes, one baking, and the other cleaning measuring cups. The young woman cleaning the cups, pictured here, is an orphan. Besides opening the bakery, Winfred has dedicated herself to giving back to the community, and thus she helps some of the young people in her community by employing them.

When I first heard from Winfred earlier this year that she had started her bakery, of course I imagined a shop displaying cakes, cookies, and the like. As you can see from the picture, however, the bakery is the actual baking facility. People order cakes and cookies, and the bakery delivers (or you can pick up your order). Winfred proudly showed up her order book, her sales book, her receipts, and her expense books. We were happy to see these, as we spend some time in class trying to help our students understand cash flow, and the importance of keeping good records.

Winfred spoke very positively of the many things she learned in SE101, from her UBC student-teachers (Brent McFerran (Ph.D., Marketing, 2009), Jim Atamba (B.Comm 2008), and Jessie Yeung (B. Comm 2008). She was much more modest about all the hard work she had put into making her dream come true.

Winfred gave us samples of cookies and chocolate cake to take back with us to town. The treats would be competitive in Canada. We are planning to have her bake the cakes for our celebration ceremony at the end of this year's program in two weeks. We want our current participants to hear about Winfred's success, so that they can start to see how opening a business is possible with a lot of hard work, a dedicated approach to savings, and some business knowledge.

Car troubles

I am back in Vancouver, but I thought I should update the last day or two in Kenya while I can still remember. Friday was graduation day for the participants, which meant they received their certificates from us. The day began as usual with Fred, our taxi driver, arriving on time. Then his car wouldn’t start, and Jim and Jessie pushed him down the parking lot so he could start it in first gear. We were about halfway to the Church (our destination, and homebase for teaching at the Bahati site), when the car stopped again. This time, Fred quickly commented that it was “dead”.

So, without a second thought, Jim, Jessie, and I exited the gravesite that was his car, and pushed it down a busy street, in rush hour, to the side of the road. This must have been a sight for the locals! Upon entering the car again, I noticed Fred rolling up the windows, at least partially due to the pollution. This prompted an inquiry into the safety of our current location. Fred assured us that it was not safe where our car had decided to stall, and that we should exercise caution. The police soon came and told us we had ten minutes to get off of the side of the road. Not sure how we were going to meet this deadline, Fred phoned his brother to aid in solving our problem, which had now been diagnosed as a battery issue. Long story short, people were offering us knock off clothes, wares, and snacks while we sat in our dead car. When Fred’s brother arrived, he hot-swapped out the battery out from his car (yes, I mean while it was still running), and placed it in ours. We managed to arrive at graduation a bit tardy, but it was fine in the end.

One of the big picture points for the trip for me was how much people want education, but lack the access. This begins at a young age. While technically primary school education is free, there are charges for the mandatory uniform and books. As you might imagine, this makes school prohibitive for the poorest families, and arguably those who would benefit the most. Secondary school requires money, and university even more still.

Another point is how much the Church is intertwined in the entire culture. We prayed to begin and end classes, and if one were to mention that he or she was an atheist, I speculate such an individual would be met with a blank stare or look of bewilderment on the part of the African. It was not uncommon to see business names that incorporated Biblical characters or sayings, such as “Jesus Saves Bakery”, or “God is Good Cleaners”, to paraphrase some signage we saw. I heard one African say that people in North America have it too good to think they need God. A sharp contrast with secular Vancouver.

I will leave some finer details to the others, whose memories are sharper than mine, but it was an honor and great experience to be a part of this trip. I met many new friends, both among the Kenyan participants and the group of us who lived together for 3+ weeks. I thank you all for the opportunity to experience this alongside yourselves.

Posted by Brent

Use only as directed by a physician

This week marked my inaugural visit to a hospital in Africa. I have had the misfortune of being sick in various locales, on a few continents. While such a statement may imply an inadequate immune system on my part, the fact of the matter is that I am rarely ill, and for that I am thankful.

I came down with what I self-diagnosed as a fever earlier in the week. While the team has occasionally wrestled with bouts of the sniffles, when I was in 4 blankets, a fleece, socks, and awake and freezing at 4:00 am, I decided I would get acquainted with the local medical facilities.

The first step in this process was deciding which clinic, hospital, or practitioner to visit. Luckily, a phone call to our gracious hosts from earlier in the visit (the Khan’s) reminded me that Qaisara’s father worked in administration at the Aga Khan University Hospital. It was suggested that I visit there. It turns out that the Aga Khan is the best (or second best, depending on whose views are sought) health care facility in Nairobi.

A short cab ride later, and I met Mickey (Qaisara's father), who led me through both the paperwork (surprisingly little) and the hospital (surprisingly large). I paid my consulting fee to see the physician (about $10), and about 20 minutes later I met Dr. Thorpe. She is an expat Brit who grew up with her time divided between Kenya and the UK, the latter of which was homebase for her medical education. No nurse, straight to the physician. This reminded me of my surgery in Mexico a number of years ago, where my surgery was performed by 3 physicians, no nurses, and I had outpatient care every second day after the surgery by, you guessed it, a physician. Try getting a doctor in North America to re-assess your wound after surgery every 48 hours for a week. But I digress.

Dr. Thorpe indicated that I did have a fever, red throat, and elevated heart rate, and prescribed me some basic painkillers, an anti-inflammatory, and some throat lozenges. She also ordered a blood test to rule out malaria, which is rare in urban areas. Total bill for all of the pills, about $4, for the blood test, about $9.

The blood test indicated that I had some bacteria or virus; I am sure it was more esoteric sounding, but the gist was that it wasn’t all that serious, and if I took my 17 pills a day (I am not exaggerating, but again I fear this makes it sound more serious than the situation warranted) I would be just fine. This total included an additional antibiotic that came in at a surprisingly high $18. Still not sure the deal there, but when all was said and done, I was $41 poorer for the best care (as defined by price), from a western-trained doctor (we’ll leave the debate as to how much this makes a difference, if any, for those more versed in public health than I) that Kenya had to offer. A side bar about the physician, though: if I paid $10 to the hospital to see her (and almost double for antibiotics), what was her cut? I am pretty sure it is clear that she is not in Kenya for the money…

There is also a medical facility near where I teach in Bahati. The building stands in sharp contrast to the Aga Khan. Its tin roof and benches give the impression that the building could house just about anything. I queried one of our students, who informed me that medical care there costs 20 shillings, or about 33 cents. I asked if he had ever visited, and he quickly said “no”. When pressed for a reason, he said (and I am paraphrasing) that medical care shouldn’t cost 20 shillings. He said he pays a figure close to what I paid to visit a doctor. However, every day when I pass, there is a small gathering in and around the clinic. Apparently there is sufficient demand. There is also a free public hospital in town, but the guidebook advises not to go there, as “you may leave with something worse than you came with”. When I think of the debate over two-tiered health care in Canada, the controversy seems so trivial when on the ground here, given that the resulting “tiers” would almost certainly never be as disparate as they are here. That being said, is a gap in quality or “levels” of public health ever acceptable when we are talking about human life? If you think that I am advocating or endorsing a particular ideology or trying to make a meaningful contribution to a philosophic debate (as I fear I am starting to sound like a bad op-ed piece), I assure you I am not and apologize for my miscommunication (or your misreading). It is just a blog.

Yesterday, I noticed that parts of my body were beginning to become quite itchy and red (I know, I am clearly the weak link on this trip). I consulted some of the other team members, who diagnosed the situation and recommended various remedies, one of which was a topical ointment that was great for these types of things. The only catch (well actually there were two): no one had any, and you needed a prescription. I embarked on a trip downtown in search of this elusive ointment. I did have a feeling that I could get some from a pharmacy, if I could find one stocking the goo. The first pharmacy had some, and like most medication here, it was over-the-counter. Same solution as Canada, but no prescription needed. As I applied the ointment to the affected area (which the pharmacist indicated was likely the result of an allergic reaction to one of the pills I was taking), I noticed the box: use only as directed by a physician….

Posted by Brent

Day 2

Today brought the second day of teaching for both teams. One team member (myself) came down with a bout of something (and is blogging from the bed), but everyone picked up my slack, including bringing me back dinner to my room. Apparently the love ends there, because I still was not granted a pass on my turn of blogging.

Today in Bahati we got to know the students and their ideas a bit more. Our students are very strong and motivated. Most have formulated business ideas, but there remains the challenge of matching the ideas with resources needed. Our challenge will be to help them to turn their plans into something with a lower cost structure. This is doubly important because the financers here are reluctant to loan large amounts. Big dreams are common the world over, but some students have proposed considerably smaller scale operations that are quickly moving towards the competitive advantage needed for success.

Eye-opening to me at the site were the comments of 2 students. One student has been asking us about scholarships to study in Canada. He grew up with neither a mother nor a father in the house, and for a period of time raised his brother by himself. While there are a number of excellent international students at UBC from Kenya, they disproportionably come from private schools and homes that can afford to pay international tuition. Even studying here comes at a cost that is prohibitive for some of our students. Access to education is something that we take for granted living where we do. How many of us go to school because it was better than getting a job? This student had a thirst for knowledge that perhaps we have lost in North America.

Another student was looking for ways to generate income for her non-profit company. I mentioned that in North America, people donate their clothes and furniture that they no longer have use for to organizations like the Salvation Army or the SPCA, who then sell those goods second-hand. She immediately indicated that such an idea would have no chance in much of Kenya because most people are already buying second hand clothes, and when they are at the point that people no longer have use for them, they would be worn out to the point that no one would pay for them.

On another note, there have been at least 2 earthquakes today. I would have been much more afraid of my first earthquake experience had I not been barely conscious in bed. While it has made the paper as of late, apparently there is only a small chance that any earthquakes will be serious in this area. It is easy to forget that there is a much greater chance of a serious tremor in the Vancouver area, so we’ll be fine.

Posted by Brent

Meeting the Partners

'Twas an early morning wake-up for some of the team members, and not
so early for others. We discovered that breakfast is from 7 am to
9:30 am, and as jet lag took its toll, some of us didn't quite make it
in time! Breakfast was nice and basic - toast, eggs, jam, the usual -
but Brent the caffeine fiend quickly noticed something amiss: no
coffee! And no tea! We quickly put two and two together -
Seventh-Day Adventists (who run the guesthouse we're staying in) don't
indulge in caffeine! Brent is currently plotting other ways to get his
morning fix.

A note on the guesthouse: we're staying at the LMS Guesthouse and
Conference Centre, and LMS stands for Literature Ministry Seminary (as
the bibles in our room informed us). We discovered rather quickly,
however, that it's normally referred to as the SDA House, when not
a soul had heard of LMS That made it awfully difficult to tell our
taxi drivers where to take us, although fortunately we're just up the
street from the Integrity Centre, a well-known civic landmark. The
place is great - clean, secure, and if you wait long enough for the
heaters to kick in, hot water showers - and we even have internet
access. The only hiccups were when Jim's closet door fell off, and
Kevin nearly flooded the bathroom because the shower didn't drain
quickly enough, but otherwise, home sweet home.

Our first order of business today was at 1 pm, when we met with our
partners from Daystar University and the Ebony Foundation. It was
great to finally meet the students we would be working with, until we
found out that they unfortunately were all in summer school, and would
only be able to collaborate on evenings and weekends. The student
president of SIFE - Students for International Free Enterprise - is
hoping to find more students who would be able to team-teach with us
during the week, but it looks like we might be on our own.
Nonetheless, we had the opportunity to walk through our workshops with
the students from Daystar, and was that ever helpful! We were able to
clear up the translation of some key words into Swahili, and learn
more about how business is generally conducted in Kenya and East
Africa. Within a short hour, we had already made huge progress in
tailoring our workshops to make them more accessible for our
participants. We certainly hope we'll continue working with Daystar
throughout the project.

At 2:30 pm, our next meeting was with our second site partner, the
Kimathi Information Centre (KIC). We met with Jose and Carthy from
KIC, and Kathleen from the International Development Research Centre
(IDRC), a Government of Canada outfit in Nairobi. Kathleen put us in
touch with KIC because she heard about our project through a friend
from Canada, since she's a Sauder grad! She graduated with a BCom a
few years ago, and has been doing some very interesting research over
the past six months on microfinancing, as well as the social impact of
cell phone usage, for her masters program at a university in South Africa.
In fact, she just came back from doing field work in Mozambique. It
was great to meet a Canadian working in Nairobi and find out about work
in East Africa that some of us might be doing one day!

And thank goodness Kathleen put us in touch with KIC - Jose and
Carthy were absolutely amazing! Their energy and enthusiasm for
the project was just overwhelming, and although only in their late
20s, both of them have done terrific work with local youth, pulling
off a nearly 200-person youth symposium with absolutely no budget.
All of the youth that we'll be working with at our second site in
Kimathi are a direct product of the youth symposium, and each already
have their own ideas about what business they hope to start! Based on
current registration, the stats for our Kimathi participants are as
follows: 1/3rd are women; the majority are 18 years old, with the
highest age at 35; most have high school education, a few have
university-level education; and they're all deeply motivated. We're
very excited about working with KIC and have high hopes for their
participants!

So, all in all, a very exciting and productive day. We met with each
of our partners, confirmed many of our arrangements and worked on
details still to be sorted out. We'll be meeting again with the Ebony
Foundation and Daystar tomorrow to confirm whether we'll be
team-teaching with Daystar students, and how many sites in Kibera
we'll be able to cover. Once final arrangements are confirmed, we'll
have a much better idea of what the next three weeks will look like.

And either way, Monday is game time!

Many of us are starting to feel a little nervous, since most of us
have pretty limited teaching experience, let alone teaching in another
country. After this week, though, we're sure we'll be pros - next
thing you know, Sauder will be offering us positions on faculty! In
spite of any anxiety, we're all very much looking forward to the
challenges and experiences of the next three weeks, and are very
confident that as a team, we'll do a terrific job, learn a ton, and
have an amazing time.

Wish us luck!

xo. The Social Entrepreneurship 101: Kenya Team.

Posted by Kevin Keystone