Comments for What's Up Street Kids?

Comment on development ‘buzzwords’/ ‘hot topics’ in nairobi by Heather

Heather — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:05:22 +0000

Hola ladies,

You can read more about those HELP initiatives at http://www.helpingsalone-business.org and http://www.helpingsalone-microfinance.org

I don’t have a ton of experience in international development, but I’ve worked with grant-dependent organizations for quite some time in Canada. When a major funding body told an organization I was working with that we needed to start generating our own income, we were a bit challenged. We were a food sharing project, what business did we have trying to make money? It was definitely a challenge and our resulting social enterprise ventures were the cause of great internal debate, but the exercise made us more creative in our work, smarter with our funding, more defined in our mission, and more economically sustainable.

Comment on Day of the African Child – this years theme street youth!! by Heather

Heather — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:44:36 +0000

Wow, Madison. That sounds really challenging. It sounds like it was very jarring, but as you point out, incredibly impressive to witness the resilience of these kids in the face of pretty harsh disrespect.

Comment on development ‘buzzwords’/ ‘hot topics’ in nairobi by Anya

Anya — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:52:40 +0000

Interesting discussion ladies. I was actually going to post on the same subject. My organization HELP Salone, similarly to Victoria’s organization, is very enterprise driven. They have obviously depended heavily on donor funding to carry out their interventions throughout the years and have found much success in delivering high impact programs (in women’s empowerment, health and especially youth entrepreneurship). HELP has recently however established two subsidiary business lines in the organization with the realization that business really is the way to create a sustainable environment for social development(not to mention the unreliability of donor funding). HELP Microfinance and HELP Business Development and Consulting Services (HELP BDCS) provide credit access and training/consulting services that economically empower their clients and generate supplementary income for the NGO, reducing dependency of all the stakeholders involved. Recently HELP BDCS delivered Street Kids business training to the youth workers of two CBOs (Community Based Organizations)in the eastern region of the country. Not only did the youth workers see value in the training for the youth they were later slated to train but they used the training to create social enterprises for their CBO (internet cafe, bike taxi and youth centres)to self sustain their organization.It is through the economic empower of the NGOs and the beneficiaries that the likelihood of sustainable development can be increased.

Of course country to country situations vary, but business is business and it is of my opinion that social enterprises are the way of the future for effective aid development.

Comment on development ‘buzzwords’/ ‘hot topics’ in nairobi by Victoria

Victoria — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:44:33 +0000

Gillian, sorry if I wasn’t clear that it of course is a huge generalization and obviously country to country situations and responses are different. All I wanted to do was point out what is happening in Nairobi, so I apologize and will go back and edit to say Kenyans..However after my living in Uganda twice before living in Nairobi I feel like I can have an opinion of how aid has been dealt with in at least these 2 countries.
All I wanted to point out was that in Nairobi, development is trendy, and it changes constantly. And there are always new topics, new buzzwords, new things and angles NGOs are trying. Right now it’s social enterprise, which is awesome. BUT many of the NGOs who are switching to a business mindset are not taking into account the years and years they have just simply donated money, and now they are frustrated when they don’t get the responses they want right away.When I said they are not teaching Africans to be self sufficient, I merely meant that the changing in programming is thrown upon people without adequate explanation of why they are doing so. OF COURSE people can take ownership and will and do that on their own. But there is a large portion who have not previously had to, because of aid responses at least in Nairobi.

And, of always, this is an opinion, and an opinion of what I am personally experiencing in Nairobi.

Comment on development ‘buzzwords’/ ‘hot topics’ in nairobi by Gillian

Gillian — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:10:09 +0000

****In essence,I agree. ‘Aid’ is,of course,not a solution in itself,and a greater focus on sustainability is required.

However,I feel,part of this dis-helpful practice is derived from the ‘Western’mentality that we need to “breed Africans to take ownership,”that they will not,and cannot do that themselves…

I also feel it unfair to lump all African’s together so generally. If anything,living,and traveling around East Africa has vividly illustrated (to me) the continent’s vast diversity both with regard to aid and assistance,and with regard to how different African countries work with it.

We do need to take a step back and think about what we are proposing,and what we are doing. But perhaps a part of that pertains to un-learning some of the mentalities that have caused decades of mistakes. Such as the one that we need to “teach” Africans.

Comment on Understanding La Paz by Bryce

Bryce — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:24:41 +0000

In La Paz, there isn’t much room in the centre, so newcomers have to settle in the outskirts of El Alto. I’m not too sure if these people are living in the same area as people in their old communities, though, that would be something interesting to look at. It seems more distinct and clear in Calgary for me, people from India seem to live in a certain area, people from french speaking countries another, etc…

And from what I’ve learned in Latin American studies, new city migrants generally live on the outskirts because they are able to squat on the land, and start building cheap houses there.

In Mexico City, for example, when urban migration was at it’s peak, people would squat on the land on the hills surrounding Mexico City, and when the area got too populated, the municipal government would move the people to a new neighbourhood and give everyone a cookiecutter house. These neighbourhoods were on the old outskirts of the city, and not as dangerous to live in, because the houses wouldn’t collapse in heavy rainfalls.

Comment on Monitoring and Evaluating Youth Beneficiaries by Heather

Heather — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:33:53 +0000

Awesome stuff Gillian! I too love the story-gathering aspect of my job. It’s awesome to get out in the field and talk to some of the folks we’re serving. I found one site visit particularly interesting, not just because I saw the impacts of training and loans, but the women I spoke with also knew how to present development ideas to us. They saw how they could leverage and communicate their successes and turn them into new opportunities for their community. They weren’t inactive beneficiaries, they were badass women who owned their voices and were forceful in their desire to improve their community. So awesome!

Comment on Understanding La Paz by Heather

Heather — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:06:07 +0000

Hey Bryce, thanks for this post.

I was thinking about this passage:

“the majority of the people that live in El Alto are migrants from the country,but there is also an established middle-class here as well. People that live in El Alto are the people who migrated from the rural areas in search of an urban life. The majority of the people in El Alto are darker-skinned,and have more indigenous features. This is where my office located,in Ciudad Satelite, which is a middle-class neighbourhood in El Alto.”

It made me think of this book I am reading called Arrival City: http://arrivalcity.net/. It’s about the large scale global rural-urban migration, and how it is affecting how cities physically function. I just started it, but one of the phenomena it talks about is how when the first people from a village come to the city they will settle in the central area (maybe not geographically central in a place like La Paz, but the busy, downtown area) and once they establish themselves they’ll move to an area where they can be more comfortable. Then later arrivals from the same village skip the step of moving to the central area and move straight to where their fellow village transplants live, eventually establishing a whole neighbourhood of people from the same village. Is that what is happening in La Paz?

And Anya – It’s 10 am, and you’ve already got me thinking of finding dinner…

Comment on Volunteer-tourism has negative effects by Heather

Heather — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:17:01 +0000

Thanks for this Adam. I might actually be heading to Tanzania with my family after I leave Sierra Leone. They only have a couple weeks, so we won’t even be considering any voluntourism. It’d be great to get some insight from you and Madison about what to see and where to go, and how to do it responsibly. As you pointed out, the most valuable thing we can do in a few weeks is inject some money in the local economy. It’s going to be interesting to balance my mother’s desire to plan and book things from Canada and my desire to direct our dollars into the local economy, rather than multinational tourism companies.

These two articles discussing responsible tourism options in Cuba touches on some of the same themes:
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/02/01/NotInCuba/
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/02/02/GoToCuba/

Comment on Understanding La Paz by Anya

Anya — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:43:17 +0000

I would be lying if I said this blog didn’t make me a little hungry…must be all the bowl talk. Anyway…Bryce very interesting piece, you painted quite a vivid image of La Paz and in an unusual way. Much appreciated.

I was just yesterday thinking of climate and development. When you think of the Global South and its inhabitants of underdeveloped or least developed nations there is a common theme of less than favourable weather. Aside from some cases such as yours (I know you are bundled up in your long johns while I sweat it out in Salone’s incessant humidity and heat), most of these countries face extreme weather patterns of long hot dry spells followed by uncontrollably rains – causing of course drought and destruction. It is interesting that it seems that severe climate conditions can continue to play such a fundamental role in the lives of vulnerable populations even when it comes to socio-economic urban planning. In contrast to La Paz, Freetown for example finds the wealthy population the hillsides where they can take refuge from the heat.

Thanks Bryce! Now off to find some dinner.

Anya