Kumekucha Kenya

09/07/05

As a side note, he told me that when the police did a round up of sex workers in Rongo, they collected 50 of them, and then did forced HIV/AIDS testing. 47 were positive. I'm going to go confirm the story with the police.

Well, at least I could walk today. After my 'physical therapy' session with Kaleb (so f*cking painful) I went with Robert to the office of Kumekucha Kenya (translation, \'wake up Kenya\'), a microfinance group based in Rongo. I talked to Tobias, the founder, a true social entrepreneur, and learned all I could about the business structure. As a side note, he told me that when the police did a round up of sex workers in Rongo, they collected 50 of them, and then did forced HIV/AIDS testing. 47 were positive. I'm going to go confirm the story with the police. Anyway, Tobias' business is basically an investment scheme for PLWHAs. They give their money to the group, which they then earn interest on, which is paid by using the money to give out loans to PLWHAs that get paid back plus interest. It's simple (although once we really got into it its more than meets the eye) and seems very effective. In three years he has started a half dozen offices in the region and has like 200 PLWHAs invested in the project. When one loan is paid back, another goes out. They PLWHAs of course use the money to start all sorts of IGAs. We went on a long Matatu ride, past Kisii, to a district called Gucha, and finally ended up a one of the satellite offices. Many of the PLWHAs in the area, some of whom were members and some of whom were not, were gathered to hear him and Robert talk. The footage was actually less than fantastic, and the sun was beating down on me and heating up the sickening smell of urine that was seeping out of the toilet nearby, and these women kept coughing and spitting, and I actually found myself pretty nauseated after a while. My ankle started throbbing as I stood there for 2 hours of people speaking in a foreign tongue. Some guy named Sammy came up to me and basically started telling me how he was worse off than all of the women and so I should pay for his junior college (he was 'unfortunately' unable to test into uni.) He really made me want to vomit. I told him that he was young and healthy and that no one was interested in giving handouts, that people wanted to help people that showed interest in helping themselves. Maybe I was too harsh with the guy, but I was in no mood (and he was way to grabby.) When the meeting was coming to a close I was caught off guard by Robert asking me to say a few words to the meeting. A guy translated as I praised the PLWHA groups for seeking way to enrich their lives, and praised Kumekucha for offering them a way to do it. They applauded, it was a little strange. After the meeting a guy named Jomo came and asked if he could have my picture. I thought maybe he wanted to take a picture, but he didn't have a camera. He seemed genuinely surprised when I said I didn't travel with pictures of myself. That was definitely strange. He asked me how the Commando was doing, I knew he meant the Governator, and I tried to express my distaste, but he kept telling me how he loves the Commando. I finally got out of there and we jumped on a Matatu to push back towards Kisii.

The whole ride home I was fixated on this idea that had seeped into my head earlier in the day. I was thinking how Kumekucha would be well served by having a website, and a directory of the PLWHA groups that they support and the specific projects that those specific groups are engaged in, in case a private donor wanted to send a donation right to a group that they thought was doing interesting work (I got hung up on how small donations could be wired internationally without losing it all in the transfer.) I was thinking how that would be a cool volunteer position for someone, they could come and live here at Mama Liz's and handle the reporting/accountability stuff for the Kanga Health Center pilot and then make side trips and see all these amazing grassroots organizations and find out about their projects and take pictures and then make a registry of all the groups in the area. And then I was thinking that I could probably find another cool independent volunteer position like that, maybe in Kampala. And then I was thinking that if both those volunteers found two interesting independent volunteer opportunities, we would have created four cool opportunities. And even if one of those volunteers defaulted on their goal of finding two interesting opportunities, we would still have six positions available, etc etc… And this would help people who wanted to volunteer but didn't want to be paying some organization through the teeth to be stuck shoveling shit like so many volunteers complain about. And then I was thinking that we could make a website that had all the current opportunities available, and how after a few years there could be volunteer positions available all over the world. And how the website could expand to include the volunteer's journals and pictures and how it could even be of interest to non-volunteers, how people could live the experience vicariously through the website. And how it could turn into a bit of a myspace for the international humanitarian volunteer community, a place where they could meet and swap stories and advice and all that. I think it's a cool idea. I'm sure I'll keep obsessing over it in my little noggin (as I tend to do.)

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