Anyway, I'm spending the day with Chas and his team to get a tour of their operations on the island. They tell me they came here about 5 years ago and have been coming back for various lengths of time since then. In fact, they have purchased some land here and are constructing a small concrete residence with thatched roof. Quite charming.
So, their organization is a US non-profit called Organic Health Response (OHR). Their literature describes their mission as "we activate information technology, social solidarity, and environmental sustainability to turn the tide against HIV/AIDS among the indigenous island communities of Lake Victoria and beyond."
It's amazing how much they have been able to accomplish on such a shoe string budget and patch work of donors. The thing I was most impressed with was their ability to construct a tower to receive a wi-fi signal from Kisumu, 80 km away, and bring HIGH SPEED internet to the island! That just happened while I was there. With this technology, they have started a cyber cafe membership. Dues are free IF you can prove HIV status every 6 months. Great idea. It's a real problem to get people tested here and this is a great motivation to do so and without the negative image people otherwise get at normal testing facilities. They already have 1800 members and I'm sure that will grow quickly with the high speed internet. Congrats to them.
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| Walter, Tielen, Chas, Richard and Ole Punda |
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| OHR (EK) Center |
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| Cyber Cafe |
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| Low voltage computers |
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| Recycled Mountain Bikes for sale CHEAP |
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| "Conference Room" |
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| The OHR Team |
Great people. Gotta love their energy, passion and big hearts. I enjoyed our wide ranging conversations. My gosh, it would be great to be that young again. :-) They are living large. They are also hoping to start a radio station in the near future. From a Project CURE assessment point of view, however, the question is one of sustainability. I told Chas I think of organizations as a three legged stool and you need all three to survive:
Leg one - the right people. So I asked this question: "What does OHR look like when Chas and Marco have to return to the US (they both need to finish med school/internship)?
Leg Two - capital. I really couldn't identify any recurring and ongoing sources of operating revenue. Operations are principally funded by Marco and Chas, personally, which further begs the question: "What does OHR look like when the Salmen family can no longer personally fund the ever growing activities of OHR?"
Leg Three - systems. They have no operating budget, financials or functioning board of directors.
I'm uncertain at this juncture as to how a partnership with Project CURE would look like. BUT, I'm going to stick with this because I do feel they have some synergy going on. Let's see where it takes us. I talked with Chas about the 10 ten reasons why non-profits fail, which scared him, I think. Based upon this conversation, I suggested the following steps to improve their odds:
1. Stick to a well defined mission statement. Don't try and be all things to all people (which is really easy to do over here).
2. Get a skilled and diverse operating board of directors who will meet at least quarterly for governance
3. Get financial statements and a budget and manage by them.
4. Aggressively develop ongoing, sustainable sources of revenue as soon as possible.
Leg one - the right people. So I asked this question: "What does OHR look like when Chas and Marco have to return to the US (they both need to finish med school/internship)?
Leg Two - capital. I really couldn't identify any recurring and ongoing sources of operating revenue. Operations are principally funded by Marco and Chas, personally, which further begs the question: "What does OHR look like when the Salmen family can no longer personally fund the ever growing activities of OHR?"
Leg Three - systems. They have no operating budget, financials or functioning board of directors.
I'm uncertain at this juncture as to how a partnership with Project CURE would look like. BUT, I'm going to stick with this because I do feel they have some synergy going on. Let's see where it takes us. I talked with Chas about the 10 ten reasons why non-profits fail, which scared him, I think. Based upon this conversation, I suggested the following steps to improve their odds:
1. Stick to a well defined mission statement. Don't try and be all things to all people (which is really easy to do over here).
2. Get a skilled and diverse operating board of directors who will meet at least quarterly for governance
3. Get financial statements and a budget and manage by them.
4. Aggressively develop ongoing, sustainable sources of revenue as soon as possible.
It's just really sad for me to see a massive US aid footprint in Kenya, resulting in one failed project after another. We Americans are great at short term stuff but aren't very good at long term stuff or addressing sustainability. What good is it to win the battle, yet lose the war!
Anyway, I'm a big fan of Chas, Marco and the team and will be rooting for their long-term success.
Anyway, I'm a big fan of Chas, Marco and the team and will be rooting for their long-term success.
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| Chas Family Home |
Hi Steve, that is really eye opening advice about charity sustainability. I always have a hard time giving money to charities promising 'helping people in Africa' because of all the horror stories we here about short term projects that leave people with the short end of the stick in the long term.
ReplyDeletelove,
Steph
Thank you Steph for your comment and time to take a peek!
ReplyDeleteSTEVE