[Dialogue] Miracle Villages in Kenya

[Evelyn Philbrook]

Dear Don,

I am always looking for what will work and how it was done and 
appreciate your sharing this article and your comments. I just want to 
say that the Grameen group in Bangladesh is so huge... it is it's own 
socio economic reality.  They are their own Bank, Industries, 
Distributors, Networks, trainers of interested Sociology, Criminology, 
and Education college students, talk about comprehensive, they are not 
like any other NGO I have ever seen.. They are big business now and they 
have worked miracles in a society thriving with young people, energy and 
vast poverty and problems... but no fund raising... that is not true. I 
met a fund raiser at a Jean Houston program who was young, enthusiatic, 
very smart, and targeted donors that could give big privately for 
Grameen. She did get burnt out, but she can only say good things about 
the Grameen system, and she was an American grad student doing research 
there and stayed with them for two years. May be the left and right hand 
do not know what is really going on...not all micro grants are repaid, 
though much smaller defaults than other groups... so they have to find a 
way to manage the short fall is my guess. You might want to talk with 
Aziz Rahmen, the ICA Bangladesh Executive Director who was staying with 
the Jo and Wayne Nelson if he has any insights to the system. He is a 
Phd student studying in Toronto this year and an Associate Professor of 
a local university and went to the training in Montreal conducted by 
ICAI during the summer. He also was in Germany when he met Tatwa 
Timsina.  Reconnecting with that speaker who was in Japan from Grameen 
for more data or questions is also possible.

It is all hard work and having a positive visionary that drives the 
spirit...

Evelyn Kurihara Philbrook





Don Hinkelman wrote:
> Yawn, another story of the miracles of aid, "done right", in Africa. You would expect the NYT to do better.
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/world/africa/09kenya.html?ref=global-home
>
> How long does it take to list the mistakes of unsustainability and inappropriateness in this project?
> - outside money and distant investors  (Haven't we learned anything from micro-financing and funding from within?)
> - macro-economic statistics (mortality, yields, test scores)   How do you measure initiative?
> - technology-based (how American can you get?)    Even after Vietnam and Iraq, we still throw technology at every problem.
>
> Nonetheless, we have to admit that the ICA's history of comprehensive, bottom-up development (which produced pockets of miracles) was also unsustainable, but for different reasons.
> - committed, educated, passionate staff (that time and energy was worth millions of dollars, but we forgot to account for that, and the energy runs out after 5-20 years in the field)
>
> What gets me excited?  The Grameen Group: http://www.grameen-info.org/
> At the last ICA International Conference in Japan, the young Grameen speaker was the best of the whole conference.  A fire-ry light in his eyes. He swears that Grameen never accepts charity. All development is funded by the bottom of pyramid, for the bottom of the pyramid.
>
> Don Hinkelman
>
> In Melbourne and Sapporo, working on sustainable technology practices for classrooms and schools around the world.
>
>   
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dialogue mailing list
> Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
> http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net
>
>
>