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What a great day!
We were off, bright and early, to Kiandutu Outreach Program in the Kiandutu slum. After playing with the children during their break a bit (so fun!) I broke off with Brian, Faith and James (empowerment program), and Joan (the manager of multiple programs) to go around the slum to visit with families in the empowerment program. We met up with James Sempere, a man from the US that started the Gnu Foundation and was an advisor to Nobel Prize winner Mohammed Yunus. He was here visiting Macheo to see how the program was doing and to provide advice to us. We visited families who we were in the process of 'empowering' and people who have already started their own business, including the woman on the cover who we provided a sewing machine for so she could earn money by doing small repairs and making new clothes to sell. I got the chance to know James a little better and he was very interesting! He works a lot with micro financing for NGO's and non profits after being in real estate finance for years. After that we got pizza on the way home!
We came back and I did a little reading on micro financing in slum areas so I could have a background when meeting with James, Marnix, Anne, and Brian. James gave great input and we talked about opening up another family empowerment service in the rural area where the school is we visited yesterday. We spoke about the different levels of when someone is able to move from needing grant support to using the micro finance system to being self sustainable and the different systems in which you can enable these people to save money and work in groups with others in the same situation. I won't go on with all the details but it was quite fascinating! I have pages of notes for anyone interested ;) .
After that fantastic talk we went to a restaurant at the Blue Post and ate out under the awning. There is a waterfall in the background and monkeys are usually in the trees! It was here I discovered Tusker beer...yum! We had a great time talking and sharing stories.
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