One of the things I have enjoyed most about Tanzania and Kenya has been learning about how small businesses survive and thrive. 

I learned a lot from a good friend of mine, Filex Jacobson.  Filex has been passionate about art since he was a child.  It is what makes him happy and he is good at it.  He has told me about how he used to sit at his father’s feet drawing pictures as a youngster, and how as an adult, his father disowned him because he wanted to be a professional artist instead of a driver, mechanic or other form of “normal” work in Arusha.  Filex did not give up and he struggled to get the resources for training in several art forms, including that of the Batik painting. 

Batiks are made with a special wax painting process and a layering of different paint colors.  Originally from Indonesia, the Batik was used as a form of communication to send messages and was brought to Congo, Uganda and Tanzania through traders and missionaries.  It takes a half of a day to make one Batik, and I had the chance to catch Filex in action and film it for you here.  

Filex now owns and operates Sunset Art Studio which is located across from the Arusha International Conference Centre.  In addition to selling paintings and providing workshops, he employs six people in his studio and his work supports the livelihood of several street vendor distributors.

If you are in the area, it is worth stopping by to say hello to Filex, to look at his work or perhaps to take a workshop.  He has a great sense of humor.  If you cannot find the studio, just go nearby to Via Via restaurant and ask since he also supplies their art (check out the stage murals at Via Via and art in the outdoor entry halls of AICC).

For those of you who cannot come visit, Filex and I created a video of how to make a Batik.  Click on the arrows below to view.

A Slideshow of Batik Art By Sunset Art Studio

.Batik Workshop

Some of you may remember my earlier post about Ubumama (www.ubumama.org). They also have Tanzanian women from Mbezi beach just outside Dar Es Salaam who run the Unique Handcraft Boutique where they also sell Batiks they have made

Dear Wormwood:
I am very pleased indeed by what you tell me in your last correspondence about your patient’s recent discovery of the ease of bribes.  You chalk up the incident to minor progress, but Our Father below is very encouraged.  You see, once the patient justifies a small bribe to make their life a bit more comfortable, he is that much closer to the complacency which allows him to fill his life with many more- and this only strengthens the incentives for those “enforcers of justice” he pays to inch further from their jobs.  And as I told you before, it is not the major sins such as murder or rape that win us the most souls, it is actually the partaking in the small temptations over time that fuels our victory over the Enemy.

I urge you to continue infusing opportunities “to pay someone off” to get rid of the uncomfortable pin pricks and exhausting bureaucratic barriers in life that you learned in our Tempter’s Training Programme.  Those will eventually erode away at the patient’s patience until he gives in and gets comfortable with using his wealth to buy his way out of any problem or any sense of accountability.

Don’t underestimate the power in this.  It is even better to hear that he is an ex-pat in this country and can blame the situation on having no other choice in this “graft infested Africa.”  His birth privileges and wealth mean that he can exploit someone else’s system run by poorly trained, poorly compensated humans with unstable work paths.  Its perfect, Wormwood- you are making good progress –evidenced by how you were whispering in your patient’s ear when he slipped the traffic cop 100 shillings to let him continue driving after racing through the school zone.  And again when he slipped the government official in the immigration office 200 dollars to “move things along at a proper pace.”  Or even when he paid the doctor to take care of his sister before attending to the sick people who had been waiting there for four days to be seen.  And when he laughed with his American friend who paid the security guard “to look the other way” in that drunken incident in town last week.

All small things which in his mind seem to be harmful to no one.

Your patient was so engulfed by the nagging demands of the superficial world, that he dismissed the rather large snowballing impact of these small little bribes- writing each off as one little foul that would make life smoother- and rushing back to the “oh so vital” hussle and bussle that he won’t even remember a month from now.

So, my dear nephew, stay strong because it is working.  You see, we know this from the community mobs who tried to burn Ben alive written about in Keely Stevenson’s blog titled, “Justice Like a Hot Dog,” and we see further proof in Transparency International’s latest global survey of attitudes towards corruption.  The report reveals that in more than 25 countries, at least one in 10 households had to pay a bribe to get access to justice.  People are losing hope in their fellow human beings and suffering greatly. 

And I just heard from Triptweeze that his patient, the one who has been operating that tiny kiosk shop after her husband died of malaria....well, she feeds her five kids from the $2 per day of shop income, and had to close her shop because the police were getting bribes from everyone as a “protection fee” on the street and she couldn’t afford to pay them anymore.  She is now so desperate to feed her children that she is talking with her cousin about becoming a prostitute.

Your patient is really helping us and he doesn’t even realize it!.  It is as if a silent revolution is occurring and the system of corruption- even the small stuff- fuels a better road to “Our Father” than ever.

Now I am not talking about breaking those “unjust laws” spoken about by one of the Enemy’s greatest wins, MLK, but in fact those who are breaking the "just laws" and paying their way out of it—those are where we find victory.  I could show you a pretty cageful down here.

Your affectionate uncle,

SCREWTAPE

_____________
This letter was inspired by recent frustrations at ex-pats in developing countries using bribes to make their lives easier as well as a literary masterpiece given to me by my friend Sarah Caddick.  First published in 1941, C.S. Lewis’ book The Screwtape Letters is a satirical account of human life through the letters of Screwtape, a highly ranked assistant to the devil.  He writes to his nephew, Wormwood, advising on the best methods to sway his “Patient” (a young human) to damnation.  Demonstrating a subtle battle between good and evil to win over human souls, the letters bring to life the psychology of temptation through the Patient’s experiences with war, sex, gluttony, and greed.  Luckily, in the end, good wins out and the Patient goes to heaven.

As I inteviewed many people in Tanzania about their experiences with Malaria, I was often asked how my home country deals with malaria. "Does your family in the US sleep under a mosquito net? How many people do you know who died from malaria? Have you had malaria when you were a child? How much does medicine cost in the US to treat malaria?"

Some Tanzanians were shocked to know that malaria is not an isssue at all in my home country. It used to be. What helped America abolish malaria many years ago was the agressive indoor spraying of pesticides such as DDT alongside other measures.

A huge debate has been going on now for years. Why shouldn't this massive killer in Africa be stopped by the same methods America used? Some people argue that the spraying of DDT is an inexpensive and highly effective method of combating malaria and that it has been approved by the World Health Organization. Others argue that being exposed to DDT early in life might lead to harmful effects and thus is not a viable malaria control method. This is what has paralyzed the large scale use of it for many years.

A friend of mine sent a documentary called DDT Wars that I thought I would share with you here:

Every once in a while I jot down some quotes I hear, so as I was flipping through my notebook, I thought I would share them here with you.

“The mountains standing in our way are only in our minds…the risk of going nowhere is the greatest risk of all.” 
-- Anne Murray, Artist

“No agency or organization can talk to as many people as needed to know what kinds of solutions (to poverty) might work.  This is why markets are so powerful.  By affixing price to the delivery of critical services like housing, finance, water and health, they allow a person and a community to tell us so much about what they want, need and can pay for."

--Jacqueline Novogratz, Acumen Fund CEO

Dear Nairobi Suicide Bomber of 11 June 2007:

I wish I could have known about you under different circumstances. 

Instead, I got into the office on Monday to hear my colleague mumbling something on the phone in Kiswahili- one word I clearly understood: BOMB.  She was talking about you.  The whole city was…talking about how you ignited yourself with a bomb over on Moi Avenue, killing and hurting others to make your point.  Your selfish actions made my heart skip a beat for the wrong reason.

I wish I could have known about you under different circumstances.

I wish we could have instead talked about your frustrations and furiously worked toward a more peaceful solution.  I wish we could have found a way for you to be heard without killing yourself and others.  The truth is, I don’t think most people even know why you did it- so, ultimately, your life was wasted for nothing.  I wish we could have worked together to find some hope in the fabric of society.  Something that could make you get up in the morning and target your energy and passions toward all of the many good things happening in Africa, so the world doesn’t look at your life as just another reason why this continent should continue to be ignored.

I wish I could have known about you under different circumstances.

Sincerely,
Keely

http://www.dispatch.co.za/2007/06/12/Foreign/abomb.html

I am back in Nairobi for work this week and people are very much on edge. The police have been raiding neighborhoods and killing anyone suspected of being related to the Mungiki sect. It is a scary human hunting safari through the slums.

The Mungiki (meaning united people or multitude) is a religious sect known for its organized crime which has left many dead and terrorized, over decades, particularly in relation to the extortion of Matatus (minibuses used for transport by most Kenyans) in more recent years. A few weeks ago in the news, the Mungiki were blamed for the beheading of Matatu drivers and fare collectors who refused to pay the Mungiki. It is very much a secret underground group focused on “fighting foreign ideologies and uniting Kikuyu” (Kenya’s largest tribal community). Some of their traditional rituals have included tobacco snuff sessions and bathing in blood mixed with urine and goat tripe. The most likely members-- unemployed youth in the slums. Does it really change anywhere in the world? Youth in poor communities are at huge risk of trying to meet their social needs through the acceptance of gangs.

The government banned the gang in 2002 after knife-wielding members killed more then 20 people during a clash with a rival gang in Nairobi's Mathare slum. So after recent events, the police are “fighting back,” and just within the last two days the police killed 30 people - no trial- in slum raids. Many fear that the Mungiki are trying to take over the government and that their activities will affect the general elections in December.

President Kibaki has vowed to wipe out the Mungiki and his police force has made progress in that direction. As I watched people being dragged out of their homes on the television, I wondered how many of those people are really Mungiki. No one will ever know now- they are dead and no one will challenge the police about it. I was reminded of George Bush’s approach to the war against terror. I also wondered what it would have been like if police raided my neighborhood back home in California killling the many gang members there. Would I feel justice was served?

Picture Caption: Residents of Nairobi's Mathare slum lie on the ground as Kenyan police search the neighborhood yesterday for Mungiki. (AFP)

I love it.  Social Edge member, Gillian, asked us to expand our horizons, redefine “normal” and live in a whole new world.  Through her blog, she shares with us all a glimpse of “normal” in Arusha, Tanzania where the School of St Jude provides quality education to 850 children from the poorest families.  She tells us that she has become an activist and encourages us to think about our lives differently.

This week as the eight men representing the major industrialized nations of the world convened at the G8 Summit in Europe, she encourages us to look at the Guardian newspaper’s highlight of Eight African Women.  Not a "normal" G8 coverage, it profiles eight women whose lives have been profoundly affected by some of the key issues the G8 has the power to control.  "Their lives are very different, but they all want one thing- an end to poverty and unfair trade in Africa." 

I was fascinated by reading the story of Tanzanian nurse, Sabina Nicholas, as she talked about the challenges her family faces in accessing water.  Her daughters fetch 10 buckets of water in the morning and 10 in the evening.  They are buying it from private vendors who are actually quite expensive.  Her message to the G8 is: "Give priority to woman and girls in providing safe water.  Make sure that when you give money to help Africa, it is used to help poor people."

This week, I myself felt the hardship of water and sanitation in Africa.  I stayed in the home of a Maasai family who are very special friends of mine, and for seven days I had to shower by pouring a bucket of water on my head because they have no indoor plumbing and no electricity.  I was always so careful not to use too much water, and if I had to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, it wasn't a flushable system, but a hole in the ground I would have to squat on in the dark.

I have visited so many homes like this over the years, but rarely have I lived in one myself, and as I tried to operate my "normal" life of going to town for meetings, I was reminded of how much time it takes to do just about anything when you live without good access to water or electricity.  After cutting grass for the cows to eat, we could then begin chopping wood for the fire to cook breakfast, milking the cow (since there was no refrigerator to keep it from yesterday), going to buy some vegetables/cut bananas from the tree, getting the water and boiling it to drink, etc.  I take for granted the fact that most days of my life growing up in a G8 country, I have stumbled out of bed to hit my electronic alarm clock, switched on the lights, jumped into a hot shower (sometimes with a radio on), popped some instant oatmeal in the microwave and headed out the door to work/school in a comfy car-- all in a matter of a few minutes.  After a week with this wonderful family (who also has two week old twin babies), this new routine started to feel normal. 

It inspires me to think about how strong people are here- especially women and girls who burden most of the household duties.  I think you will enjoy these stories and the voices of eight African women to the G8.  There are also some great video and audio options.       

 Click here to view profiles of eight women in Africa.

Tanzania’s government rolled out a new treatment for malaria nationwide this year:  Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT).  The introduction of ACTs is due to the major problem with resistance of malaria parasites to the most common and affordable antimalarial drugs such as chloroquine, Sulfadoxine-Pryimethamine and amodiaquine. 

Drug resistance is mainly the result of inappropriate use of antimalarial drugs.  The drugs were deployed on a large scale, always as monotherapies, introduced in sequence and generally poorly managed (used even after high levels of resistance were found).  The primary challenge in getting this new solution of ACTs administered throughout Africa now is simply the cost as they are ten times more expensive than the conventional drugs used as monotherapies (one drug alone rather than a mix).

As I mentioned in a previous post, Acumen Fund has invested in an interesting social venture, Advanced Bio Extracts (ABE), which trains farmers in Kenya and Tanzania and then manufactures the raw material (Artemisia annua- sweet worm) used to make these new malaria drugs.  This herb was actually used in Chinese traditional medicine for over 200 years to treat malaria fevers.  Globally, its doses in the form of ACTs have increased from 4 million in 2004 to 45 million in 2006.

Acumen Fund Fellow in Kenya, Jocelyn Wyatt, just created a short video of her work with ABE (click arrow below to view):

If you have problems viewing it above, you can also find it by clicking here.  Jocelyn and I have talked about how impressive ABE's process of taking the company to scale has been.  In just a few years, ABE has develped a supplier network of 7, 500 farmers.  Why has ABE been so successful at scaling?  Here is a quote from Jocelyn:

"What can other social enterprises learn from ABE’s example? My sense is that a primary advantage ABE had was an enormous influx of capital (in the form of a loan) from Novartis who pushed the company to expand rapidly. With millions of dollars up-front, ABE could open country offices, hire extension workers, purchase vehicles, and procure the inputs necessary to enable the farmers to begin growing artemisia.

Second, the company’s founders and directors knew they had to reach scale to succeed. A small producer of artemisinin was not going to sell its products to the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and a measured approach to growth would not work. Therefore, they scaled quickly because that was the only option.

Third, artemisia offers returns to farmers that are far greater to what they previously saw growing maize, wheat, beans, or other crops. Without having to work much harder, farmers could double or quadruple their incomes. This was an easy conversion to convince farmers to try and farmers were encouraged to continue using some of their land to continue growing the staple crops.

Finally, ABE has seen that once the early adopters in a region do well, the followers are eager to jump onboard. Other models, like Scojo and SHEF, can only take on one entrepreneur in an area, limiting the bandwagon phenomenon that ABE could take advantage of.

Some of these factors are particular to ABE’s case, but I do believe it can be viewed as a good example of rapid growth in the social enterprise space. I would love to hear comments from others about what we can learn from this example and how it could be adapted to other organizations."