Reflections from Zambia

Coming to Zambia was my first time leaving the
USA in my 20 years of life. As you can imagine I was pretty nervous for the trip. Over 24 hours of travel as well as immersing myself in the culture of a new foreign country were very intimidating for me. Not only that but I was the financial leader of our group so I was in charge of all the money for the trip. All of these things were making me feel very uneasy about this trip.

Throughout the school year the trip seemed very surreal to me. It never really seemed like it was actually going to happen. Not up until I stepped on the plane had I had any uneasiness in my stomach but after that the traveling was very long and stressful spent with many different tangents of what would happen over the two upcoming weeks.

That being said these last two weeks have been truly rewarding. The people of Hope Ministries as well as all of the children from Hope school as well as Twapia have blessed me beyond belief. I have never felt more welcomed to a place in my entire life. My host mom, Mama Lillian was a huge help in making me feel comfortable, and her cooking was AMAZING. Ba Charles and his staff did a great job in teaching us a little Bemba so we could communicate a little bit with the kids. The kids in general made you feel so welcomed just by seeing their smiling faces and playing the little games they enjoy. Being a part of this trip is one of the best memories I have had in my life. The people of Hope and Twapia made me feel like Zambia is my second home.

Coming into these two weeks I thought I’d be ready to leave after one week was up, but now that my time here is ending I want to stay for another 2 weeks and don’t want to go home. I have truly enjoyed this place and these people and recommend that anyone take the opportunity to come to Hope School and serve.

-Cooper Lane
North Park University Class of ‘15

Zambia Field Update: Nutrition Training

Last week, we held a Nutrition Training for the moms and guardians of Hope children. Overall, the event was very successful and provided a new means for nutritional and community outreach.

The training was facilitated by two local nurses and led in a participatory, interactive style, where the women were asked about their own practices, shared feedback and were encouraged to ask questions. Thirty women attended the training collectively.

The training included three cooking demonstrations, explained by the local nurses and demonstrated by Hope teachers.

The group discussed which of the locally available foods are the most nutritionally dense and how they can be prepared in the healthiest of ways (ie: avoiding over-boiling, using less oil, etc). The nurses explained step by step best practices in this food preparation.

During the training, the women broke out drums and began dancing, creating a fun and energetic atmosphere for the duration of the two hour event.

After the cooking demonstrations, everyone had a chance to sample the dishes. Each woman received a bag of food that consisted of key ingredients found in the cooking demos that were taught. The women were also given an informational piece translated into Bemba about the meal recipes and their nutritional value.

Each woman received information in Bemba that highlighted the benefits of the recipes covered:

Relish
Ground Nuts

• Protein to build muscles and blood cells
• Vitamins to build immunity to fight infection

Tomatoes

• Vitamins to build immunity and improve health

Onions

• Vitamins also

Bondway with cooking oil

Bondway

• Vitamins, especially iron to improve blood and prevent and correct anemia

Cooking oil

• Small amounts such as 1 teaspoon are healthy to build tissues
• Do not use a lot of oil it will destroy the nutrients of the Bondway

Kapenta with ground nuts

Kapenta

• Good source of protein to build muscles and blood cells

Ground Nuts

• Protein to build muscles and blood cells
• Vitamins to build immunity to fight infection
• You can also use a small amount of cooking oil

Stay tuned for the full recipes shared at the training... 

Report from the Field: Zambia Clinic May 2013

This week, we opened the doors to one of the biannual clinics during which Hope provides medical care to the 350 children they serve. The lack of healthcare for children in Zambia is one of the most difficult challenges this country faces. Supported by a group of dedicated students from North Park University, the clinic provides critical treatment to keeping the kids at Hope Community School happy, healthy and ready to learn. The clinic has been a huge success!

Here are some highlights:

Common Ailments & Diseases Treated
The biannual clinics provide a basic medical check-up, including:

• Malaria testing and treatment
• Deworming medication - Providing this deworming treatment has been identified as one of the most reliable ways to help increase school attendance (by up to 7.5% from providing deworming treatment alone)
• Treatment for diarrhea and abdominal pains due to contaminated drinking water
• Treatment for upper respiratory tract infections (coughing, sneezing, headache)

Dental Hygiene

This clinic will include an exciting new focus on dental sanitation and cavity prevention. Besides toothbrushes they get to take home, each child will receive a toothbrush to be kept at school and used after the meal program each day. During the last clinic that Spark supported in January 2013, one of the biggest areas of need that was discovered was early dental care and daily brushing for children in grades 1-4, in order to prevent the high levels of tooth decay and cavities found in their slightly older classmates.

Nutrition Education

An additional new development for this year’s clinic - on Friday, May 24th, the North Park team and a local teacher & nurse committee will host a nutrition and cooking training. They will include basic nutrition education along with a corresponding cooking training to help demonstrate the concepts introduced. This program will target a cohort of 50 mothers who have been identified as community leaders. Each woman will receive a food package to incentive participation and learning.

Stay tuned to the blog for more updates on the impact of the clinic!

Zambia Field Update: How Toilets Bring Sustainability

The capacity building efforts that Spark Ventures supports in Zambia run the gambit. This includes supporting professional development opportunities for the teachers at Hope Community School, lending the expertise of a Spark board member to conduct financial audits, and, most recently, funding the construction of toilets and showers at the poultry farm in Lusaka.

Why do toilets and shower facilities make us so excited? Because they directly relate to sanitation priorities at the poultry farm, which in turn affect the success and profitability of the business. As the poultry farm increases in profitability, more and more funds will be allocated towards the community programs at Hope Village, creating local sustainability for Spark’s first partner in Zambia. This means the education, nutrition and healthcare Hope provides to the vulnerable children in Ndola will be available for generations to come.

How does this all come back to the installation of toilets on the farm? When the chicks arrive at the farm as day-old, little yellow puffs, they are very vulnerable. They huddle together around the heat lamps keeping warm. At this point and throughout the six week growth cycle, they are susceptible to a number of diseases. Keeping the highest possible standards for sanitation at the farm is critical to keep as many chicks alive during the cycle as possible. More healthy chickens at the end of six weeks means more profits for the farm.

Better sanitation facilities also mean happier, healthier farm workers who can then focus their efforts on raising healthy broods each cycle.

And, that's how new toilets lead to healthier chickens, which in turn leads to sustainability for Hope!

Nicaragua: Partnership Next Steps

Whenever I travel, these days that being mostly for Spark, I tend to write quite a bit. Whether in an electronic format, paper journal, or leaving notes for myself in my iPhone, I carry either pages or fragments of information and thoughts. The last time I wrote mostly for myself was two weeks ago, on my layover in Panama, in the same place I’m sitting right now while waiting for my flight back to Chicago. It boggles my mind how fast time has flown and that our first Nicaraguan Partnership Trip just ended. So much to think about.

One of the things that I have been thinking about the most is how critical the summer of 2013 will be for Spark. In between all of the activities and excitement of our first Partnership Trip in Nicaragua, I had late night Skype meetings with candidates who applied for the Business Research and Development internship with us. The internship will be built around a small team of business and trade students who will be working with me and our partner both in the US and Nicaragua to research investment opportunities. The selected opportunity will ultimately be developed into a full blown business plan. The goal will be to come away from this summer with a fully vetted business that will become the blueprint for our partner’s social enterprise and future sustainability engine. If all goes as planned, we could be raising money for this new investment a year from now.

While the Nicaragua business team launches early this summer, a similar effort will be underway at the same time In Zambia, supporting the Poultry Farm owned and managed by our partner there. The business capacity building effort will include: research into the current poultry industry, assessment of scaling the Hope Ventures operation on an additional piece of land, looking into vertical integration in the poultry industry outside of broiler (chicken) production, as well as exploring other opportunities. The implications of both projects will be considerable, with fall 2013 being a time when Spark and our partners make some big decisions.

Despite the excitement I feel, I know we’ll have to move forward pragmatically and not lose sight of the contextual realities that may alter any plans considerably if not taken into account. Early this morning, as I was leaving San Juan del Sur, a small beachy town I went to visit for a day at the end of the Partnership Trip, the typically two hour commute to Managua took over four hours. The culprit? Massive strikes and road blockades all over the country staged by angry demonstrators demanding pension increases for senior citizens. The government had apparently promised the pension increases a while back but they didn’t come through, and with the swelling unemployment and large informal economy, basic survival is the daily bread of many of Nicaragua’s citizens.

As I finally made it through the gridlock of cars and people on the Pan American highway and we began to race towards the airport, my mind raced with questions, too. How might government gaps in social service provisions in Nicaragua affect Spark’s work? What will the political and economic climates mean for launching a new business in this extremely poor Central American country? And how can our experiences with our first partnership in Zambia benefit us in Nicaragua? These and other important questions will be priorities for me and the Spark staff and leadership in the coming months.

-Lucy

A Perfect Day in Grenada

If you ever fly United Airlines, their Hemispheres magazine has a great feature in each issue called “Three Perfect Days in…”. Each month they highlight a different city and recommend restaurants, hotels and activities that make for a perfect vacation in places like Toronto, Munich, Seattle or Capetown.

Here is my “Perfect Day in Grenada”.

At the close of our inaugural Partnership Trip to Nicaragua, we spent an incredible 24 hours in the colonial town of Grenada that is situated on the shores of Lake Nicaragua. We arrived Friday evening and checked into the beautiful Hotel Plaza Colon right in the heart of town. After cleaning up, we walked through the plaza that had trees strung with colorful lights and lots of craft and food vendors vying for our attention. In 10 minutes we arrived at the restaurant El Zaguan where we enjoyed great South American wine, live music and delicious meals including fresh fish, steak and even a very good vegetarian dish.

Las Isletas tour by boat

Mombacho from the lake

The next morning we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast buffet at the hotel overlooking the pool, which was very inviting considering it was already 85 degrees. We departed about 9:30am in an open-air vehicle for the base of the dormant Mombacho volcano, where we caught another vehicle that took us half way up the mountain to the Las Flores Coffee plantation. I will confess that I decided to enjoy my first cup of coffee in 10 years….it was worth the wait!

Next we joined about 25 other hikers in a big truck that took us up to one of the craters that over thousands of years had turned into a tropical rain forest. For the next two hours we hiked around the outskirts of the crater with a guide, who introduced us to animal and plant species and shared interesting facts and stories about the culture and history of Nicaragua. The highlight of the hike was definitely the look-out point mid-way through our journey that provided spectacular views of the Grenada and Lake Nicaragua below and the many coastal islands that had been formed when the volcano last erupted about 500 years ago.

Tour of the islets in Lake Nicaragua formed by Mombacho Volcano

After the hike, we picked up a quick but tasty lunch at Lilly’s…a small café off the plaza and then our group was picked up for a boat tour of those very islands we had seen from the top of the volcano. The islands were a variety of privately owned residences for the wealthy of Nicaragua, as well as some that have been preserved for their natural habitats. Learning of Lola’s pregnancy at Monkey Island and the discovery of a flowering Jilincoche tree were bonuses.

Monkey Island

Boat Tour

As our boat motored back to shore at sunset, we
had stunning views of the Mombacho volcano, where we had started our adventure that morning. Once at the dock, we walked just a few feet to our preset dinner table at Hotel Suyapa Beach restaurant bringing the perfect day to a close.

All I can say is….join us in October!

Rich

Carlos & the Best Job in the World

Of course one of the most important aspects of Spark’s Partnership Trips is the time that we spend with the children served by the programs. In the case of Las Tias, there are two centers that are run on weekdays: one for adolescents and one for children in primary school. We spent the most time at the projecto por los ninos pequeños - the Younger Children’s Project. The children here either come for about five hours in the morning before they go to school in the afternoon, or they arrive around lunchtime and have already attended school in the morning. Las Tias is a safe and nurturing place where they receive food, educational support, cultural lessons and emotional, psychological and healthcare support.

The staff indicated that one of the most useful things that our group could do would be to work with some of the children on their English. So Lucy created a conversational English lesson and each trip participant was paired with one or two of the students. Together we learned how to introduce ourselves, ask one another’s age and several other common phrases. “Me llamo Ricardo,” I would say…and the little guy I was working would reply, “Mi nombre es Carlos.” The children were eager to learn and quickly mastered the phrases. So then we moved on to flashcards with various words and numbers.

While the time spent with these types of activities is relatively brief, the impact is significant. It gives them a jump on their English studies and reinforces the importance of language skills in order for them to succeed in school and future work life. The children and educators alike are both so appreciative that we would take the time to visit, learn about their lives and support them in this small way.

 

From the English lessons, we moved on to crafts, games and the all-important meal program. Our trip participants helped to wash hands, serve the meal, and distribute tooth brushes and toothpaste. The meal program at Las Tias is high quality and very organized. Each child begins by washing their hands with soap and water, and then gets in line for the meal. As they enter the kitchen they are asked what size portion they would like and they know they are required to eat whatever they take. The meals are good portions and include a variety of vegetables, carbohydrates and protein. After they are finished eating, they go and pick up their assigned toothbrush and brush their teeth.

Just as I finished up helping to wash all of the kids’ hands for the meal, my English lesson partner Carlos came running up to me and presented me with a bead necklace. As I knelt down so he could put it around my neck I thought, I have the best job in the world.


-Rich