Comments on A More Perfect Market: @Ndugu

Hey Erick.I read your post, looked through a bunch...

2008-05-28T12:06:00.000-04:00

Hey Erick.

I read your post, looked through a bunch of the other blog posts on B4B Blog, and watched the video on the Kiva B4B site. Good stuff. Thanks for making me a part of it.

When I first saw your comment, I thought for a second you had written B4BB, something we used at PlaNet Finance China as our acronym for Broadband for Barefoot Bankers.

We did a project with the European Commission, Microsoft, the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, and a German IT firm called Fraunhofer FIT the goal of which was to bring basic information technology training to microentrepreneurs and microfinance professionals.

PF China sent me out to coal mining country to do some interviews for our final report, and this is what we made (that's part 1; here's part 2). Not Hollywood grade material by any stretch, but we squeezed this out of a tiny budget, so we were pretty happy with the result.

Just thought of the B4BB connection and figured you might want to see.

Again, thanks for mentioning the blog.

Good luck with B4B.

Jake

JakeI was searching around for bloggers who've rec...

2008-05-28T00:44:00.000-04:00

Jake
I was searching around for bloggers who've recently mentioned Kiva and I stumbled across your site. Love the Ndugu reference and just posted a little something about it on b4bcommunity.org, the blog for the new kivaB4B project we just launched with Kiva in April. Check it out if you have a chance.

Take care

Erick B
kivab4b.org
b4bcommunity.org

Hey Jeane.If it's not a revolution, it's one of th...

2008-05-08T17:06:00.000-04:00

Hey Jeane.

If it's not a revolution, it's one of those shock moments that brings on some seriously accelerated evolution. The weird unpredictable kind that brought things like pelicans and hippos into being (I actually have absolutely no idea what kinds of shocks do what to the speed of evolution; I just think pelicans and hippos are cool).

Thanks for the comment.

Jake

Hey Stacey.Yeah. Web celebrity. I thought you mi...

2008-05-08T16:55:00.000-04:00

Hey Stacey.

Yeah. Web celebrity. I thought you might like that. If you're not there yet, you're on your way for sure.

And I'm sorry if I drew the comparison too close to the "sponsor a child" model. I realize that you guys are way more sustainable and positive and innovative than that. I just wanted to highlight the fact that you provide that exchange element. You introduce us to Glory and Gideon and Gideon's dad. You introduce us to Mama Lucy. You introduce yourself. You provide stories with real live characters, and that, in my opinion, is what made Warren Schmidt start sponsoring Ndugu and what gave him so much meaning in that relationship.

And the fact that you open up and talk about the experimental nature of the project is important. I think the honesty and openness with which you're approaching this is going to carry the project a long way.

I'll definitely stay tuned.

Good luck.

Jake

I am a huge fan of Stacey's. She has inspired me w...

2008-05-06T19:36:00.000-04:00

I am a huge fan of Stacey's. She has inspired me with her efforts at Epic Change and personally by email and Twitter.
My son said yesterday that it sounds like we're creating a revolution. I think so. Person-to-person is the only way to go.

Thanks so much for sharing our efforts! To read th...

2008-05-06T19:02:00.000-04:00

Thanks so much for sharing our efforts! To read the words "web celebrity" in the vicinity of my name and, more importantly, near the words Epic Change is utterly overwhelming. I hope other nonprofits recognize the utility of the social web and take notice of its incredible power for good. It's my sincere hope that we can build upon this blog momentum and word of tweet to encourage giving, participation and meaningful engagement in the stories of some incredible children in Tanzania.

For all the reasons you highlight related to storytelling & personal connection, I welcome the comparison to the Ndugu model. That said, we differ from the traditional "sponsor a child" model in important ways. Most significantly, like Kiva, we don't set up relationships of ongoing dependency on charitable aid. Instead, we provide loans to local social benefit organizations, like Mama Lucy's, and seek to help her build sustainable sources of income to support her efforts for the long-term. We're hoping that by supporting organizations like hers, we're empowering local leadership & respecting self-determination. Additionally, we seek to share authentic stories that raise awareness about the incredible hope & potential that exists within these children. Too often, traditional media and, sometimes, "sponsor a child" nonprofits themselves, focus primarily on stereotypical stories of helplessness and hopelessness that, while perhaps true in part, don't nearly paint the entire picture.

Of course, Epic Change is a new experiment in social innovation. While we've had remarkable success so far, the next 3-4 years will truly show the potential of our unique approach.

I hope you'll stay tuned to see how this plays out. Thanks again for passing on the word!