Blogging has been slow here, primarily because I am not yet sure what shape this space will take now that I am veering off into a study/discipline/profession of which I have a very limited understanding and even less experience.

That being said, I did want to offer an update on the marathon training for all those who have donated so far (we’re nearing our goal, but ever so slowly, you can help out here!). I finished my first 30km training run in around 2h48 a couple of days ago. When I started training in March in Gulu, this would have seemed a daunting, unrealizable distance. After a few months of training, it was actually a breeze despite being a bit sore towards the end and for a few days after!

Over at Women of Kireka, children are already heading back to school and the women are preparing for the launch of our online store. They also spent a day tabling at the American Recreation Association market selling their wares and meeting other local jewelry makers.

As many of you know, I am running the Montreal Oasis Marathon on September 5th, 2010 – in exactly 27 days! Running the marathon was partly inspired by the need to find a way to help pay school fees for the children of the Women of Kireka. These twenty women, who still work part-time in a quarry for a pittance, now have a small start-up jewelry business, which I helped to establish in 2008 in Kampala, Uganda and now assist through Project Diaspora.

As many of you also know, I’m generally no longer a fan of fundraising. After a couple years working on and off in Kenya and Uganda, and further experience in the “wheel of development,” I have learned to deeply appreciate the value of business. By business, I mean a system where a unique high-quality product, made through painstaking attention to detail, is fairly traded for monetary capital. This seems to be the most sustainable and engaging form of economic development.

In line with this, Women of Kireka has transformed itself from a donations-funded model, where international donors help to raise enough capital for the women to start their own business, to a small start-up business built on hard work by the people who make up the Women of Kireka and Project Diaspora.

However, in order to get Women of Kireka to where it is now, it was necessary to help the women spend a few less hours on the quarry. They identified school fees as one of their most expensive and stressful costs. By covering school fees for a year, Project Diaspora – and your first two round of donations – gave the women enough time to see if Women of Kireka was for them and whether we could build a successful business together.

This generous time has proved to be fruitful and we think that, after this final round of school fee donations, Women of Kireka will be entirely run as a business, no longer soliciting donations. In the little time we’ve had this year, we’ve registered Women of Kireka as a business, opened a local bank account for the women to place their savings, developed an emergency health fund scheme, launched one line of jewelry, developed a website and established a series of local and international partnerships with such groups as Solar Sister.

This final round of school fee donations will give the women the free time to perfect their second line of designs. It will also give us the time to focus on opening the online Women of Kireka store. We expect that these activities, particularly the opening of the online store, will ensure that the women can support their children next year in school and work increasingly with Women of Kireka, thus moving off the quarry for good.

Fortunately, the beginning of the children’s semester coincides with the Montreal Oasis Marathon. As I cross the finish line, the children will be getting ready for their final school term this year and we hope your generous contributions will help us pave the way for a successful new school term!

For more information on the Women of Kireka, please visit our website. Project Diaspora is a non-profit organization based in Dallas, TX.

Benefit of having a library at your fingertips (and a good one), Autesserre’s book came in yesterday. Now in my hungry possession. I’ve only managed to digest Chapter 1, but my first impression might dictate my thoughts on the rest of the book, or at least influence my reading.

The concept of organizational culture (or corporate culture) is inherent to any “industry” – whether it be aid or banking or being a professor. Each profession and its environment comes with rules – norms – that have been developed over a long period of time. Did we think aid or development was an exception to the rule?

@tmsruge’s first comment to me is that the aid industry is so worried about its own survival that it leaves no room for innovation. I’m not really sure that is the key issue. Unfortunately, I think humans do as humans do and we often end up with the same organizational product.

Finally, are people naive enough to think “do-gooders” get a free pass to not be seen as controlling and hierarchical as the next human? Anyways, it seems like a pretty smooth read so I would urge you to dig in and let me know what you think.

Hellen. From the Women of Kireka photo shoot.

A busy week with the Women of Kireka. Today, we celebrated Hadijah (WoK’s business consultant)’s birthday with a delicious cake and a rooster. We also welcomed two American medical students who stopped by to pick out some gifts for their friends back home. Tomorrow, we have what is becoming a photo shoot of epic proportions – i.e. 80 women and children, six PD team members and a couple of visitors (stop by if you’re in town!).

While time left in Kampala is running out, I am excited to see Women of Kireka in such great shape. Together, we have worked towards a structured business – formally registered with a soon-to-be-opened bank account. We have formalized the jewelry making process so that each style comes with set names and prices. We have welcomed a handful of fantastic visitors at our new office near the quarry and have made several significant international sales. The women have used a portion of their jewelry sales to put their children through school (coupled with some kind oversea donations). We have learned a series of lessons, particularly that hand-outs (school fees, medical or otherwise) do very little in the long-run for the well-being of the group. Instead, by solving financial difficulties together, the business is emerging as a profitable and binding player in everyone’s life.

Laura (aka Texas in Africa) stopped by the Women of Kireka office in Kireka on Sunday! Here are a few shots of the women showing off their new pieces.