Saturday, January 15, 2011

BVA Training Day


Dear Friends: Hello – this is George and this is my first post to the trip blog. I greatly appreciate the encouragement and prayers that each of you represent. Thanks.

Kigali, Rwanda
To catch folks up on my travels, I departed ways with Andy when our Amsterdam flight arrived in Kampala. From there, I took a quick jaunt down to Kigali, Rwanda, and spent a couple days with some guys who are running a for profit management consulting firm, Karisimbi Partners, focused on business growth as a means for economic development. I really enjoyed touring around with one of them to meet several of the Rwandan business owners and to hear about the business opportunities and issues that they face (construction company, bakery, real estate rental agency, software developer & systems integrator - I could be helpful to several of these entrepreneurs and I hope to find a means to do so!). It was also fun to explore how these three families arrived at their joint decision to move to Rwanda and begin this new life.

While in Rwanda, I also took a quick tour out to the countryside to visit a private catholic high school that a friend was instrumental in starting. Around the corner, I visited one of the Genocide churches that has been left intact since the 1994 mass killings imposed by the Hutus on the Tutsis. It was a tough reality to see what we as humans are capable of doing and to see what we as humans are capable of letting happen. The Rwandans keep these memorials as a reminder to what has transpired. I then went back to Kigali to visit the national Genocide Museum. I was handheld throughout by a genocide survivor (and brother-in-law of Kennedy School friend who now works at Hope Intl) who lost his parents and two brothers during this time. Sobering to say the least, and I need time to sit still long enough to begin to process the whole experience and new understanding.

I was blown away by Kigali – it is super clean and supposedly very safe. I never felt uncomfortable during my visit.


Arua, Uganda
Today (Saturday), we facilitated a business training session for a local Christian business association of men and women entrepreneurs (Business Vision Arua). We had ~40 attendees - about 60% repeat folks from back in June and 40% new folks.

From our recent work with many of these entrepreneurs, we had selected product/service value proposition & competitive positioning, sales/distribution strategies, and constructing & reading income statements as the three core topics. I covered the last of the three and had a fun time walking through a representative income statement for a butcher shop owner with whom I have been working. Honestly, though I labor to prepare for these things, I get a ton of enjoyment out off teaching these classes. It’s simply fun to work with these folks. I love to learn about their culture and to simply be part of thinking with them about how to grow their businesses.


I also believe that we struck a chord on the value proposition material. Andy led several brainstorm exercises which helped the group to resist price reductions as the ONLY possible means of market differentiation. I could see the attendee’s brains churning – I’m really happy about this outcome because this low price approach has been a sure race to low margins for most of the businesses. Andy also did a great job of engaging the folks on how to be much more proactive in their outbound sales activities. Many folks are purely focused on making their products and then sitting passively with the hope that customers will stream through their doors (imagine 100 people sitting side by side selling mangos). Though most people in this group are not subsistence farmers of mangos – the general approach is very, very passive.

The training ended well and we were encouraged by the many successes that were shared and the many relationships that have developed within the group over the years (that Andy has been coming to Arua). It’s time for bed! Andy preaches at a local church tomorrow morning at 7:30am.
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The Genesis of the 5810 Project

Vision

When Jesus was asked what was the most important command he answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your heart and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”

As a follower of Jesus, it is challenging to obey these commands, particularly with regard to my neighbors.
How can I love my neighbors? How can I love my neighbors in a global context? How can I love my neighbors who are struggling to thrive in developing countries?

The classic response of western Christians has been to “send”. Whether we send those that have been called to vocational ministry, or send money and resources to “give to the poor”, or occasionally send ourselves on short-term missions trips. Each of these has value, but is this enough? Is it effective? Is it all that God calls us to?

The questions become more complex when you consider that no matter how much money we have spent on the “war on poverty” over decades, the problem remains as acute as ever. We are not winning the war, even here in the US. Are there other approaches?

As I struggled with these ideas, I was led to consider Isaiah Chapter 58. Here God tells us what true fasting is – to loose the chains of injustice; to set the oppressed free; to share food with the hungry; and to provide the poor with shelter. Then verse 10 says “…if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday.”

“If you spend yourselves in behalf of others …….”

While we should send, we need to spend too.

What does it look like to spend ourselves?
For me I have been led to spend myself as follows:
• To go to a developing country, and to go repeatedly.
• To develop personal relationships with innovative leaders
• To use my own specific gifting and experience in business
• To find ways to move people out of the poverty cycle on a sustainable basis
• To invest money in parallel with my activities
• To share the love of Christ with my neighbor and to spend myself on their behalf.

5810 Project

The 5810 Project is predicated on the belief that while “teaching a man to fish” will provide him with a fish diet for a lifetime, it will not lead him out of poverty. To escape poverty people need to develop sustainable business activities. The 5810 Project’s vision is to provide an opportunity for business people from developed countries to share the love of Christ with their neighbor by “spending” themselves on behalf of others who are trying to build businesses and break the poverty cycle.

The 5810 Project is currently focused on two principal activities in Uganda.

Arua
Arua is a significant market town in the NW of Uganda, with Sudan to the north and Congo to the West. It is an agricultural market town that has grown because of government and NGO activity primarily in S. Sudan, but now increasingly in E. Congo. While the town has prospered and grown, the native Aruans have not enjoyed this economic boon.

Our efforts in Arua are centered on helping the church and Christian business people develop sustainable businesses.
We work with businesspeople to analyze the market situation in Arua, to offer training sessions, to encourage and mentor entrpreneurs and to invest in their businesses.

Kampala
Jesus Commissioned Ministries (“JCM”) is a church founded in 2000 serving three poor communities on the outskirts of Kampala. The leadership of JCM has a heart to reach the many underprivileged children in the communities it serves. Without education, there is little hope for these children to thrive. While education is available, the costs are prohibitive for most families. JCM has established Mercy Junior School (elementary) for these children. In addition to education, the children receive uniforms, food and school materials. The school currently has over 50 pupils in two Pre-K classes and Primary 1 (P1)and Primary 2 (p2) and is building classrooms for P3,4 & 5 for completion in the spring of 2011.

The 5810 Project has helped Mercy Junior School develop its rudimentary facilities and to buy a neighboring plot of land for expansion. We also advise the administrators of the school on business and education practices and have steered them through a process of becoming a fee-baseda significant drive to parent involvement and elevated educational standards and outcomes.

Opportunity
We believe that the 5810 Project offers a significant opportunity for the body of Christ:
• Grass roots opportunity to create sustainable businesses and deliver families and communities out of the oppression of poverty.
• Many business opportunities are apparent with relatively small investment levels necessary.
• Opportunities for talented business people to connect personally with emerging entrepreneurs and spend themselves on them.
• Opportunity for the body of Christ in the developed world to share the love of Christ with our neighbors in developing countries.
• Transformational impact on the “spender” and recipient alike!

If you would like to discuss this further, please contact me Andy Mills at amills@tkc.edu