Want to continue giving...introducing the Supply Chain

So here's a bit of news from behind the scene. You may by now know that The Great Generation organises tailor-made volunteering projects for 6-12 volunteers at a time - might be to an arts-based project in India, or a gardening project in Uganda or teaching English to local Bedouin guides in Wild Jordan...but what happens after the volunteers return? This is where the Supply Chain comes in & what better way to give!

The Supply Chain is a unique way for our volunteers to become ambassadors for the local communities whom they have lived and worked with during their project.

Our volunteers work together with our Expert Partners and local communities to identify small items which can make a big difference. We advertise these items on our website and individuals can donate with the knowledge that these items are identified by the volunteers and that the money is going to where it is needed most.

So, IMAGINE your friend has just come back from a volunteering arts-based project in New Delhi, India. Your friend tells you that the kids who attend the extra mural classes come from the local slums, are undernourished and have difficulty concentrating because they are so hungry. Your friend knows the project, knows the children, knows that money can help to buy food, art & craft material and other books & learning material...

You want to help!

The Great Generation in the meantime has already spoken to the expert partners in India to enquire where the real needs are and how much is needed to continue the chain of giving support to this community.

And this is how you can help:

FRUITS that give children energy
1 fruit a day for 1 child costs 8 Rupees
There are 10 children in a class
The community centre is open 20 days a month.
8 Rupees x 10 children x 20 days = 1,600 Rupees or about £24

PAINT CONTAINERS for their art class
1 paint container costs about 500 Rupees or £7

READING BOOKS for learning
1 reading book costs about 150 Rupees or £2


The Supply Chain provides much needed items for projects. Click on the links below to view our current supply chain for the following 5 projects:

ESCP 2008
http://www.justgiving.com/supplychainforescp-eap2008project

Calder 2008
http://www.justgiving.com/supplychainforcalderhigh

Delhi Community Arts 2008
http://www.justgiving.com/supplychainfordelhicommunityarts08

Gardening Project 2008
http://www.justgiving.com/supplychainforgardeningproject08

Barclays 2009
http://www.justgiving.com/supplychainforbarclaysproject08

Volunteer on the Uganda project speaks about her understanding of poverty...

How would you define poverty?
Absolute poverty is a shortage of food, shelter and drinking water. I would also consider the lack of access to education and employment and subsequent social exclusion as poverty.

There is also relative poverty which is defined by social standards and compares people in a particular society in terms of access to goods and services - people excluded from these goods and services for financial reasons can be said to be poor relative to other members of their society. This is not the same as absolute poverty but it is still an issue.

How would you describe your emotions the first time you experience poverty?
I was quite shocked to see images that had previously existed only on television brought to life. The hardest thing was the scale of poverty which you can't grasp until you visit a poverty stricken area in person. Once I had recovered from the shock of seeing how people lived, I was actually amazed at how positive they were - nobody I met was wallowing in self-pity, they were incredibly generous with the little that they had and I was left feeling deeply humbled.

What is the most shocking aspect of poverty you have experienced?
Teaching slum children in the Primary School in Mombasa who do not get regular meals at home was shocking. They were given beans at lunchtime at school, but trying to teach them on a Monday morning was hopeless as many of them hadn't eaten all weekend. One day I threw away the skin from a quarter of a mango that I had eaten, and one of the children picked it up and started eating the tiny bit of flesh still left on the skin. It was deeply shocking that she was so hungry, that I felt I had been quick to throw something away, and ultimately that there was nothing I could do there and then to solve the underlying poverty affecting these children.

What was the most enlightening aspect of poverty you have experienced?
The most enlightening thing on both of my projects in Kenya and Uganda was that the people I met never defined themselves as 'poverty stricken' or 'living in absolute poverty' - this is a label attached to them by the western world. These people are just getting on with their lives, and their dedication, generosity and willingness to help each other is breathtaking. Every one of the children at the primary school I support in Mombasa works incredibly hard in all their lessons, and they all have dreams of being doctors, lawyers, pilots and many other things! To them, education is everything and generally they are happy and positive despite what I perceive to be their challenging circumstances. Likewise in Uganda I met people who had literally given their lives to helping others when from a western perspective they were 'living in poverty' themselves. The most enlightening aspect for me is that these people are not looking for pity or handouts, they are incredibly grateful for my support, but they want to work alongside me and achieve their dreams in their own way with a little help from people like me - that gives me so much more confidence in what we can achieve in the future.

need for capacity building for small grass organisations

"With the partnership with The Great Generation, St. Francis will be able to achieve more when the capacity of the staff is strengthened. This what has been lacking in our organizational development. This is the dilema for small grassroot organizations who solily depend on the community volunteers who have good intentions but lack capacities in organization development. Although this is a strength, it is a challenge for organizational growth. I do strongly agree that this rare opportunity should be exploited to the full for St. Francis to grow and be able to achieve it's goals."

Feedback from an expert partner in Uganda working in partnership with The Great Generation

Day 5: Friday, 20th March…the last day!

We stopped at the printer in kampala to print two hard copies of our final marketing strategy. In a two hour meeting with all the key people, the four of us looked at ways to market Beads for Education. I think it was clear to them how much hard work went into it and what they needed to do to take things forward. At the close of lunch we took the opportunity to thank everyone at KHC for their support throughout the developmen of our project and for sharing their inspirations and achievements with us. We gave a certificate to those who attended the communications skills workshop and a special certificate was given to some of the key individuals with whom we worked closely with. We told them about the fundraising we did in England and how we would like them to use that money. Then we handed over some stationary and 5 laptops that were donated to the project from the UK. The room whooped with joy and we all got very emotional – they sang a beautiful song to wish us a safe journey home which made us cry even more. At the end of the presentation we felt emotionally drained in the same way that you do at the end of an exam. The last thing we did before leaving was to buy some of the beads that we were helping them to market. We simply couldn’t choose and all left with many beautiful pieces of jewellery. All in all this project has been amazing and something that we genuinely will never forget.

Day 4: Thursday, 19th March

Today we defined our recommendation to KHC taking into account all the conversations we’ve had over the past week - which included our observations and the transfering of knowledge that we've acquired over the last 2 years working with Barclays. Together we worked seemlessley and relentlessly. The results are impressive – a 13 page document containing recommendations, considerations, costs, and necessary dependencies for both the long and short term. It was like a heavy air of hope and anticipation that had been lifted. We hope we have equipped KHC with the skills, templates and knowledge that they can now implement and benefit from for many years to come…tomorrow is the official handover of our work.

Day 3: Wednesday, 18th March

Our day kicks of by seeing the Beads For Life project. This was followed by an extremely surreal experience visiting a bead village where enroute we walked through a school. Within just a few seconds each of us had at literally 100s of children clinging onto our hands. The genuine excitement and happiness on their faces is something that we will never forget. Our day was rounded off with another communication skills workshop. This time we taught 3 of the PHD women how to further deliver the workshop to their colleagues. Things began rather bleakly with seemingly little enthusiasm of the task at hand - infact all the signs were there telling us to give up but then we finished the session asking the women to deliver the workshop back to us. To our astonishment the women relayed every single point we had told them plus more - executing the workshop with charisma and intent. They had surpassed all expectations and grasped onto the opportunity with both hands.

Day 2: Tuesday, 17th March - an introduction to Kawempe...

"True kindness comes from knowing what it feels like to be without." Ghandi

If Day 1 served as an introduction to Kawempe, day 2 really brought home the reality of care in the community and capacity building in practice. Heartbreaking, awe-inspiring, frustrating - it's hard to put the experience into words. Seeing - in reality - the images that have haunted TV screens in the UK and hearing impossible stories that you couldn't make up made us all take a step back and re-evaluate issues of humanity. The dignity with which the clients talked about their experiences and welcomed us into their homes amazed us all. Something that couldn't be doubted is the real impact Kawempe Home Care has made to these people's lives - their support - physically, emotionally and medically - has given new life to these people. And yes, there's a long way to go, but the impact to date is unquestionable.

Joyce - Joyce deserves a whole paragraph dedicated to her in this blog. What an incredible, loving woman. A woman who has used her own experiences of being HIV positive to turn around the lives of other sufferers in her community. A woman who has turned her home into a clinic to support her neighbours and her neighbours' neighbours. A woman who will work for Kawempe Home Care until she dies - a true inspiration.

Following our community visit we returned to Kawempe to work on our project plan, brainstorming options for developing a sustainable income stream for Kawempe through their Beads for Education programme. Simultaneously we developed and implemented our first communications workshop to help upskill the volunteers and clients. 23 people attended the workshop and although they were reluctant to answer questions and join in at the start, they warmed to our method of knowledge sharing by the end and the initial feedback was really positive!

So at the end of day 2 we sit down and reflect - reflect on today, reflect on tomorrow and reflect on how these experiences will stay with us and hopefully inform our behaviours. As we hope to make an impact on their lives, they are already making an impact on ours.