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Trip Start Sep 01, 2010 Trip End Sep 21, 2010

  Lilongwe, Malawi
Sunday, September 12, 2010

Ah, Welcome! (with added slang as they would say here in Malawi). Last week I landed in Lilongwe, Malawi – "The Warm Heart of Africa" – to launch a new program called Africa Start-Up, a collaborative effort to teach sustainable business practices to small business owners in Africa taught by local university students.   This blog is an introduction to why I'm here and the people the program hopes to help.  And of course, the anecdotes that make it personal.  Thanks for your interest, and I hope you enjoy my first entry.

1.      INTRODUCTION

2.      AFRICA START-UP MODEL

3.      PASSING THE PRESIDENT

4.      CLASS #1 – Success, Goals, Plan

5.      CLASS #2 – What is a “budget”?

6.      THANKS



INTRODUCTION

My trip to Malawi is short.  Some may say, “Ah, but what change can you make in only two weeks?” Yes, it’s short, but as I’ve seen many who spend a lifetime in Africa may have little effect on its development.  I am the first one to say, I’m not mistaking myself for a heroines trying to save Africa.  And here I come from the United States, and we are worse off than Africa!  YES, WORSE OFF THAN AFRICA!  Why? Because we don’t know our poverty.  As I told a friend, the United States is poorer than Africa; in Africa when you don’t have money, you don’t have money, while in America, when you don’t have money, you borrow and still buy.  Thus, if I was really a practical philanthropist, I would stay in America. But I am here.  Perhaps because of curiosity, adventure, entrepreneurship and now, a matter of the heart. 

I came back to Africa because I felt I had the tools and  knew too much to do nothing.  

(Check out my blog from the SU International Development Internship Program in Malawi last year here; and a summary of my Africa connections at the end of this entry for summary of Africa interest/efforts).




AFRICA START-UP MODEL

Muti, a Malawi accounting student, and one of the pioneers of the Africa Start-Up chapter at Malawi College of Accountancy, hit the essence of this new program and why it’s needed:  “Everyone wants to have a joyous life.  They want to see themselves enjoying. Having three meals a day. Getting their children to school… I like the Africa Start-Up [program] because it will help Malawians, the people in our communities, to realize and to get to know the better ways of planning their business, budgeting, and seeing their business to be a successful one.”

That's the essence. 

Here's a video, and the short on details.

WHO (it impacts):

1.      Small Business Owners and their dependants (Africa)
2.      Business School Students (Africa and US) – local students in Africa partnered with the US advancing their professional development through civic duty and cultural exchange - Pilot: Seattle University and the Malawi College of Accountancy
3.      Local economic development programs (Africa) – organizations that provide other tools for people to start small businesses, but lack the education curriculum or infrastructure.


WHO (are we):

The core Africa Start-Up team launching the program in Malawi is…

Sarah Bee – Accounting Professor at Seattle University
Sharon Maggard – Planning Manager for Grubb & Ellis in Bellevue, and previously lead work with Catholic Relief services in Armenia and Macedonia
John Hirsh – Accounting graduate student at Seattle University, Africa Start-Up rep at Seattle University
Me, Christina Davis –  Founder  of Africa Start-Up; work at Google full-time


WHAT: Basic business education. Four classes at 2 hours each taught by local university students.

Class #1 – Success, Goals, Planning, Business Needs, Market Research, Marketing
Class #2 – Sales, Expenses, Budgeting, Keeping personal and business budgets separate
Class #3 – Record Keeping, Ethics, Saving
Class #4 – Basic Business Plan and Case Studies

HOW: Of course we have metrics to grade the success of our training and the impact its making, but our over-arching objective is to measure how well we’ve helped small business owners achieve his or her business goals and been able to provide more for those they. 


WHY: I created Africa Start-Up to provide direction and tools to some in the 85% of Malawian population who are unemployed.  Building a small business is more than a spirit of entrepreneurship.  It's survival.  We're starting in Malawi, with the government institution - Malawi College of Accountancy - due to the developed relationships and infrastructure I built during my internship here last year, but we hope to eventually expand throughout Africa. Like many areas of Africa, most of Malawi is lives on less than $200/year.  Yet, many “average” people girdle enough tenacity to go against the vicious cycle.  This program aims to provide these people with tools to help thiem mprove their lives by their own efforts. 

Funding: Awarded the $20,000 William Simon Fellowship, and additional funds from the accounting department and mission fund at Seattle University.

 

PASSING THE PRESIDENT

For anyone wondering the flight pattern – leaving from San Fransisco, US, I flew to JFK in New York (5 hours) and took a strait flight to Jo-berg, South Africa (16 hours), and up to Lilongwe, Malawi (3 hours).   Loading on the last flight to Lilongwe, I passed a man in the last aisle of first class who was getting a lot of attention from the traveling Malawians.  I smiled and he acknowledged me with a blank look.   Turns out it was the President of Malawi – Bingu Wa Mutharika. At first I wondered about the cold look, but after talking with other international workers, it’s making sense.  Five months ago he made a speech sliding the work of international aid in Malawi.  One reporter quotes him saying, “I am tired. This country is not run by you donors or the newspapers in this country. This country is run by me”.  He believes international aid is crippling Malawi’s ability to develop.  He wants Malawi to be an example nation with a Cinderella story; pulling itself up by its own bootstraps.  I fully agree.  To him, I’m another person coming into his country to fix his problems – and he’d like the power to fix those himself.  But perhaps the cold look came from the fact that the statistics of Malawi are so bad, he has no choice but keep the floodgates open.  As I mentioned, Malawi is the sixth poorest country in the world, and the lowest rank on education (World Bank 2009).   Overseas aid is equivalent to about 20% of Malawi’s economy. More than half of its children aged under five were suffering from malnutrition in 2008. (World Bank’s 2008 Little Data Book on Africa.)  It’s overwhelming.  But that’s why I like this program.  It simply gives Malawians a model for transferring know-how. 

…But still, I hope to be a tourist, not on a development worker, if I re-live passing the President. 


LEARNING TO WALK

Imagine trying to start a company (a self-sustainable one) in three weeks by four people.  It’s not a big company (yet), but you have constant power outages, spotty Internet, and your customers speak a different language.  That’s like launching Africa Start-Up.

Friday and Saturday night my team worked to get me up to speed, and Sunday was a 20-hour marathon finalizing the curriculum.  I was so excited to see my team, but their previous week was noticeably rough.  Unlike most business school programs in the US, the student-trainers we’re working with at the Malawi College of Accountancy have never given class presentations.  However, most are very familiar with the challenges of a local business owner, and they know what principals are needed to see businesses grow.   Sarah and John worked with the students for nine days.  I caught the last three days and saw how the blood, sweat and tears paid off.  By Monday, these students owned the material.  Our baby was starting to walk… 



CLASS #1 – Success, Goals, Plan

Tuesday was game-day.  Twenty business owners from the Malawi Congress of Trade Union, Com Sip (a World Bank program) make up the first Africa Start-Up cohort.  And here are the All-Star student trainers…

-          Muti (pictured and quoted above)
-          Sam
-          Sisha
-          Anthony
-          Maggie
-          Eddington

Muti and Sam delivered the first training covering the foundation of the program – a discussion of business success, making goals and planning to achieve those goals.  Off to a great start!



CLASS #2 – What’s a “budget”?

While many haven’t ever heard of a “budget,” even more aloof is the concept of making one for a small enterprise.  Why would you need to forecast sales and expenses when you’re selling eggs or tomatoes?  But it’s even more vital!  Miss managing a coin and making a foolish buy can tank the business all the same.  Sesha presented the portion on a business budget and wowed us all. He is also a business owner and runs a small restaurant outside the college.  He applied his personal experience and story-telling to build relevant examples and answer tough participant questions.  Looking forward to telling you more about it soon.

THANKS

It’s taken so long for me to write an entry – well, because of many factors like internet and power – but greatly because I’m trying to give as much time to my team (who arrived in Malawi a week before me) in establishing the program to be self-sustainable after next week.  Sharon, Sarah and John – YOU ROCK!  This last section is for you…and a short mention of some things I know you’ve been experiencing while in Malawi:

-          Longing for paper towels.
-          Enjoying blood-orange sunsets
-          Smiles from people with really white teeth
-          Admiring five-story ramps used in construction projects
-          Carbs, carbs, carbs
-          Coke in glass bottles
-          Nescafe
-          Evening Pinochle + Carlesberg
-          Warm Jesuits
-          Flat tires
-          No Internet
-          Loose schedules
-          Talented students
-          Parasites – John still taking meds due to a Parasite eating away at his stomach lining.  One of my scariest experiences ever while in Africa.
-          Training the youth who will really make a difference – the most rewarding experience…
-          Candle-light dinners – due to power outage, but still very romantic.


Thanks for viewing my first entry.  You've made it to The End.  I'd love to hear from you so drop a comment if you can!



Appendix:
BACKGROUND reading on my involvement in Africa…
-          5th GRADE: Started pen palling with Elizabeth Nijiri in Nirobe, Kenya (my family sponsored her through World Vision; also my age).  Africa started to feel not so far away.
-          11th GRADE: Learned about the death spell of Malaria to African children.  Connected with LifeNets International programs in Malawi which provide mosquito nets.  Raised $5,000 to buy 2,000 mosquito nets in Balaka, Malawi.  The chief sent me a letter indicating there was zero deaths in the village that year.  (motivation)
-          FROSH IN COLLEGE: Taught swimming and ultimate Frisbee at summer camp in Kenya.
-          JUNIOR: Interned for LifeNets in Lilongwe, Malawi as part of Seattle University’s International Development Internship Program and taught business training after two months of research on education/employment infrastructure. Blog here.  Returned with an empty stomach to do more.
-          SENIOR: Won the $20,000 William Simon Fellowship for Nobel Purpose by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute 

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