2014 Living Smile Annual Report

Living Smile Annual Report 2014 — livingsmile.org

2014 Annual Report prepared by: Christopher Lowman, Executive Director

Summary

We witnessed some remarkable results in 2014 with the communities Living Smile supports in India and Kenya:

✴ Launch of the Malezi Centre and School in Nairobi. A self-sustaining primary school that provides basic education to 108 (and growing) children living in the Kituii Ndogo slum, one of the city’s harshest. The building also serves as a community centre, where members of the community can gather to design ways to improve their lives with the assistance of dedicated volunteers.

✴ Supporting and realizing a dream to pursue college education held by eight pioneering girls from our leprosy community in Ahmedabad, India who are challenging cultural custom and their financial limitations to do so. Currently, three of the eight are enrolled in their first year of college.

✴ Construction of five, “Fresh Life” eco-toilets for Malezi, which gives the children of the school a dignified and safe option for going to the bathroom, where there was none before. The toilets will also be an additional source of income for the centre, as they will not be free for members of the community.

✴ Forming of the Malezi Parents Initiative (MPI), which is a group of parents involved in petty crime and prostitution who, with the assistance of centre volunteers, have banded together to start a small caking business to overcome their poverty issues.

✴ Educational sponsorship of 12 orphan children from Kisii, an impoverished farming village outside of Nairobi. The sponsorship will allow these students to take the final national exam, which if passed, could lead to college education.



Malezi Centre and School

Malezi Centre and School: A platform for community transformation

“Despite decades of commitments made, 57 million primary school-aged children were out of school in 2011. Only 36% of boys and 30% of girls, respectively, are enrolled in secondary school in the least developed countries.” 1

— UNICEF State of the World’s Children Report 2014

Launching the Malezi (trans. “nurture”) Centre and School was the most ambitious Living Smile project undertaken to date. After an 11+ month grassroots fundraising journey in 2013, we collected the $20,000 needed to build the centre and opened its doors for service to much excitement on the 28th of January. Malezi offers basic, affordable education to 108 (with space for 200) children living in the Kituii Ndogo slum in Nairobi, Kenya—one of the harshest, most neglected slums in the city where most residents survive on less than $2.50/day and live in abominable conditions. It is the first school to ever be built in this community and the first time in the community’s 50-year history that the children will be able to receive education because of the centre’s unique self-sustaining feature, which enables it not to rely on school fees as the primary source of livelihood. Malezi also, importantly, functions as a platform for positive change in the community. The structure, with its vibrant artwork, is starkly contrasted against a dreary slum environment and exudes an aura of positivity and hope. It is an oasis-like space where community members can gather, share, and work towards bettering their lives. Already we have seen evidence of this with the Malezi Parents Initiative, a group of single mothers mostly, who have joined together to start a small business in an attempt to work themselves out of poverty.

http://www.unicef.org/sowc2014/numbers/1


http://www.unicef.org/sowc2014/numbers/

Living Smile Annual Report 2014 — livingsmile.org A beaming student at the inauguration.

Living Smile Annual Report 2014 — livingsmile.org First Malezi pre-schoolers graduate.

Living Smile Annual Report 2014 — livingsmile.org Inside one of Malezi's classrooms.


Dream Class

Dream Class: A new path for girls in India

Those five girls from the Gandhi Leprosy Seva Sangh, the leprosy community in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India I lived and worked in for the past three years, are currently enrolled in their first year of college after successfully passing the final national exam. These are the first girls in the community’s 40+ year history to achieve this milestone, who have now paved the way for future generations to do the same. Four (Aruna, back/left, Gurubai, back/right, Gita front/center, Treveni, front/right) were active participants of the Dream Class program I facilitated, which specifically focused on supporting the dream of college education for eight, truly pioneering girls with backgrounds involving poverty (some of their parents are beggars) and lack of understanding from family and community members.

India has a serious set of cultural values that are not broken lightly or without consequence. The boldness of the girls’ decision can’t be emphasized enough, as it goes entirely against tradition that states girls do not pursue education but, instead, should become housewives. Thankfully, my relationship with the community had become so strong, we were able to successfully negotiate with somewhat reluctant family members and community leaders to let the girls do what they wanted to do. Over the course of three months, we met 2x/week, creating a solid group dynamic and a value system of commitment and hard work for seeing their dream through to completion. I helped connect the group to a number of inspiring individuals who are acting as mentors and found a local organization that agreed to sponsor all of the college fees. An additional four will be taking their final exam next year and, very likely, enrolling in college shortly thereafter. This could lead to employment opportunities and extra assistance for struggling families.


Living Smile Annual Report 2014 — livingsmile.org Dream Class participants.


Fresh Life Toilets

Fresh Life Toilets: Improving sanitation at the Malezi Centre

“Few problems affect so many in such a profound manner as poor sanitation. It is estimated that 2.5 billion people do not have access to a safe, functioning toilet.” 2

— Dr. Val Curtis, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

The sanitation issues and hazards in the Kitui Ndogo slum are extreme. The majority of the 50,000 residents dump waste in public spaces because there is no waste removal system. Toilets are not frequently used because the ones that exist are filthy and not free, which gives rise to open defecation and urination. Couple these issues with the significant amount of rain that Nairobi receives and you have meters upon meters of open sewers, and an environment where you literally have to step over human waste when walking around.

Children, arguably, are most affected by this problem. They, too, go to the bathroom out in the open and inevitably come in contact with various contaminants. With nutrient-deficient diets and immune systems unable to mount the proper defense, they often fall ill and many, regrettably, die. In fact, around 18,000 children die each day from poverty related issues, including sanitation and hygiene issues, according to the 2014 UNICEF Sate of the Children report previously cited.

Living Smile found a donor to purchase two new toilets for the Malezi Centre, which turned into five when our donation was matched and upped by a local Nairobi NGO. The toilets will give the children a dignified and safe solution for going to the bathroom, teach the importance of sanitation and hygiene values, and also add to the school’s bottom line, as the toilets will not be free to use for adults and other residents of the community.

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/takingcharge.html2


http://www.unilever.com/images/sd_Toilets-for%20Health-141113_tcm13-387337.pdf

Living Smile Annual Report 2014 — livingsmile.org Fresh Life toilets under construction.


Malezi Parents Initiative

Malezi Parents Initiative: Creating virtuous cycles of change

Living Smile likes to create sustainable interventions that foster virtuous cycles of change. The Malezi Centre, so far, has been an excellent demonstration of this approach. Since the initial investment of $20,000 used to build and launch the centre, not a penny has been donated since for monthly expenses. This is a result of having invested in a 10,000 liter water tank, which enables the school to sell clean water to the community for a profit. We also collect $3/month from each of the students who attends school, and soon the new toilets will be providing an additional revenue stream. In time, the centre will even have savings and be able to invest in its own growth. Last year, we received word that members of a criminal gang who had been involved with a previous Living Smile project, got inspired to give up crime and subsequently formed a community service group that has been earning income for sanitation efforts inside of the slum. These members also worked on the construction of the centre and have turned into Malezi volunteers and role models for the children. Most recently, the leadership team at Malezi whose operations have gone to a new level, given the professional structure and dedicated office space they now possess, reached out to a number of the students’ parents in an attempt to encourage them to improve their lies. Many parents are single mothers, desperately poor, get involved in prostitution, alcohol and drug use, and other such behaviors, which negatively impacts their children’s lives resulting in a continuation of the cycle of poverty. The eff ort resulted in the formation of a group of 26 parents who committed to saving up to start a cake baking business, which will enable them to earn enough income to meet their basic needs. To date, the group has saved $300 out of the $1,800 needed to launch. The members meet at the centre regularly and are a great example of how change is now coming from inside of the community on its own.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_of_poverty

Living Smile Annual Report 2014 — livingsmile.org Formers members of a criminal gang performing service.


Orphan Support

Orphan Support: Sponsoring education in rural Kenya

Kisii, Kenya is a farming village located about five hours outside of Nairobi. Like many other rural villages throughout the world, its residents live in extreme poverty. Challenges from climate change, decreasing plot sizes, stagnant earning wages, and increased cost of living all give rise to the poverty issues Kisii residents face. On average, a villager earns a little less than $1/day after performing hours of tedious manual labor and usually eats only once in a day (children too).

Due to the lack of available healthcare and the poverty, Kisii is home to an extraordinary number of orphan children. Many have lost parents due to illnesses that could have been treated, or from suicide resulting from the depression of having a difficult, seemingly hopeless life.

Th ough all the orphans have been adopted by guardian families, it is not guaranteed they are eating regularly, going to school, or sufficiently being looked after. Their challenges are truly heartbreaking and absent a large scale intervention, little can be done to fundamentally improve their circumstances.

Small-scale humanitarian initiatives, as ours, do help, albeit temporarily. In this case, working hand-in-hand with the government administration and a local school, we were able to sponsor the final national exam fees for 12 motivated students. This will enable them to take the exam required to go to college, which could potentially enable them to pursue their dreams of higher education.

In addition to distributing the scholarships, we provided a lunch of meat, rice, stew, and juice to 150 orphans ranging in age from babies to young adults. It was an inspirational community gathering and day of sharing.


Living Smile in 2015 2014 was a difficult year for me personally. It saw the death of my last living grandparent, which forced me, abruptly, to leave my field work in India late in May. It also, regrettably, saw the dissolution of my wedding engagement. The diffi culty of the year was not without its upside however. It gave me a valuable opportunity to pause and reflect about who I am and the work I want to be doing moving forward. It has become clear, at least, that I will not continue living and serving abroad, as I have been. Instead, I am going to be investing in myself and pursuing opportunities to create a more solid financial structure for my work, so as not to be as dependent on outside donations. For now, this will keep me based in the US. I will, of course, maintain contact with all of the communities I am currently working with and plan to visit them, briefly, in the first quarter of 2015. There are some loose ends to tie up in India and work to be done with the Dream Class girls to keep their momentum going. In Kenya, it will be good to visit the Malezi Centre, document some of the results, and further encourage the team. I also want to check in at the Brosis School, which did not receive much support from Living Smile this year and is in need of assistance. I have also been invited to speak at a yoga and spiritual center off the coast of Italy in Sardinia. Early in 2015, I am expecting to receive the final cut of a documentary film that was created by a filmmaker in Washington D.C. that tells the story of the Dream Class girls, which can be used for presentations and showcasing the Living Smile approach. A rough cut can be viewed on YouTube here. Over the past four years, we have created incredible results. I, also, have grown tremendously. Now, a solid core has been developed which I believe, with the right touch, can be presented in such a way as to generate higher level opportunities for further growth and impact. Such is my hope.

With thanks,

Living Smile Annual Report 2014 — livingsmile.orgChristopher Lowman Executive Director

Christopher

http://youtu.be/U-04jqRDNkk


About Living Smile

About Living Smile

“We can do no great things, only small things with great love.”— Mother Teresa

Living Smile likes to collaborate with NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and join with underserved communities to develop sustainable, needs-based initiatives that improve lives and living conditions.

Since 2009, Living Smile programs in Rwanda, India, and Kenya have positively impacted the lives of over 7,000 people and inspired many others throughout the world to live with greater kindness and regard for their communities.

Living Smile was founded by Christopher Lowman based on the understanding that we make a living by what we get and a life by what we give. You can find Living Smile online at www.livingsmile.org.


http://www.christopherlowman.com

http://www.livingsmile.org

Documents

2014 Living Smile Annual Report