Julian kicks off the year with SHE Full House

January 19, 2010
Kigali, Rwanda

Hey guys, sorry I have been quiet but that’s because I did not have anyone to SHE talk to over the break. That’s not going to happen again, as I started off with a ‘SHE full house’! So, with me now, is Fatima, who is already doing a great job at not only getting us up to google-everything speed, but also developing a new and improved Monitoring and Evaluation plan that we are ready to run with all around the country (see our planning picture below!) and yours faithfully-the founder, who flew in to wish me ‘Joy in the New-year’-I needed it. I guess with my SHE chair full, I will be ready to rock and roll!

















However, just to fill you in on what I have been up to: (Oh by the way , if you did not have your share of the ‘Health and Hygiene training’ in 2009, sorry because ‘I have gone commercial’, no more free lessons. Just kidding.)
So I have had the pleasure to not only Train 50 CHWs on ‘Health and Hygiene and business skills and inventory management’, but also been a guest speaker at ‘GLO Peace Camp' organized by the US Peace Corps, OTF ALCP entrepreneurship class for young and upcoming entrepreneurs, PSI Youth Centre staff (social marketing/health org), not to mention what will be in my next blog. Watch out for the 2010 action, I might as well be training H.E’s around the globe, you know we are dealing with a global issue right?
I will see you next week-- be sure to watch this space.

Julian, SHE Chief Operations Wizard

Taking a Page from Ferris

January 18, 2010
Kigali, Rwanda

SHE is the Vespa of social ventures—quick moving, gets the job done well, without the heavy price tag and baggage (oh, and we like to think we look good in baby blue too!). But sometimes when you have what seems like an unending list of things to do in what seems like so little time, we should take Ferris Bueller wise words to heart,

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.”

Who wouldn’t listen to Ferris? In fact, let’s take a look around right now. By the end of 2009, SHE has
• 50 new trainers trained in health + hygiene who have each committed to training 100 community members in health + hygiene, bringing us to 5,000 newly educated in the country of Rwanda
• 50 sole-proprietor distribution businesses up and running, equipped with simple business skills (e.g., inventory management, bookkeeping) who are selling sanitary pads at 15% less than the cheapest available option
• Patent-pending technology that takes locally available banana fibers and makes into absorbent material, creating jobs for hundreds of farmers, a promising sustainable manufacturing business, and product 35% less than cheapest available pads.

Here’s to looking around in 2010!

Elizabeth

Welcome to Rwanda, Fatima!

12:34 January 14, 2010
Kigali, Rwanda

Fatima Sabar, SHE's trailblazing Fellow, has arrived in Rwanda to make things happen. She's no stranger to SHE, having helped draft the hygiene curriculum used to train hundreds already in Rwanda. Following in the footsteps of the great Stanford dropouts like the Google founders, she's taking time off from school (don't worry Fatima's mom, she'll make graduation!) to bring ideas to life. Meet Fatima now!

Fatima

Muraho from Rwanda! Life is exciting here - I’m writing from Shirley’s inzu where across from me is Julian (SHE Operations Wizard) translating a community healthcare worker feedback from kinyarwanda to english in between answering calls to plan important meetings, and next to me is Elizabeth (SHE Chief Instigator) working on product development. What am I doing, you might ask, as my colleagues are hard at work? I, dearest SHE followers, am taking a break from redesigning a monitoring and evaluation system. Soon I’ll be out in the field talking with community health care workers (in the company of someone who can go between english and kinyarwanda, as my learn-10-words-each-day regimen has failed me in effective communication thus far) and meeting the women and girls who are learning about menstruation and general health and hygiene, and subsequently buying pads. Stay tuned!

Fatima

3-2-1 Launch!

29th October, 2009
Kigali, Rwanda



I was set for the first SHE health and business skill training for the group of 28 Community Health Workers. The first training session has people hailing from all parts of Rwanda, ready to equip themselves with the tools to educate and provide greater access to essential products to their peers. The training started at 10am with an introduction to menstrual health and hygiene and business management with a good exchange of ideas that ensued. People asked things such as, "Why do women and girls menstruate? What are the infections that happen when I use rags and how can I avoid it?"

Each of the Community Health Workers trained today will go back to their communities and train 100 others in the health and hygiene they learned today and set up their own small distribution businesses, earning a margin on every product sold. As two of the participants commented:


Moise says, "The training will help me improve my family’s welfare."

Claudine says "I learned about health and hygiene during menstruation, what can be done when it occurs and now I am going to pass it onto the rest of the communities."


Next training is coming up soon!

Julian, Chief Operations Wizard

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