Charity Works Updates

Back home in gloomy Belgium since a few days now, I still wanted to fill you in on my last days in Suriname. On Monday I took the trip up to the Brownsberg Nature Park along with a group of Dutch tourists. After a two hour drive on the “highway” we reached the final leg of the journey: a 13 kilometer stretch of unpaved red savanna road scaling the 500 meter hill through the jungle. It was the bumpiest ride of my life – and I’m no dirt road virgin either!

We got there at noon and were immediately treated to the striking panorama of the Brokopondo Reservoir, a huge lake formed when the Afobaka Dam was constructed in the sixties. It covers nearly 1% of the entire country and was built to power the energy-hungry proces of turning the natural bauxite reserves into aluminum. At the other side of the hill we could peak through the canopy and get a good look at the other natural resource of Surname: gold. Either at large-scale mines in the hands of multinational conglomerates, or in the shape of impromptu illegal hotspots from small bands of gold diggers, leaving a trail of mud slush contaminated by mercury.

The goal for our trek trough the jungle were the waterfalls that line the edges of the Brownsberg. Along the way our guide Patrick informed us about the many different species of wood and their specific uses: medicinal bark, floorboard trees, wood to make boats, resonating trunks that were used for primitive communication, etcetera. After hiking for about two hours we reached the Irene falls. At the end of the dry season the stream was reduced to a bare minimum, but it was enough for a refreshing shower before we commenced the sweaty climb back. At one point I heard the leaves rustling excessively in the distance and that usually means there’s monkeys around. Sure enough, they came closer and we got a good look at a pack of beautiful red howler monkeys. They usually only call at dawn and dusk, so they were quiet, but seeing them dashing through the treetops was a sight to behold.

The next day was already my last one on Surinamese soil. I cycled to the GHFS headquarters to give one more demo of the app I’m making, to shoot a few more sloth pictures and to say my final goodbyes. Though the app isn’t entirely finished as I mentioned before, I got the feeling we’re all very happy with the result, and we’re looking forward to the final release soon. Of course I’ll keep you up to date on the last straw of this whole project.

Looking back, I’d say this project was a very insightful, challenging and fascinating experience. I definitely learned a lot, and got to know a country and some of its people from a rather distinct perspective. I’d like to take this moment to thank and salute some of those individuals. First up, of course, is Monique and her fantastic team of staff and volunteers: Yvonne, Rischmie, Holly, Carola, Stellar, Jonathan, Joke and countless others; Jan-Willem (my friendly helpful neighbor); Leen, Tomas, Sarah & Bruce (my generous hosts for the first few days); Sebpe & Nadine, Stefaan & Sofie (fellow Belgians and good company); Bryan (my excellent cab driver); and many, many others…

I’ve been in Paramaribo for three weeks now, and though I can hardly claim I know the city, here are some random impressions from my time here.

Paramaribo, the capital and only large city of Suriname, has around a quarter million inhabitants, about the same as my hometown of Ghent. An equal amount of people is spread out across the rest of the country, so a bit more than half a million in total for a country five times the size of Belgium. The population is a truly kaleidoscopic mix of immigrants: Creoles of African descent; Hindustani’s from India; Maroons or Marrons in Dutch, the descendants of escaped African slaves; Javanese of Indonesian descent; several generations of Chinese migrants, Libanese, Dutch, and more. The indigenous folk are a very small minority here. This heterogenous lineage is apparent throughout the city, with mosques, synagogues, catholic churches and Hindu temples all within a stone’s throw. Most people speak Dutch – with varying degrees of comprehensibility however – although you hear lots of Sranan Tongo, an English-based Creole language, and Chinese as well.

This mixed bag of ethnicities is clearly reflected in the culinary offerings as well. I’ve been tasting bara, roti, bojo, cassave soup, bami and other delectable dishes. There’s lots of takeaway food restaurants, and vegetarians usually don’t have a hard time here. And they sure love spicy food! You’re often asked if you want “peper” with your dish, which are chopped hot peppers, but usually it’s strong enough without.

They say you can’t walk a 100 meters in Paramaribo without running into a Chinese supermarket, and from what I can gauge that’s not an exaggeration. They are everywhere! They sell a lot of Chinese products too, although Dutch peanut butter lovers are amply served. I was a little disappointed by the limited range of fruits and vegetables though. Sure, you can easily find melons, mangos and plantains at the roadside stands, but I expected a little more from a tropical country. One of the reasons is that agricultural food production is fairly limited in Suriname – there’s not that much farming and the best produce is exported.

Getting around in Paramaribo is a bit of a challenge. Outside the small center there are very few high-rise apartments – most people live in single-family detached homes. Because of this residential approach, the distances are substantial. Combine that with the brutal sun and tropical downpours, and you might understand why most people prefer cars. There are plenty of diesel-guzzling buses too, but they don’t have regular schedules or even established routes. As a result the traffic is a hot mess. There are few traffic lights, and in case of doubt the one who honks most gets the priority. Bike lanes don’t exist, potholes are everywhere and sidewalks are often utterly neglected or lined edge to edge by (double-)parked cars. Don’t expect anyone to halt when you’re waiting by a crosswalk. I’ve encountered plenty of near-misses and cutoffs both on foot and riding my rental bike through the gas fumes. On the old colonial waterfront you can find a handful of calm and quiet spots though, with beautiful protected wooden buildings inspired by the Louisiana architecture style.

Reading these updates you might assume I’m on a holiday, but I am spending most of my days here working, so let’s give you an update on that front. Like I wrote before, I’m making a hybrid app that will present most of the content from the website in a neat package on mobile devices. Nothing earth-shattering, but I’m aiming for a simple, achievable goal rather than a groundbreaking product that takes an entire team 3 months to build. I have 16 work days, and I’m just a single guy. The point is to have a lean little app that keeps people up to date, and that provides an additional source of funding. It will look something like this.

I’m a designer first and foremost, though I’m always keeping an eye open on what’s happening on the technical front. I can mostly follow along with what’s happening in code, but I’m no developer though. I gave up that idea about ten years ago. Which means that this project is really bringing me to the edge of my comfort zone. Usually I can google and deduce my way through most obstacles – thank whatever god(s) you believe in for the wonderful thing called the internet. But every now and then it’s extremely convenient to have a proper developer in the same (virtual) room, working his magic in a fraction of the time I would have needed. I miss that person here.

What’s also become very apparent is the almost hostile tech environment. If you gradually grow into it, you can probably progress along nicely, but some days I’m really lost in a seemingly endless maze of breaking dependencies, outdated tutorials, obscure interfaces, cryptic Stack Overflow posts, and incomplete, sloppy or contradicting documentation. In all likelihood it’s not an inherent problem of the tech sphere, but there are so many assumptions and expectations sometimes it’s maddening. I reckon it’s a somewhat similar experience when a developer opens up Photoshop or Sketch for the first time. That noob feeling.

The effects of a flaky, slow internet connection are so much greater than just bad download speeds. Such a workflow killer.

— Lennart Schoors (@lensco) October 26, 2015

What’s not helping indeed is the unstable internet connection. This morning I updated my phone to the latest OS version without realizing I would have to upgrade Xcode (the development app) too as a consequence. Turns out that update weighs in at 2 GB – nothing to really break a sweat at back in speedy broadband country, but here it meant I had to look for something else on my to do list today. It took 7 hours by the way.

Lots of stuff to talk about since my last update, but let’s start with today, the annual Green Heritage Fund Suriname volunteer day. GHFS runs on the goodwill of several dozens of individuals, helping out whenever and wherever they can. Some come in for just two hours every week to help prepare the animals’ food, others are interns for a couple of weeks or months, and a few almost make a full-time job out of it. It was a special edition volunteer day as well this year, celebrating 10 years of GHFS!

A few of us went birdwatching first however. Waking up at 5 AM isn’t my regular Sunday routine, but it definitely was worth it. It’s still pitch black at that time, but by the time we arrived at the Leonsberg jetty to embark, the sun rose in a glorious colorful spectacle. We went up the Commewijne river, but not before saying hi to the dolphins. At this hour of the day they were super active, jumping and corkscrewing out of the tranquil waters a couple of times!

About 45 minutes later we docked the boat at Katwijk, one of the numerous old colonial plantations, although they’re still harvesting coffee on this particular one. As part of the Guyana shield, right above the Amazon region, Suriname boasts a whopping range of avian fauna. I don’t think we saw any “rare” species, but the sights and sounds were none the less impressive: oropendolas, caciques, a peregrine falcon, crab-hawks, vultures, hummingbirds, cuckoos, tanagers, anis, jacanas, donacobius and a few other crazy bird names. Also: a telescope is way cool when birdwatching.

Yesterday was a very ambivalent day at the GHFS headquarters. When I came in at 8:30 the mood was very depressed as we learned that Haganah, a six week old baby three-toed sloth, was in dire straits. Young sloths in captivity have a very high mortality rate, as it’s very hard to feed and nurture them well. Sloth recovery centers across Middle and South America share their data and knowledge, but still, much remains to be discovered about the specifics of raising this species. On my very first day at work here, I fed Haganah some goat milk too, and while she had been eating rather well, she didn’t develop like sloths should in their first weeks. She barely gained weight and was severely weakened. That morning she was barely capable of holding on to something, and a stethoscope checkup proved our worst fears: she was slipping away. A few hours later, her heart stopped beating.

When you’re dealing with sheltering sick, orphaned and dislocated animals, this is the reality of the day of course, but it was still a blow to the team. In the mean time however, no less than five sloths were collected in the past few days, and they desperately needed to be set free. 4 three-toed sloths, the spotted ones with the long necks and front limbs, and 1 of the two-toed kind, the larger species with longer fur and a big nose. No need to keep them around for more than a few days. We loaded the cages in the trunk and headed for the forest.

We released them about an hour outside of Paramaribo on the immense lands of Betty, a lovely old lady. It was only afterwards when we went inside for a drink and she started recounting one of her countless stories that I learned about her fascinating past. She was a rector for the Surinamese university in the 70’s and published influential papers and books on the subject of democracy and human rights in the Caribbean region. As such, she had to flee to the US in 1982 when a military coup swept through the country and several academics and other critics were assassinated – remembered as the December murders.

5 days into my visit to Suriname, I’m writing this from my new apartment. The couch surfing was fine, but I’m also glad I don’t have to sleep on a sofa in a living room anymore. I now have my own place with an airconditioned bedroom, a desk and a kitchenette, and it’s also a lot closer to the Green Heritage Fund HQ. I love walking around in cities, but the 65-minute commute in the blistering sun was just brutal. So I thank Leen, Tomas, Sarah and Bruce for their generous hospitality, and I’ll see them again this weekend for a visit to an organic farm nearby.

I’m also 4 days into my job here at GHFS – although I did spend more than half of tuesday spotting dolphins! When a group of World Vets came by for a visit, Monique asked me if I wanted to join them for the rest of the day. There’s a group of Guyana dolphins at the confluence of the Commewijne and the Suriname river right next to Paramaribo, and they’re easy to find on a boat trip. The dolphin tours and research are one of the main programs of GHFS. There’s work to be done, but I couldn’t say no of course. On a brief stop at the Rust en Werk Plantage afterwards we got to hold this little baby cayman.

The main focus at GHFS are the Xenarthra though, the order of animals that includes the sloths, armadillos and anteaters. With the city of Paramaribo in constant expanse, sloths in particular are often found when new construction sites are being cleared. They’re occasionally kept as pets too, a particularly bad idea as these are wild animals that require a very specific habitat and diet. Some people even cut the characteristic nails, which is basically the same as chopping off the fingers of a human – they’re essential parts of a sloth’s limbs.

So regularly the phone rings and a team of two heads out to pick up another sloth, both the two- and three-fingered species. The animals are sheltered for a few days, and if they are in good shape, released into the wild, far away from the city. Some need longer care though – growing back the nails to their full length can take up to two years! In the past 10 years of their existence, Green Heritage Fund Suriname has sheltered about 600 sloths - a phenomenal effort.

It took a while for us to decide on my particular job here, but we’ve settled on making a mobile app to keep people up to date of the GHFS activities, and provide another source of sorely needed funds. They have just unveiled a brand new website, and rather than set up a whole new product or feature, thereby dividing the already limited resources, I’ve decided to repackage the content from their website in a shell better suited for mobile consumption.

Like a hair dryer on a hot summer day, the heat hit me when I emerged from the airconditioned aircraft. The two flights were altogether uneventful, but sitting still in a metal tube for more than 9 hours isn’t exactly my idea of fun. Waiting in line at border control for another two hours, and in a traffic jam for another 50 minutes did not help either. I was inside though when that tropical thunderstorm I saw forming from the window of the descending plane broke loose and flooded the airstrip.

My friendly taxi driver Brian brought me safely to my destination for what I later heard to be an unbeatable fare. Right after I told him the reason for my visit to Suriname, a news item on the radio spoke about the Green Heritage Fund. We turned up the volume and heard an interview with Monique Pool, the founder of the organization I’m here for. Turns out she’s just been selected as one of the ten finalists of CNN Heroes, a yearly search for the most remarkable individuals whose passion to help others has changed the world. What a coincidence. If you’re so inclined, you can vote for her on the CNN Heroes website.

It took quite a bit longer than anticipated, but now the flights are booked I can officially say that I’m heading to the northeast of South America! The people at Green Heritage Fund Suriname (GHFS) have been working on improving and protecting the rich fauna and flora in the country for 10 years now.

Suriname is known for its remarkable biodiversity and the pristine Amazonian rain forests. The GHFS is running several different projects, but currently they’re constructing a new rehabilitation center for sloths. I'm going to help them with several initiatives to fund it!

Just a quick note that submissions are now closed. It was hard to reach the right people, but in the end I did receive a few really nice submissions. A genuine thank you to everyone who put in the time and effort.

Got a couple of really nice submissions for #CharityWorks so far, from Suriname, Nepal, Uganda and Belgium of course. I'm stoked!

— Lennart Schoors (@lensco) September 14, 2015

From the start I knew it wouldn’t be easy reaching the right people with Charity Works. If I want submissions from people directly involved with nonprofits, I need to reach much further than the immediate tech/design circles.

A full week after launching, now is perhaps a good moment to take a look at the numbers so far. After 72 Facebook shares, 55 tweets and a bunch of retweets, about 800 visitors have dropped by. Starting with a typical steeply sloped curve, quickly descending to minimal levels. The geographical spread is quite nice, though mostly originating in Belgium and the USA.

This is not enough. Ultimately, I need just one really interesting submission, but I’ll have to aim at a much larger audience in order to get those applications in. I’ll need the media.

I’ve hesitated addressing local newspapers and radio stations for a couple of reasons. For starters, I want this to be an international endeavour, not just an adventure in my backyard. Secondly, I’ve been searching for a good angle to “sell” this story to media – is it remarkable in and of itself? And finally, I’m hesitant about pushing a press release out to impersonal mailboxes that are already permanently flooded. I’ve already emailed a couple of publications and organizations where I got zero response. You need to know someone on the inside.

The feedback I got so far has been overwhelmingly positive though, so the potential is there. There’s no real deadline set in stone, but time is running. So I’m calling upon your help. Do you know someone who can help this project reach across boundaries? Where do nonprofits go for a chat? Maybe you know the perfect nonprofit organization for this project? Let’s get the story out there!