#strathu

Through out the course: As the days went by, we were finishing one workshop after the other and working with the class on different activities and lessons. The participants started to look deeper and more critically into their ideas and businesses through the business model canvas. They also had to complete market surveys and researches. We were then able to understand their prospects better and that helped us to become more effective in helping them. I particularly enjoyed delivering the finance topics and lessons. Most of the Kenyan participants, especially the current business owners, knew they had to do more bookkeeping and to keep track of their financials in order to borrow money and grow, so they were keen on the finance parts of the course. Throughout this part though, we noticed a significant drop in people’s momentum, and I started to wonder how would the course end in relevance to our expectations.

The End – Regroup & Adapt: The last few days of the course were exciting and challenging at the same time. We got to the part where the participants were supposed to write their business plans, and we were very excited to read through the executive summaries and see how our work has helped them thus far.

I have to admit though, reading through the first few executive summaries made us realize that the expectations we had were not exactly met by each of the participants. That said, we had to go home, regroup, and figure out the best way to help everyone as much as we could. 

What we ended up doing was to split our class into two main groups. The first group had participants that either had existing businesses that they wanted to improve, or ones that had very solid, implementable plans. The second group consisted of participants that had ideas that required some market research and significant improvements. Iain Verigin took over the second group were he essentially led it through a similar approach to what he does in Lean LaunchPad. The participants had to leave our location during the day and complete different researches related to their business ideas. For instance, one of Philip’s objectives was to visit the leading DVD store in Mathare, and to find out the services they provide (Philip wants to start his own DVD store). The rest of us worked with the first group, where we helped them to design a plan for their new expansion ideas, and to help them put together financial models that incorporated the details of their required loan and the financial forecasts as a result of the cash infusion.

The end result was amazing!

Each participant had to present three main topics on the last day: the business model canvas, a financial plan summary, and timeline of their plans as entrepreneurs for the next 12 months. This would summarize the work they have done in the last few days through the stuff they have learned through out the whole month. They all did very well in their presentations, and all of them had clear plans of what they should do in order to get to their goal of starting their own successful businesses.

The Final Result: Though not everyone had a full business plan towards the end, the participants certainly walked out with three things. Firstly, the knowledge of what they should do, and what to find out in order to start a business that will have decent chances of success. Secondly, a timeline plan that includes the consecutive milestones backed up by financial data that will help them to get where they want to be in a year. And finally, an overall increase in their business acumen as entrepreneurs. Carol told me that she’s finally able to make estimates and keep records of her financial performance. Kennedy explained how the market research he had to do throughout the course made this course unique in its practical approach. 

SSE was truly an enriching experience on multiple levels. My entrepreneurship and business knowledge was greatly influenced by this trip and by the number of people we worked with. That includes our UBC team, the Strathmore students, and the Kenyan entrepreneurs. Apart from work, a blog post can’t describe the beauty of the places we saw and the good times we had in Kenya. Maasai Mara was beyond fascinating. The rest of Kenya was nothing short of breathtaking. And the locals were nice and friendly. Their smiles will not be forgotten and hopefully we’ll get to see them again soon!

The Students...

I got the pleasure of meeting amazing and extremely hardworking students. They all had different businesses and business ideas and were eager to learn how to make their ideas a successful reality. During the course of the program I truly enjoyed listening to each one of their stories, jokes and backgrounds. I admired their hard work and it was all very rewarding to see them understanding the various concepts we had taught them. My favourite teaching moment was when some of the students would jump in to help me explain a concept to another student. To me, this was the magic of the classroom, because I got to see how they understood the concept in their own way, and as a result, I also got to learn from them.

To add onto this, recently I had a student in my class challenge me as to why I did not have a business idea of my own. To be honest, at first I was taken aback by his question and I didn’t know how to answer him, but when I really thought about it, he was right. I promised him I would get back to him in due time with an idea, and so now this is the next thing on my agenda.

Thank you Mathare for showing me another side of life and more importantly another way to look at life. Despite having lived in Kenya for virtually all my life, I had never been to Mathare. This experience has truly made me appreciate all the blessings we have in life, even the little ones. As much as it sounds like a cliche, it’s true. Being in Mathare for the past few weeks, has shown me what optimism is like, the value of family and friends that care about you, and basically just the joy of waking up to live another day. This was truly an experience to last a lifetime.

The first day was a bit difficult especially for team Kibera because we had very few people who were actually willing to go forth with the program. However, as days went by these students really surprised us. They were hard workers, always asking questions on how to improve on their business skills. Majority of them essentially already had a plan of what they intended to take up as their business plan. The best thing was they all wanted to be self-employed!! This is something that majority of Kenyans are being encouraged to do because of the high unemployment rate. Many Kenyans usually wait to be employed especially by the government but it is really encouraging to see many people willing to start–up their own businesses.

Personally I was challenged by two students who did stuff that I could not possibly do. One student joined the program almost two weeks late but somehow he managed to do all the assignments he missed as well as catch up with all the work done in class in such a perfect way. I was so surprised how he did it that there was no way we could have said no to him graduating today. He personally came to me today just say thank you for the chance given to him to graduate.

The other student was also one of the most hardworking students we had and I say so because he always completed his assignments really well and he always asked questions where he did not understand. He has a family and he does a nightshift as a guard yet every early morning he showed up with all his work well done. I simply could not understand how he managed to do it so well. He wants to start a small hotel within Kibera and honestly speaking given his discipline, hard work and ambition in a few months he will be able to start his own business.

Yesterday was an exciting day for all our students, you could easily tell that they could not wait for it to start. Some where all dressed up for their big day. To some it may have been a casual day but to some it meant change in their lives. It meant that they had a small credential showing that they did something worth their time. They all enjoyed most of being presented with their certificates. They really felt proud of themselves as we did. It was really fun playing soccer with them as well as dancing with them. It was really a day to just sit back and enjoy the hard work we all put in.

I am very hopeful that each one of our students will be able to achieve their desired business plan and even if they do not do so immediately, they will not give up but instead push on and do much better in the future.

I now have the chance to reflect on the program and wonder whether or not we’ve really made an impact on the community. I believe we did. When the students came into class on the first day, they were eager to learn.  They had dreams of changing their lives and those of the people in their community. As is always the case, we had a few dropouts, but the ones that hang on have earned my eternal admiration. It wasn’t a smooth ride for them. They struggled with a couple of workshops, but they give it their best and worked on them until they understood them. I can’t wait to see their happy faces tomorrow. I wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

As for the teachers, I’ve had the delightful pleasure to work with an excellent team at Mathare Big. Fran was more or less our team leader. Her lesson plans and emails kept us on track. Katie’s amazing artwork and dedication made this whole program a lot more lively and fun. Cici’s hard work was more than invaluable; she got us through the hardest workshops. Mary was our class translator. She made it easier for the students to grasp the difficult concepts; she also kept jacking all the candy. Then there was Rosemary, who made it her mission to help guys finish their homework every day before class started; I wish more of grade school teachers were like her. And finally Luke, who for some reason was always happy. Check out the pictures, you’ll see him smiling in every single one. Thanks guys, I really enjoyed working with you.

A much more serious and worrisome example is the difference in efficiency. I will point out that I am not one to be extremely patient, that being said Kenya is simply not efficient. In every area, besides perhaps using M-Pesa (look it up), Kenya lags behind. Whether it be customer service, food, roads, public transport, or business: it takes a long time (“African Time” as commonly referred). Although this is the topic of many jokes; looked at critically, it is troublesome because in most respects Kenya is chasing the developed world. There does not seem to be the same quick service one expects and receives in Canada. Back home, if someone wants a quick bite to eat, there are fifty places they could select that will have food ready within five minutes, however in Nairobi even the food court takes approximately fifteen minutes. Put bluntly, unless the efficiency improves, I cannot see how Kenya will be able to catch up; although I really hope they do.

One thing I want to make clear is that this is not a rant about how Canada is good and Kenya is bad. In fact, I think most, if not all, Canadians could learn many things from visiting Kenya. For example, working with people every day whom have grown up and still live in some of the worst slums in the world has made such an impact on my life. The thing that hits me the hardest is that everyone is so happy. You would never guess that some of these individuals live in a 400 square foot house with seven other people, tasked to find the funds to pay for food, rents, and perhaps electricity every day. Everyone that comes to class is focused, keen to learn, and determined to start their own business. And boy do some of these people have dreams. You would think that living in such poor conditions would suck all ambition out, but the reality is definitely the opposite. It is such a shame that many of our students cannot get proper schooling because they are damn smart.

Furthermore, I want to point out that there are so many misconceptions of how dangerous it is in “Africa” (saying a continent of 53 countries and over a billion people is dangerous is a complete blanket statement in itself, but I digress). At no point have I felt less safe walking here than in Vancouver and we have gone to some of the worst neighbourhoods in Nairobi. Just like anywhere else in the world, one takes necessary precautious at night and in certain areas. It saddens me that people have such misguided views about the safety in Africa. In my opinion, this is due to the Western media who generally do not care about what occurs in Africa unless there is a terrorist attack, mass killing, or an epidemic. People in North America are brought up to fear Africa through the media’s portrayal but what one fails to recognize is the amount of violence and danger we face every day back home. I would be more afraid to spend time in an American High School than spending the same amount of time in Nairobi.

Finally, people here in general are much more friendly and outgoing than Canadians; the Kenyan culture is vibrant, colourful, and loving. All in all, we Canadians could learn a thing or two, sorry.

Starhmore students have been a great team too. Those who participated in the program last year have been a big help when we have encountered challenges along the way. The two teams have come together and demonstrated a strong sense of teamwork. This program has not only made me confident to stand in front  of people and teach, but it has also been a great learning process.  I have learned so much, some of which I can apply in the future when I want to open my own business.

Teaching has been fun and I have enjoyed listening to my students and helping them with their business plans. Team work among the students is awesome because they help each other out. They interact with one another in group discussions to better understand concepts and make their work easier.

Being in Mathare has made me appreciate life more and has even given me motivation to start a business of my own in the near future. This program has been a blessing and I hope to teach again next year!

Children in Mathare

Enjoyable Day at iHub We visited IHub today which is a technology community with an open space for the technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in Kenya. Professor Iain who is in our team gave a wonderful presentation in IHub about how to improve communication skills for technological entrepreneurs. He talked about the approaches for engineers to work in start-up business and what UBC has been done for developing social entrepreneurship on campus. It’s amazing that UBC has lots of courses and resources which helps students improve their networking abilities especially engineering or science students whose future jobs are related to business but lack of communicating skills. And it’s also a good insight for me that communication is a big part in the workplace and how we reach our customers through appropriate ways.