It Takes a Village

A friend of ours, who works for a large, well-respected, international NGO, was on a site visit in a remote village in the Peruvian Andes.  

He received a warm welcome from what appeared to be the entire community.   After the customary shared meal, the village elders proudly displayed their brand new, gravity fed, fresh water and hygiene system.   However, when he opened the door of the exceptionally well crafted latrine, he found it to be entirely full. . . . of bags of corn and beans.   

It seems that the community never placed a high value on latrines, preferring instead to use their traditional means of disposal.  They did, however, need a dry space to store their produce, and were happy to go along with plans proposed by their foreign partners.    In the end, they got want they wanted, but at a far greater expense than was necessary.

Like many SVP Partners, Adrienne and I have traveled extensively, and while we consider our lives tremendously enriched by the quality and diversity of friends we have made, we have also been exposed to stunning hardships and inequities in the developing world.  For many years we wanted to include global development in our philanthropic portfolio, but we were daunted by stories like the one above – stories in which ideals were undercut by ineffective programs, communications challenges, regulatory hurdles, or corruption.

If one of the largest and most experienced international NGOs struggles to identify and fund effective programs, what hope do two “gringos” from Seattle have to make a real difference?  

How can we avoid the same mistakes others have made before us?  How do we identify best practices in small global grant making?  How do we measure progress?  Perhaps most importantly, how do we create an open, trusting, and authentic relationship with our partners in the developing world? 

These difficult questions kept us from fully engaging in global giving for a number of years.  Then, in 2004, when Adrienne and I decided to begin a family, medical issues led us down the path of adoption.    Given our interest in foreign culture, none of our friends or family were surprised when we chose to adopt from Guatemala.  Antonio is now a 6 year old kindergarten Harry Potter fan learning to read, and our youngest, Lorenzo, is a very happy, and rascally, 4 year old preschooler.

As we were completing our second adoption, it became increasingly clear that we would be amongst the last families allowed to adopt from Guatemala.     There are many reasons why new Guatemalan adoptions were “suspended” in 2007, some good and some bad.   However, what appeared to have been lost in the debate were the prospects for the thousands of children who would otherwise likely be adopted.

When inter-country adoptions in Guatemala were suspended, the legacy infrastructure of family-based foster care was effectively dismantled, in favor of larger, state certified orphanages.   Not only were we concerned with this approach for the health and well being of children, but it was widely acknowledged that the state had only a small fraction of the capacity required.   We came to fear that many of these kids would be abandoned.

This was our wake up call. 

We had no illusions about our ability to affect meaningful change in Guatemalan, US, or Hague policy, so we explored other ways to help.  We met with a variety of Guatemalan NGOs, including one that operates an after-school education program to support children living in the city dump.

 The Guatemala City dump is one of the largest in Central America.   Long before we arrived at the site we were overwhelmed by the stench.     As we got closer, we began to see homes built directly atop the landfill, and when we got out of the car, scores of children spilled out of these homes to greet us. 

“When does school open?” they asked.

All schools in Guatemala had been closed for two weeks, by government order.  I commented to our guide how encouraging it was to see that the children want to return to school, but he candidly corrected me.  

“Lunch.  They’re hungry, and we serve them lunch.” 

The more we dove in, the more we began to understand that the problem was much larger than the suspension of inter-country adoptions.  Extreme poverty, chronic malnutrition, and severely limited access to education leave many Guatemalan families without hope.   These conditions are the root causes of child abandonment, to which inter-country adoptions was a very small band aid.   

These early site visits, combined with our domestic interests in education reform, helped focus our efforts.  In 2007 we launched a small family foundation, with the mission of increasing access to education and improving education systems in rural and semi-rural Guatemala.   

Though the task is still daunting, we have found that Seattle is a hub of global giving activity, for both small and large donors, and we are rich with opportunities for learning and engaging.  Through our involvement with other donors, groups like Pangea (an international giving circle), and our partners in Guatemala, we are slowly figuring out how to make the most of our efforts.  In particular, we focus on developing mutual respect and genuine and trusting relationships with the groups on the ground in Guatemala – taking the time to truly understand their needs. 

Below I have shared a few resources that we have found over the years.  In particular, I want encourage everyone to attend the Global Donor’s Conference on April 1-2.  It is a wonderful opportunity to connect with Seattle’s global giving community, which has helped us so much on our journey.  

  
Pacific Northwest Global Donor’s Conference

The Pacific Northwest Global Donor’s Conference, coming April 1 -2 to Seattle, is an excellent opportunity to learn more about international grant making, meet other global donors, both large and small, and to learn from them and other leading experts in the field.  Whether you are an experienced global donor, or simply interested in giving internationally, this is one of the best learning and networking opportunities of the year, and should not be missed. 

Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any specific questions.

Pangea

Early in our learning process, we asked Sofia (SVP Seattle’s Program Director) if she could refer us to other SVP partners pursuing similar global interests.  Sofia recommended we speak with several current and past SVP members who had launched Pangea, a Seattle based international giving circle. 

Pangea has proven to be a great entry point for us to learn about making small international grants.   Pangea supports grassroots community development efforts and creates direct learning experiences for engaged donors.    Investing in international Community Based Organizations (CBO’s) is quite different than granting to large, international organizations, and requires a very different approach to communications, trust building, and evaluation.   Pangea is passionate about these issues, and provides an inexpensive opportunity for SVP partners interested in learning about global giving to engage and learn.  

The Seattle Foundation

The Seattle Foundation (TSF) has many donors that are interested in global giving, and TSF helps coordinate and facilitate learning opportunities for this international interest group.   We have attended events at TSF that have ranged from two day seminars on effective global giving to lunch presentations given by specific NGO’s doing innovative work in the field.  TSF’s recent partnership with The Seattle International Foundation has further deepened the resources available through TSF. 

 
More about John Brown

John joined SVP in 2008.  He is passionate about education, here in Seattle as well as abroad.  He has served on the K-12 Grant Committee, and is currently the Lead Partner for SVP Investee, Communities in Schools of Washington.  SVP partners can learn more about John on SVP Seattle’s Intranet (username and password required – click here for help logging in).