I have put a lot of energy into this summer internship, but the most impactful aspect of this position has been the amount of energy Philanthropiece as an organization has invested in me. Katie and Colleen both arranged meetings with other foundations so that I could get a broader prospective on the work foundations do, I was included in all staff meetings, and invited to attend board meetings and lunches with friends of Philanthropiece/ partner organizations as well.  The time the women of Philanthropiece have dedicated to answering my questions and broadening my horizons is truly appreciated, and I find myself feeling at home in the office.  It’s only natural that I’m hesitant to leave. Fortunately, Libby Cook (Executive Director, Co-Founder) has offered the unprecedented opportunity to extend my experience with an independent research project focusing on evaluating Philanthropiece’s Baja Loan Program. Professor Bernhard (professor of statistics at the University of Puget Sound) will be supervising the mathematical aspects of the project, and I can’t wait to get started. This internship has served not only as an experiential education, but as a critical stepping stone to my future. Working with Philanthropiece has opened my eyes to so many opportunities in the non-profit sector, and seeing the amazing work of these women, I’m convinced more than ever that this will be my career path. I’m going to take the lessons learned from this internship and use them as the inspiration for future positions.  As my summer internship comes to a close, I’m starting to realize that sometimes the end is just the beginning.

I apologize for the lack of recent blog posts. It’s been an interesting schedule here at Philanthropiece as Directors, Katie and Colleen were in Chajul, Guatemala last week, and Christine, my fellow intern, and I were out of town as well. It’s actually quite convenient that the interns’ family vacations fell on the same week as the Chajul visit.  Both Christine and I sent questionnaires to Chajul to be administered by Colleen and Katie, and I’m looking forward to the insight that only community members can give. These interviews will provide information on which nutrients are missing from the Chajulense diet, the effects of malnutrition on Chajul’s children, previous nutritional programming, and challenges to food security. Christine’s questionnaire is focused on the agricultural practices of the area, and together I think they will provide an invaluable resource for the proposal of a new sustainable agriculture program.

Greetings YGL fan club members,

Today was our first full day in the Lagoon so I would like to bring you up to date a bit.

First, here is a quiz for you. The answers are at the bottom.

 Question Number 1

For our first meal in Mexico, we ate:

A.    Arroz con frijoles, rice and beans

B.     Arroz con pollo, rice with chicken

C.     Sushi and tempura

Question Number 2

 For our second meal, we had:

A.   Arroz con frijoles

B.   Arroz con pollo,

C.   Bean sprout with avocado sandwich on whole wheat bread

(See answers below.)

Next, I will share one worst and one best so far.  

Worst moment

The fourth or fifth or sixth or seventh or eighth time our overnight bus driver turned on the interior overhead lights on the bus to let passengers on throughout the night on our 12 hour journey south to the town of San Ignacio.

Best quote, a tie

 Referring to our toilet on the bus as we cruised down the highway, Peter said, “I didn’t know whether to sit down or stand up”; in other words, I didn’t know whether to fall off or fall in.  Peter also said, referring to one of the many home made fresh daily salsas that we have, “try a teaspoon of that one and you will remember it in a month”.

We arrived in La Laguna early yesterday afternoon after our plane ride, van ride, bus ride, car ride and truck rides from San Diego to Laguna San Ignacio.  With about an hour left to our journey, on the very bumpy dirt road from San Ignacio town to the lagoon, we stopped for a stranded motorist.  The locals explained how you would never, ever pass a stranded motorist, and indeed, three cars stopped even though the road is not heavily traveled, and each driver launched into their stories of a time they were stranded and the people that helped them and how it would be absolutely inconceivable not to stop in a small town such as this whether or not you knew the fellow travelers.  Ironic, I thought to myself, since so much about what we read is related to violence in Mexico.  I wouldn’t stop for a stranger on the highway if I were headed into my town of Boulder.  At any rate, the stop lead to more stops for popsicles, to say hi to this family or that, and in due time we arrived in La Freidera where we are staying at Antonio’s Baja Expeditions camp.  

Last night, even though we all slept poorly the night before the trip because of our anxiety, and slept even worse on the overnight bus, our group accepted an invitation to a Quinceñera of one of Jordan’s English students.  Eventually, everyone would arrive, but our group went on the early side and after a bit of live music and dancing left by eleven.  

It’s dusty here despite our proximity to the water. Today, we spent the morning interviewing fishermen in the community of El Cardon here in the lagoon.  This is part of our work for Philanthropiece and it gave the YGLers a chance to practice their Spanish, meet many new people and hear interesting and in at least one case riveting stories about fishing life.  In the afternoon we took a boat ride with some of Jordan’s English students, from El Cardon, out to the mangroves where they fish and on to a little mangrove island.  We have captured some post card perfect scenes, at least in our mind, of warm waters, kids jumping of f their fishing boats to swim, herons perched like sentries on the top of the fisherman’s boats, the sun dropping to the horizon with its cast of light on the water.

Tonight we continued with our task of designing the YGL program and set out the schedule for tomorrow … helping to build an earthship house with a local family and some of Jordan’s students whom we met today and then interviewing fisherman from a different community about their lives as fisherman.  We wonder if they too see fishing as a vanishing way of life in this region.

As I write to you all, YGLers are gathered at a camp fire that the hosts built to welcome us some more to the lagoon.  YGLers are saying that one of the best parts of the trip so far has been to be a part of the community gatherings because of the relationships that Philanthropiece has here.

We are having fun, the kids are getting along really well, and we are all well with but a few scrapes, a touch of fatigue and some dusty contacts to report.

Your children are the best we could have chosen for this mission.

Abrazos,

Lee

And now, we present the first installment of “The Viewpoint of an Intern” by Christine, our Fabulous Intern.

Although this is technically my second week at Philanthropiece, I am going to pretend for this blog that it is week one. Last week I was only in two days because Monday was a holiday, Wednesdays we have staff meetings and Thursday Katie, Carrie and I had a wonderful lunch with Katie’s cousin Emily who works at the Wild Foundation. We learned all about the amazing things they are doing and it was very eye opening to see how another non-profit operates. This week I have primarily been researching international development organizations that have implemented successful family or community gardens in Latin America. The two organizations I have so far, Project Harvest and The Garden’s Edge, are actually both in Guatemala and the fact that they have been very successful for a number of years demonstrates that they could both be a good model to work off of with family gardens in Chajul. The garden initiative in Chajul is currently at the point where, if little is done, all the momentum behind it could easily burn out. It’s exciting though, because with more attention I think it could easily become an integral part of the community and one that would help combat hunger and malnutrition, be an extra source of income, and help the community to be more self-sufficient and sustainable.

Katie, Christine and I recently had lunch with Emily Loose at the WILD Foundation, the only international organization dedicated entirely and explicitly to wilderness protection around the world. Lunch was delicious, and it was great to hear about their latest initiative, “Nature Needs Half”, an initiative to have at least fifty percent of the world be dedicated to protected land. Especially interesting was the approach needed to do environmental work in Boulder County, an area saturated in go green initiatives. Boulder already has over fifty percent of the land designated as wild space, but some of the land counted by the county is agricultural land. While an organic farm certainly qualifies for open space, a large agricultural project could harm the very land we’re trying to protect. WILD has partnered with photographers to get the message out (they’ve used this technique with other projects as well) and the images are simply stunning!  If you’re interested, search their media page under photos for some great inspiration http://www.wild.org/community/photos/

And here’s one of my favorite WILD photos:

When I inquired about a possible internship at Philanthropiece, I was motivated by one particularly intriguing aspect of the organization; it’s a foundation that is a non grant making entity.  I was fascinated with the idea of an operational foundation, something I’d never heard of before.  It has taken a while for me to fully grasp what being an “operational foundation” entails, and I’d like to briefly outline the model here in the blog.  The key is to collaborate; preventing competition for scarce resources.  Philanthropiece’s model of partnership allows us to work in tandem with organizations already on the ground in the communities on the same program(s) before we consider running our own programming; allowing us to increase the resources allocated to the initial program, learn about the community’s unique situation, and prevent program overlap if we start our own programming.  Our partners are already established in and familiar with the communities in which we work, and we truly value the ability to learn from and contribute to their work.  What makes Philanthropiece different from a traditional foundation? We recognize that problems go deeper than funding, and that solutions must do the same.

Things here at the office are running smoothly; with the exception of our silverware drawer.  We have a distinct lack of regular forks (I’ve been using the plastic ones), which is odd since there seems to be a cornucopia of spoons (out of five compartments, four are filled with spoons, with the remaining space dedicated to butter knives).  To compliment my eclectic cutlery, I have been reading a wide variety of sources.  Everything from Forces for Good, to Reports from Esther Duflo crowd both my desk and mind, and I unashamedly took my Nutrition Research Binder home last weekend to discuss with anyone who would listen.  People might think I’m becoming a bit preoccupied with my work here at Philanthropiece, but it’s really a matter of priorities.  Some have their career and their passions separated; I see no need for this.  Afterall, I think no one is going to argue that I am misusing my time by returning my thoughts time and time again to various poverty alleviation methods.  And going out on a limb, I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this we have similar interests, so I’d like to share an interesting lead with you.  Mentioned above, Esther Duflo is implementing truly innovative techniques to the social sector. She is applying testing similar to that of the medical field to assess the effectiveness of social entrepreneurship and policies. You can find her reports here: http://www.povertyactionlab.org/duflo , or read the article in the May 17th issue of The New Yorker (a subscription is required to read it online, but you can access an abstract here, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/05/17/100517fa_fact_parker).  Enjoy!

I am currently compiling a list of ten international development organizations that have had a significant impact in the work they do.  While working on this list, I have identified one main challenge; no one seems to be able to define “significant impact”?  Organizations can tell me how many wells they’ve built, women’s empowerment workshops they’ve held, and children they’ve fed, but how can one compare? Does one fed child equal two wells?  Perhaps since wells impact more people, it should be five fed children equals one well?  And the well is sustainable, a food handout is not, doe this make El Porvenir a better organization than Feed the Children?  Organizations such as charitywatch are having a hard time comparing as well, relying solely on financials (which seem to be the only objective data available).  A common unit would have to be used in order to measure one organization against another- and preferably a unit measuring “impact”.  Population Services International has done just that – they’ve mathematically formulated a unit of impact equal to one additional year of productive life for one person, and measure their impact in these units.  Genius!  Now if only all the other organizations I’m summarizing could do the same…

Having written my writing and rhetoric course final essay on the importance of informed giving, I have traditionally been a huge fan of such sites as charitywatch.org, the website of the American Institute of Philanthropy- an organization which rates various NGOs based on their efficiency. The portion of the charity’s rating which I found most important in my essay was the” Percent spent on charitable purpose”, which the site describes as “the portion of total expenses that is spent on charitable programs. In AIP’s view, 60% or greater is reasonable for most charities. The remaining percentage is spent on fundraising and general administration. Note: A 60% program percentage typically indicates a ‘satisfactory’ or ‘C range’ rating. Most highly efficient charities are able to spend 75% or more on programs.”After meeting with Katie Morrow (Executive Director of Philanthropiece partner, Limitless Horizons Ixil), I find this approach may not be fair, and in fact may favor hand out based programs. It depends entirely on whether an organization lists certain staff as program, or administrative costs.  Take for example the Library in Chajul; which category should the librarian’s salary be under? The majority of the library’s funds go to pay her, so if her salary is listed as a non program cost, then the organization’s rating would be dismal. In contrast, a reading program which simply purchases books and then gives them away would be considered ideal, as the vast majority of funds would go directly to “programming materials”- the physical books. But the hand out model is missing the human aspect. What good are a few free books if there is no one there to teach the owners how to read, or a place to attain more in the future? The staffing cost does not make the program inefficient, just sustainable.

The corn based diets of Chajul have resulting in malnutrition.  Children are not receiving the vitamins and minerals necessary to develop healthy minds and bodies, and many do not consume enough calories.  Often, children will go to school exhausted after collecting firewood, and having eaten only a few corn tortillas.  Baja suffers from malnutrition as well, but of a different sort.  Food is expensive, and many rely on a diet heavily based in canned and processed foods- often resulting in obesity.  While these situations easily inspire an emotional reaction, simply giving food won’t do anything but prolong the problem.  I’m currently researching the various techniques used by NGO’s to combat malnutrition and food security.  There are several techniques, the most prominent of which are handouts, and microloans.  Since Philanthropiece is focused on sustainable solutions which lessen a community’s dependence on aid, I have chosen to focus on programs funded by various microloans and grants.  These often fund women to grow crops which diversify both the foods they consume, and their means of income.  Probably the most inspiring program so far is by Alimentos Nutri-Naturales- a partner of the Equilibrium Fund and a grassroots organization started by local women which teaches the harvesting of the “Maya Nut” and indigenous tree which produces edible nuts. The program not only teaches farming techniques, and provides food and income to growers, but also inspires the growers to become environmentalists in order to protect their largest asset- their land. I have become increasingly interested in the idea of agricultural development since reading the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation publication on the topic; which claims that agriculture is the best way for a community to both experience growth and become independent.