This was one of my favorite projects to work on during graduate school. I was introduced to Alicia Vial Beesley through Todd Manwaring's social entrepreneurship class. She told me a story about Bernard, from DRC, who she had met at BYU-H. He had a dream about starting an elementary school in Bakavu, a war-torn area of DRC. She was dedicated to helping him realize that dream.
Together, Alicia and I wrote a business plan to attempt to make the school sustainable. She got a team together to help with graphic design, fundraising, and other general planning. They were people I perhaps normally would not have hung out with - sort of hippie, strong personalities, opinions somewhat out of the norm for the area. They are good people, and it was fun.
All the ideas for sustainability came from the Congo team, with some business mentoring from the US - team. A few of their ideas were to buy a cassava grinder to sell ground cassava, and to buy a few computers for an internet cafe to raise money to pay the teachers salaries.
We ended up obtaining the funds to build a school. The Food and Care Coalition gave me a bunch of soccer shorts so the school could have a football team. The Happy Factory donated toys. Alicia got her hands on some musical instruments to send over.
Alicia and my friend Matt ended up going to Congo. She shaved her head and dressed like a boy for her safety. I was not brave enough (or monetarily secure enough as a student) to venture into that danger zone.
I have rarely seen anyone more dedicated to a cause than Alicia was to this one. I could tell she truly and deeply cared about the kids in Congo. It was an absolute honor to work with her.
You can get more information here.
No comments:
Post a Comment