Here is an update from Executive Director Brian Rants in Kenya.

Half-Built Houses and the Problems of Credit

The growing Eastlands of Nairobi is dotted with half-built houses. As you walk through the brick/cement/stone structures so typical of the developing world, you will see neighborhoods where perhaps 3 out of every 4 houses is roofless and vacant. The doors and windows will be piled up with loose rocks, to discourage squatting. One of my hosts explained that Nairobians build as they have money. So the building process is lengthy and at times unpredictable.

This was another of those visual reminders of the importance of credit in a healthy economy.

The United States is coming off triggering a massive global recession for the opposite reason: the excess of credit. Multitudes of homeowners were sold mortgages they had no business receiving, without having to prove adequate income.

The density of population here is staggering. And unlike the dense urban centers in the US like New York, there is vastly inadequate infrastructure. That last sentence just doesn’t convey how utterly overburdened Nairobi is, like a bicycle carrying 40 mattresses. Fred Afwai, our Kenyan Country director, explained that the city planning for Nairobi was for 200,000 people. Think Boulder, Colorado. The current population is somewhere close to 5 million. Think the entire population of Colorado.

Bank accounts and loans are only available to those who already have money. To open an account is costly, and simply out of reach of our friends here in the eastern, poorer part of the city. This means that overcrowded population centers in Nairobi will remain crowded while half-built houses remain empty.

The “Problem of Credit” is Simply an “Opportunity”

Charles Owino of YOCHAN (Youth Challenge Network) corrected one of his youth when she spoke of a “problem,” saying it was not a problem but “an opportunity.” I imagine he would similarly advise here. Partners like Mother’s Concern and LOMORO are tackling this “opportunity.” Michael Nyangi is already “The Banker to the Slums,” as one Swiss newspaper called him after he met with a Swiss banking colleague. He has provided savings and loans services through his organization to 210 growing LOMORO so he can become a bank someday.

The good news: The solutions, and the social entrepreneurs who have devised them, are already present here in Nairobi. That is why The 1010 Project is here: connecting these social entrepreneurs with capital. Additionally, as part of this trip we are establishing grassroots business training to help increase their capacity for success.

The 1010 Project continues to grow because the opportunities here are…well, endless. And because our supporters in the United States continue to seize these opportunities for contributing their time, expertise, and resources towards breaking the cycle of poverty for life.

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