My learning journey in Kenya

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that reflection is an ongoing process. All of us who recently returned from our powerful and transformational learning journeys in Kenya are still processing and reflecting, making meaning of our rich experiences and conversations during our time in Nairobi and rural western Kenya. In the upcoming newsletters and blog posts, we will continue to share little “nuggets” and lessons that stand out for us, as well as broadcast the success stories of our amazing, long-time partners of The 1010 Project.

Global Entrepreneur Academy

One of the highlights of our time in Kenya was attending the inspiring graduation of the second Global Entrepreneur Academy (GEA). What an honor to congratulate ten of our bright, hard-working, innovative, social entrepreneurial partners as I handed them their certificate of graduation! As I listened to the guest speakers, as well as the graduates share what they had learned from the intense business education program, I was struck by the powerful themes of transformational business and leadership skills, self-sustainability and financial freedom – not for selfish reasons, but to serve others. It was richly rewarding to see the graduates encouraged, enriched, empowered and working synergistically to share knowledge and resources as they launch new ideas or expand existing income-generating activities (IGAs) for their community-based organizations (schools, orphanages, women’s empowerment and HIV/AIDS support groups, and microfinance). Please join me in celebrating how each of us has an opportunity to use our unique gifts, talents, passions, and knowledge to do our individual part wherever we are placed, collectively working together to break the cycle of poverty and share abundant life.

Specific outputs of the GEA curriculum include each participant creating a business plan and writing an IGA proposal. These two outputs are coupled with tracking impacts and outcomes of the IGAs.  Stay tuned as we will soon be posting summaries of these proposals so our investors (donors) have an opportunity to understand in more detail what these IGAs entail and how they help accomplish the goal of self-sustainability for the organizations that The 1010 Project’s partners direct and manage.

Commissioning a New Well in Quarry Slum – Redeemed Gospel Church

While in Kenya, we also had the privilege of celebrating some substantial “fruit” of a long-term church relationship. Seven years ago, The 1010 Project connected Redeemed Gospel Church in the Quarry Slum of Nairobi with Northside Christian Church of Houston, TX. Over the years, they have cultivated a beautiful partnership. We all know such a partnership is not without its challenges – indeed it takes work and intentionality to build such a far-reaching friendship. The leaders and active members of these churches have done just that. The Lord has blessed their relationship-building endeavor in a multitude of ways. Not the least of these was the opportunity for a team of dynamic Northside high school students and their two “fearless” leaders to spend two weeks in Kenya learning about breaking the cycle of poverty through income generation and self-sustainability.

In 2009, a different group from Northside visited Redeemed. One of the participants from that learning journey – a 10 year old boy – returned to Texas and shared this idea with his friends and church community: “It’s not right that my friends over in Kenya don’t have safe water to drink.” After lots of awareness raising and fundraising and plenty of hard work on behalf of both church leadership teams, a 240-meter “bore hole” was dug and the running water that flows from that well will now serve over 100,000 people in the Quarry slum! What a huge blessing to join the Redeemed church family in celebrating the opening of this well, which they’ve appropriately dubbed the “King’s Springs!” Those who come for the water can also partake in Redeemed’s other community services, such as Fair Oak School.

One of The 1010 Project’s next endeavors will be to locate the resources needed for a purification system so that this water can be bottled and sold as an income-generating activity for Redeemed Gospel Church and Fair Oak School.

It is with great joy, humility and anticipation that I have accepted the Board of Directors’ offer to become the next Executive Director of The 1010 Project. Throughout my five year tenure serving on our Board, I often described myself as a “Learning Board Member.” Now, I am eager to transition into my new role as a “Learning Executive Director.”

I am thrilled to be learning from and serving with a dynamic and incredibly talented team, including: Tim Brauhn, Director of Operations, Josephine Chavaseki, Director of the Global Entrepreneur Academy in Nairobi, incredible board members, interns, volunteers, and social entrepreneurs throughout Kenya and the United States.

I am also deeply grateful to each of you – our volunteers, investors, donors, E-Race Poverty team members, followers of our tweets and blogs – for the role you have played in making The 1010 Project what it is today. I stand amazed at how God has orchestrated every person, piece and part to sustain and grow the story of The 1010 Project.

Two prominent messages in my life lately have been that every person is precious and every day is a gift and we need to make the most of it. All of us involved with The 1010 Project demonstrate that we value the dignity of each person by empowering them to build self-sustainable social businesses. We know that we need to take action today because we never know what tomorrow holds.

Be intentionally active this summer! Click here to see ten specific ways you can join us TODAY!

As we enter this next chapter, I am eager to hear your story and empower you to capitalize on your unique passions and skills. By building strategic partnerships, we can foster self-sustainability and work synergistically to pursue our vision of breaking the cycle of poverty and sharing abundant life.

I am humbled and honored to be a part of it all…and inspired to write the next chapter of the story with each of you.

Abundant blessings,

Melissa Schaap
Executive Director

The story of The 1010 Project is about breaking the cycle of poverty through business and community development. It’s about cultivating relationships with and between people who need resources and our donors/investors who have access to resources. It’s about coming alongside innovative Kenyans who run orphanages, schools, microfinance organizations, churches, women’s empowerment groups, and HIV/AIDS support groups. It’s about income generation and self-sustainability. Our story is about advocacy and community based learning – going to visit our friends and learning from and with them. It’s about Kenyans teaching Kenyans basic business skills through The Global Entrepreneur Academy (GEA).

Most importantly, The 1010 Project is about abundant life. (Hence our name from John 10:10. You can read more about this here.