My Journey 2009: Perspectives and Reflections

I recently returned from a magical 10-day trip to Ethiopia with an extraordinary group of people – friends and supporters of A Glimmer of Hope who dared to embark upon an adventure and step into another reality.

Team Trip October 2009.

We arrived at the end of the rainy season which was a treat. The countryside was alive with vibrant colors and incredibly lush – certainly not the image most people have of Ethiopia. Addis Ababa, the capital, was buzzing with activity, construction and development.

Most of our time was spent in the Amhara Region in the northern part of the country, famous for its history and magnificent 17th century castles. We spent our days visiting recently completed projects as well as observing desperate need and extraordinary hardship. We shared our time with the people in the communities who expressed their love, deep gratitude, their critical need but mostly, their joy.

Standing next to a woman, the first time she gets to draw clean water from a well, is always an awesome experience.

I used to feel embarrassed when inaugurating a school or water well as the celebration and ceremony that went along with it was often overwhelming. This time, I began to deeply appreciate being present with these beautiful people and, by sharing in their joy, we could all celebrate together, creating union and connection. Their appreciation that we would travel where strangers don’t often go, for them to feel that they were not forgotten and alone, that others from a different country, a different world, would care enough, to simply be with them, was a gift in itself.

For me personally, there is no greater happiness than standing alongside an Ethiopian woman who has been bearing the weight of her burden on her back for her whole life and finally, she no longer has to walk for hours every day to collect water from an unprotected, filthy, stagnant river or pond.

A miracle occurs. We start to pump and like magic, clean, potable water fills the jugs and the jerry cans, and life is no longer the same. It’s a beautiful moment, for encapsulated in it are massive and empowering repercussions. Her children will have the opportunity to go to school (especially the girls) as they won’t be needed to spend their days helping to fetch water. The health of the whole family and community will be greatly improved. Women can focus on their families and contribute to other activities that improve their lives rather than deplete it.

Elsa, a teacher, wants nothing more than a better future for her students.

In Ethiopia alone, 3.7 BILLION work hours are lost every year due to water gathering and 80% of all illnesses are a result of dirty water. It’s not necessary and it’s not right.

We visited and inaugurated several Glimmer school buildings being welcomed by children in their hundreds with burning lights in their eyes, full of promise and wonder – singing, dancing and clapping often having waited several hours for us to arrive. We wandered around the old school buildings, decrepit, foul smelling, filthy and dusty where rocks on the floor serve at chairs and leaky corrugated iron roofs as ceilings. Children cramped together knee to knee, elbow to elbow, often 80 or more to a tiny room. We leafed through the one textbook that each child receives, worn out, incredibly old and often shared with another child from a different shift.

At one of these schools, we listened in awe as a young English teacher named Elsa spoke of her dreams to change the world for her students. We would listen as the children described their own dreams, no different from those of our own children. Strangely and sadly, no different at all. We rejoiced together as we wandered through the new, beautifully constructed school buildings, with new desks, chalkboards and large windows that let the light shine through – an environment that encourages children to attend school.

If the school environment is no better than the home one, which is a mud hut with a dirt floor, then why would any child want to go there? In this country, where 30% of children in the rural areas do not attend school and six out of every 10 children between the age seven and 14 have to work, there has to be engagement in education to end this cycle of poverty. Without providing every school-age child the simple and deserved right to an education, how can we ever address the core issues of poverty?

I met a woman named Bosena. She was so proud to show me her home and tell me how her life had been transformed through microfinance.

When her children were still young, Bosena could not afford to take care of them and she was forced to send them away to live as servants for other families. Around this time, she took out her first microloan in the amount of $89 so she could start growing oranges to sell at the local market. By the time I met her, she had just taken out her 5th loan in the amount of $317 to buy an ox to help grow her business.

Bosena, whose life has been transformed through microfinance, is one of the richest people I have ever met.

She had done so well that she had been able to save about $1,000 as well as pay for her children to return home. Today, they work alongside her on the family farm and live in adjacent houses that Bosena was able to build for them.

I was able to share with her that in America, families are oftentimes scattered far and wide gathering together only a few times a year if they are lucky. Through the blessings of microfinance, not only had her life improved significantly in a material sense, but the riches she had accumulated by being able to have all of her children and grandchildren living around her were priceless.

The more places we visited, the more I began to notice that with every village where Glimmer has a presence, hope and excitement for the future are very much alive. Through our integrated approach to development, that includes the people in the process, we are building a trail of hope. It’s as if A Glimmer of Hope is now thousands of Golden Glimmers connecting water wells, schools, health clinics and microfinance loans from village to village, people to people across the country.

The impact is tremendous and obvious. Lives are radically changing through this simple and strategic approach that supports the people from the ground up. Where there is hope, there is purpose.

Honestly, it makes me swell with pride and my heart overflows as I think of how many lives are being improved. Upon returning I feel even more inspired, re-energized and rejuvenated to reach more, engage more donors with the core messages of our 100% Promise, engage more deeply in development and microfinance (particularly for the women) and continue to spread the golden glimmers of hope.

There are thousands upon thousands of villages scattered throughout this strikingly beautiful country, each with tragically painful contrasts of life-threatening deprivation and exquisite majesty. As I visit them, I ponder the simplicity of such a life.

I am deeply touched by the inherent joy of the people. Their lives are focused and deeply connected.

They are there for each other in times of feast and famine – mostly famine. They live within the true beauty of community and communion and they share riches uncommonly felt or seen in the West.

They are gentle and graceful people who build their lives upon deep faith and great humility.

They are my teachers.

Why Ethiopia? By Donna Berber

Last week, the United Nations released its annual Human Development Index report and out of 182 ranked countries, Ethiopia came in at No. 171.

The statistics make for some grim reading. For example:

Average Life Expectancy at birth: 54 years (vs. 79 years in the US)

Average GDP per capita: $779 (vs. $45,592 in the US)

Adult Literacy Rate (age 15+): 35%

For me, the report reaffirmed one of my standard answers to the “Why Ethiopia?” question I am often asked, that “Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the World and they need all the help they can get.”

At first, after reading the report, I felt satisfied that I was continuing to give people accurate and up-to-date information about the country where A Glimmer of Hope carries out its work.

Then it dawned on me, when someone asks me “Why Ethiopia?” aren’t they really inquiring about why they should care about Ethiopia, why anyone should care?

When compared against the 23 countries in the UN’s Low Human Development category, Ethiopia’s numbers are only fractions better or worse than the others. So why should someone care more about impoverished people in Ethiopia than those in say, the Congo or Malawi?

The answer to that question, of course, is that they shouldn’t. Extreme poverty is a worldwide human rights issue and no right-minded person wants any of their human brothers and sisters, through no fault of their own, to have to live like that.

But, the reason why they should join the fight against Global Poverty in Ethiopia is quite simple … A Glimmer of Hope.

Ambassador Tibor Nagy, a senior US diplomat, has called our integrated model the “silver bullet for Africa.” Ambassador Nagy spent over 23 years in the Foreign Service in Africa including two stints as ambassador.

For one thing, our decision to focus solely on Ethiopia – and to go really deep within that one country – is a key difference between A Glimmer of Hope and many other organizations as it allows for a far greater level of impact.

By taking our unique approach and adapting it specifically to the needs and wants of the Ethiopian people, money is never spent on projects or programs that aren’t wanted or needed or are otherwise impractical.

The Ethiopian people are another key ingredient in our recipe for success. Their engagement, the way they commit to improving and shaping their own futures … all of it done with such incredible grace and humility.

Our team in Addis Ababa adds another critical layer of efficiency by ensuring all of the money gets to where it is most needed and that each dollar is stretched as far as it’ll go. This team also plays a vital role in monitoring the success of our efforts through inspections, poring over quarterly reports from every partner and by gathering photographs, videos and GPS coordinates of every project we do. We do this so we can be accountable to our donors as well as to the people we serve.

Last but not least is our unique promise to deliver 100% of every donation to the projects. When my husband Philip and I were starting A Glimmer of Hope, we wanted all of our money to have an impact but we also wanted others to have the same opportunity.

That is why we continue to use our endowment to cover all of A Glimmer of Hope’s operating expenses and to cover any costs associated with getting donor funds to our projects in Ethiopia. We take this promise to the extreme. For example, if you donate $100 online and the bank charges $2.50 for the transaction, we put that $2.50 back in so all of your $100 will get to a project on the ground.

With all of that said, I’d like to leave you with this interesting thought:

In 2004, the terrible Indian Ocean tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people …

Ethiopia loses about that many children to diarrhea every year.


Have a real impact.

Lend us your support.

Donna Berber

The man behind charity: water - My Friend Scott Harrison

People often ask me what they can do to make a difference.

They understand the huge need that exists in so many poor countries but they are afraid their donations will be wasted.

This is one of the main reasons why A Glimmer of Hope exists today – to provide a secure pipeline into the heart of Africa that ensures every dollar is used efficiently and effectively.

It is also why my friend Scott Harrison created charity: water and why he chooses to partner with A Glimmer of Hope today.

For those of you not yet familiar with Scott or his story, I think you will agree it is one well worth re-telling.

Just a few years ago, Scott was a nightclub and fashion event promoter in New York City. He was good at what he did and was very successful. But he felt unfulfilled.

Then, instead of continuing along a path that had already made him materially comfortable, he decided to become the change he wanted to see in the world.

He went to work as a volunteer photographer on the decks of a Mercy Ship documenting the work of doctors who provided expert medical care to the poorest of the poor.

The experience simultaneously exposed Scott to extreme poverty and Africa for the first time. He returned to New York with a plan and formed charity: water, an organization that would provide clean water to save lives in the poorest countries.

His natural gift for promotion, his creativity and his tenacity have kept charity: water growing at an exponential rate. In just three years, it has raised more than $10 million from 50,000 individual donors, providing clean water to nearly one million people around the globe.

Twenty-something years ago, I was inspired by the efforts of another such man. His name was Bob Geldof. Through his tireless efforts, more than $100 million was raised from around the world for victims of Ethiopia’s Great Famine.

Scott’s commitment to bring clean water to those who live without this basic human right is just as unflinching as Geldof’s was to provide food to the hungry.

The parallel between these two men is that they understand on a core level the difference one person can make if they have the heart, the drive and the passion to do so. They simply will not stop.

Last year, Scott travelled more than 1,000 miles on terrible roads around rural Ethiopia in two weeks to document the need in 48 of the communities that would benefit from the September Campaign.

He exhausted the engineers, hydrologists and Glimmer team members that accompanied him beginning each day before the sun had cleared the horizon and not stopping until well after it had disappeared again.

Then, when everybody else went off to the bar or to collapse into bed, Scott and his videographer Danny Miller would start editing the amazing footage they had captured that day.

Scott’s intentions are pure and true. He has devoted his life to serving the needs of the extreme poor through selfless and tireless giving. He is a man on a mission.

Like A Glimmer of Hope, charity: water promises its donors that 100% of their donations will get to the projects. It’s one of the reasons why, when they raised almost $1 million from Scott’s birthday campaign last year, all of that money was donated to A Glimmer of Hope and we ensured that 100% was used for the implementation of the projects.

He’s a master at marketing and donor engagement, and he has found a formula that generates vast amounts of support for our mutual cause. He shows the need and promises to fix it; then, he fixes it and provides the proof that the need has been addressed.

He has brought many people in off the sidelines who otherwise would not be engaged. A Glimmer of Hope is fortunate to have him as a major supporter and I consider myself blessed to count him among my friends.

So, as he is in the throes of launching his fourth September Campaign (which promises to be even bigger than last year’s), I would like to wish him a happy 34th birthday, continued success and congratulations on his upcoming wedding to Viktoria (who also happens to be a key factor in the success of charity: water but that’s another blog for another day).

Ours is a wonderful partnership that has transformed thousands of lives in remote, rural Ethiopia. It has truly been my privilege and great honor to get to know Scott over the last couple of years.

Donna Berber

Helping Microfinance Boom in Ethiopia

By Philip Berber

When A Glimmer of Hope started its work in rural Ethiopia eight years ago, we began by investing in the basic societal building blocks that were so lacking throughout the country and by establishing partnerships with indigenous development organizations and NGOs.

Over the next few years, we implemented hundreds of water and sanitation schemes and a large number of health care, education and veterinary facilities. The impact of these projects was immediate and profound and we could clearly see the difference they were making in the lives of some of the poorest people in the world. That’s why we continue to invest in them.

And, we are always looking for ways to innovate and extend our reach and, given this philosophy, moving into microfinance became a natural progression for us as part of a broader integrated approach to development.

If we can give the poor a hand-up instead of a hand-out and help them tap into the entrepreneur within, we can help reduce their poverty forever. It’s about trade and aid. It’s about personal empowerment through financial empowerment.

From our experience, there’s little doubt the most effective way to help the poor break the cycle of poverty is to give them the opportunity to create sustainable solutions for themselves. But to do that, they need access to credit.

One of our key members of staff – Program Director Norma Van Horn – was recently in the Amhara Region of Northern Ethiopia where she got a first-hand look at the impact even a small amount of credit can have.

Below is her account of a meeting she had with a loan recipient [pictured here with her family]:

“We just returned from Amhara (about 1.30am last night) where I met a recipient of one of our 2008 microloans. Her name was Ashagura Iyasu. She is 35-years-old, married with six children and had received a loan for 2,000 birr ($200).

Before the loan, she had a small plot of land under cultivation on which she grew tomatoes, oats in the fall crop and corn in the spring crop. Ashagura and her neighbor used to rent a pump to irrigate their plots with water drawn from nearby Lake Tana but it was not uncommon for the pump to be late and their harvests suffered.

After receiving her loan, Ashagura and her neighbor (who also received a loan) pooled their resources to buy a pump of their own for $600. I didn’t get to speak to the neighbor but the impact on Ashagura has been remarkable as she has been able to substantially increase the amount of land she has under cultivation at any given time.

Last year, her income from the fall crop of tomatoes and oats was $50-$60; this year, she received $300.

She was able to take back and plant garlic on a portion of her plot that she had previously been renting out for $30 a year; her first garlic harvest netted $400.

She went from netting $90 for the fall crop last year to $700 for the fall crop this year and her plans to add yet another crop (rice) will continue to expand her income. Adding rice to her four other crops will also ensure her land is under cultivation 12 months a year as it will grow while the land is flooded for two to four months during the wet season.

She has gone from two small harvests of three crops to three large harvests of five crops. This greatly expands her income and diversity of diet and risk.

Her family’s diet used to consist of beans and peas; now she’s added meat to their diet – a huge change.

With her earnings she has purchased an ox, sent her daughter to school (she had graduated from high school a year ago but had been unable to afford college for her until now) and bought clothes for her family.

She also now rents her pump to others generating even more income.

The fact that all of this has occurred in just eight months since she received her loan is amazing and a shining example of the credit worthiness and hard working tenacity of Ethiopia’s rural poor if they are given a chance.”

Norma Van Horn – Addis Ababa: June 26, 2009

Children That Learn How to Give Grow Into Adults That Know How to Give

While much of what we do here at A Glimmer of Hope revolves around situations that are absolutely heartbreaking, we are lucky enough to work in an environment where we hear incredible stories of hope and inspiration almost every day. 

Our staff meetings don't center around budget goals or income projections, we talk about women who lives have been totally transformed and uplifted through the power of a small microfinance loan and communities that will never again spend hours collecting their drinking water from a filthy, stagnate pond they shared with their animals. 

We talk about children who have an opportunity to do something with their lives because of the new school in their village. We hear about farmers who will never again have to depend on rainfall to be able to feed their families. 

We also hear some amazing stories of young people here who have been moved enough to reach out to those who live in desperate need in rural Ethiopia. 

For example, the children of St. Paul's Christian Day School in Brenham, Texas. St. Paul's is an early childhood program that has about 240 children in the 12 months to 3rd grade range and during the recent Lent season, these children deposited their allowances and any other change they could find into a make-shift well to raise money for the Water to Thrive* campaign. 

By Easter, the pastor of St. Paul's needed help to take 400lbs of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters to a local bank. The children had raised more than $3,000 in 40 days - all of it in coins - to go towards a deep borehole well project in the village of Gedamba. 

I believe raising awareness around the poverty that exists in Ethiopia today is just as important as anything we do here at A Glimmer of Hope. And to see that message reach young people from kindergarten to college - who then become engaged and take action to be the change-makers in our society - is incredibly heartwarming. 

Another good example is Austin, Texas high school junior Sameer Paul who raised $14,200 for a school near Dembi Dollo by organizing the Golfing for Glimmer charity golf tournament. He was moved to do something after learning about the harsh reality that exists for those who are in need.

This month, five students from the Austin Tennis Academy (ranging in age from 12-16) will travel to Ethiopia to attend the official opening of two schools and a reservoir they funded through their Playing for Glimmer campaigns. Altogether, the academy has raised and donated almost $300,000 to A Glimmer of Hope over the past four years and the players taking this trip are sure to drive an increased level of engagement in the years to come.

"We're so privileged here [in America] to have running water, electricity and a place to sleep. They're just basic things we take for granted that people in Ethiopia don't have," said 14-year-old Josh Hagar, one of the players about to visit Ethiopia for the first time. 

I can only imagine the stories Josh will come home with for his friends. 

My personal excitement is to witness the fulfillment and joy that comes with the act of true giving and the life that it shapes and forms. It's not about the amount of money that is given; it only matters where the giving comes from within. 

Who knows how profoundly impacted these young people will be and what they will do with their lives?

Smart Aid vs. Dead Aid

Imagine if Americans weren’t just out of work, trying to pay off their debt or save their homes but that they were so poor that they didn’t have clean water to drink, schools for their children or hospitals for their sick. Imagine if thousands of Americans were dying everyday from completely preventable causes.

This is great injustice of our world today. One billion people - one in every six people on the planet - are without access to safe water, sanitation, education and healthcare. Most struggle every day just to feed themselves, seeking to survive on a dollar a day. Others simply die because they are too poor to live. As Bono once wrote: “Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die."

Dambisa Moyo’s recent book Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa regurgitates an old message – that much aid in Africa has had little effect. Twenty years ago, Graham Hancock’s The Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige and Corruption of the International Aid Business carried a similar message.

Dead Aid suggests that if we stop giving to Africa things will improve. The risk of this message is that it will fuel cynicism and cause potential donors to once again abandon the poor in developing countries, and specifically in Africa, in their hour of need.

The real challenge - and opportunity - is how to address and resolve the issues, devise and implement solutions and to move forward in an era of sustainable, impactful and cost-effective aid and development.

Much progress has been made over the past few years, particularly by the new breed of private philanthropists who are working as social investors and social entrepreneurs, combining compassion and innovation with business-like approaches.

“Smart Aid” is a compassionate, effective and integrated approach to international aid and development that has produced sustainable and quantifiable results.

My wife Donna and I are engaged social investors having formed and funded A Glimmer of Hope, an Austin, Texas-based foundation in 2000. A Glimmer of Hope’s purpose is “to provide hope and help to those who suffer unnecessarily from the injustice of poverty” and its focus is on the remote rural poor in Ethiopia.

Over the past eight years we have reached around two million Ethiopians helping to transform their lives in a sustainable and cost effective manner. Today, they have access to clean drinking water, classrooms for their children and healthcare for the sick and we have seen thousands of farmers and women lift themselves out of poverty.

When we visit them in their remote villages, we see transformed communities, healthy people, and children in classrooms. We meet with farmers irrigating their plots of land, turning rock and rubble into fields of green. We talk with the women who took out small loans as start-up capital for their new businesses. We have seen how financial empowerment creates personal empowerment. We see young and old, men and women, boys and girls engaged in improving their lives with hope in their hearts and dreams for the future.

Aid is not dead. The traditional approaches need to be examined with a critical, creative and constructive mind as well as a compassionate heart. The setbacks, disappointments and shortcomings of aid and development need to be understood and then challenged and solved.

Social Investing creates social profit and new and proven approaches have already emerged and been adopted; they are being implemented with great effect, sustainability and impact.

There is hope. Yes we can!

Philip R Berber
Chairman
A Glimmer of Hope
http://www.aglimmerofhope.org/

Please also view.
ONE
http://www.one.org/c/us/hottopic/910/

Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/02/AR2009040203285.html