Winter 2015 Newsletter

 

 

It’s been two amazing years since POHK was launched as a joint US-Kenyan organization. In 2013, we developed the programming model, the business plan and gained non-profit status through fiscal sponsorship. In 2014, we successfully implemented the Power of Soap Model on a small scale!

On August 15, 2014, Executive Director, Kelly Fenson-Hood was interviewed on KGNU’s live talk radio show, Connections. She discussed the POHK model, living conditions in Kibera, the sellers and more!

In September, the US team will travel to Kenya to train sellers on the POHK handwashing intervention. With each repeat sale, sellers will encourage families to wash hands at the key times proven to reduce diarrhea. Sellers will also help families turn those new behaviors into sustained habits.We are very happy to announce a new partnership with the non-profit organization, Toilet Hackers! They awarded POHK with a grant to help implement the next phase of the Power of Soap Project.

Successful Launch of the Power of Soap Campaign

We would like to thank everyone who donated to our Power of Soap campaign this winter. We are thrilled to report the project was successfully launched in February and continues to grow. Campaign highlights include:

• Conducted 50 blind-test washing demonstrations to generate product interest
• Distributed 4,000 soap samples in our target area
• Sold more than 800 bottles of Power Soap
• Our sellers have earned nearly $300 in 8 weeks

American Photographer’s Touching Pictures of World’s Largest Slum

UK Daily Mail

It’s probably hard to imagine what life must be like in the slums of Africa. The Kibera slum in Nairobi is six hundred acres of mud and filth. It’s not on any map because it’s squatters camp – an illegal, forgotten city, yet at least one third of Nairobi lives here. Over the years the illegal slum has grown amongst the filth. Little businesses thrive with the inhabitants building and renting wooden shacks. The slum is can also be a dangerous and violent place. The Kenyan Government has done nothing for Kibera. No title deeds, no sewage pipes, no roads. There are no services of any kind. One American photographer recently traveled to Kibera to document a development project (Power of Hope Kibera at POHK.org). Maureen Ruddy Burkhart describes her experience in her blog as a ‘journey of discovery; a discovery of virtue.’ ‘With one eye I saw the ever-present poverty, lack of plumbing, and constant energy… and with the other eye I saw joy and love,’ she says.

Kenya’s Largest Slum Looks Different Than You Think

Slate.com

Maureen Ruddy Burkhart found herself examining her life last March while preparing to memorialize her recently deceased mother.

It wasn’t the first time she had stepped back to look at herself, but it was the first time—at age 59—she had lost a parent. She wanted to honor her mother by giving whatever she could by volunteering her time and talents for someone who could use them. “Losing a parent really brings home the finality of this life; it represents the last phase because now you have become the oldest generation,” she said.

Kelly Fenson-Hood, a good friend, had recently quit her job to become a full-time unpaid administrator of a nongovernmental organization with Power of Hope Kibera (POHK), a hygiene-centered microenterprise based in the Kibera slum—the largest slum in Kenya and the largest urban slum in Africa—outside of Nairobi.

Power of Hope Kibera Partners with Living Green Network

In November 2013, Power of Hope Kibera became a fiscally sponsored project of the Boulder-based Living GREEN Network (LGN). Fiscal sponsorship enables nonprofit organizations to further their mission by providing administrative, legal and tax-exempt status to smaller charitable groups. LGF was established in 2007 as a means to encourage creative environmental conservation, education, social entrepreneurial, philanthropic and nonprofit activity, both nationally and internationally. They look for partners with great ideas that make a positive contribution toward social and environmental well-being.