Africa Bridge

I grew up in rural Tanzania. I attended high school, worked on a farm and graduated from university in South Africa.  

In 1968 I moved to London and started a career with Exxon. In 1985 I joined Abbott Laboratories in Germany and later moved to the US. I have lived in 7 countries on 3 continents and encountered many different cultures.  

I first went back to Tanzania in 1998. I saw the changes and wrote “I am going to do something”. It was vow and out of this came the gift (to me) of Africa Bridge which I founded in 2000.  

My heart allowed me to imagine Africa Bridge. My work experiences in sales, team dynamics, project management, HR, and TQM gave me the tools to create the Africa Bridge program model.  

My dream is to transform the lives of most vulnerable children in Tanzania and across Africa.

Africa Bridge serves the most vulnerable children (MVC) living in rural Tanzanian villages. The realities are harsh: incomes are between $1 to $2 per day; there is no electricity; few paved roads; insufficient health facilities; rates of MVC are between 20% to 35%. The challenges are poverty, access to healthcare and education, and a climate of hopelessness.  

Our work combines forming family income generating cooperatives with psycho-social solutions delivered by trained village volunteers.  

The incomes of participating families increase dramatically while the MVC and their families receive psycho-social and paralegal services.  After several years the children to eat three meals a day, eat protein regularly, attend school, and receive basic healthcare.  

  The self-generated increase in incomes together with services provided by neighbors, fosters self-esteem. Participating families become more hopeful and start new enterprises elevating not only themselves but their whole community. 

I was raised in rural Tanzania and went on to live a fulfilling life. Most of the village children I grew with were fortunate if they received an education and earned enough to lift themselves out of poverty. Why was that? I was not an exceptional child. It was luck. I was born into a white family that had the resources to provide me with food, healthcare and an education. The challenge I faced in December 1998 was how could I level the playing field for most vulnerable children (MVC) in Tanzania?  

66% of Tanzanians live in rural communities. They are among the poorest in the world. In the 1950’s the Tanzanian population was under 10 million, today it is over 50 million. The combination of a limited availability of arable land, out-of-date agricultural practices, and a lack of access to capital lead to enduring poverty. The government has few resources and there is limited infrastructure, healthcare, and education.  

These children and their caregivers are confronted by poverty, diseases, a lack of basic services and a climate of hopelessness. The challenges are immense.

Africa Bridge has developed an effective and scalable model to transform the lives of Most Vulnerable Children (MVC) living in impoverished rural communities of Tanzania over a five-year time-frame. To date the model has been replicated in 37 village communities.    

We combine an income generating initiative with a psycho-social and paralegal service entity called a Most Vulnerable Children’s Committee (MVCC) to increase the well-being of MVC and their host families.  Our co-op model provides start-up capital with extensive training. The MVCC are made up of village volunteers trained by Africa Bridge. It has a proven track record of increasing participants annual incomes from $400 to $1,200 to $2,000 and more. This enables MVC families to send their children to school, eat three meals a day, and receive basic health care.  

Sustainability is ensured by going through an intensive planning process with all stakeholders before project initiation; making the community and local government jointly responsible for project success; and making the co-ops and MVCC codependent.  

Success is achieved when family incomes increase, co-ops expand, part of co-op revenues flow to the MVCC, MVC well-being improves, and the surrounding community members begin to share in the overall success.

Our clients are the most vulnerable children (MVC) in the villages of SW Tanzania. Most families survive by subsistence farming. Average incomes are between $1 to $2 a day and the rate of HIV/AIDS is 13%.  Roads are unpaved and electricity supply is rare. Typically, MVC eat one meal a day, and protein is a luxury. Many MVC do not go to school and few have access to healthcare.  

Our first action in any new community is to listen to the children. We conduct two 3-day strategic Future Focus meetings beginning with children and youth, and then with child representatives and local community leaders. This results in a bottom up needs analysis and a community plan to provide volunteer support services and income generating opportunities to the families caring for MVC.  

The MVC and their families receive psycho-social and paralegal services and after several years’ family incomes increase dramatically. This enables children to eat three meals a day, consume protein regularly, attend school and receive basic healthcare.    

The successes generated by the MVC families and MVCC volunteers create a sense optimism that empowers participants to start new enterprises and to take on community leadership roles.

The impact the Africa Bridge approach has a ripple effect. Our project is aimed at transforming the well-being of MVC. However, in order for that to happen it is necessary that family incomes increase and all receive support services resulting in the elevation of the whole family.  As the cooperatives expand and the co-op members start new ventures the benefits of the increased incomes spread to other community members.  

Women in particular gain the confidence to diversify and start new businesses, become social leaders, and stand for local government positions. 

This leads to feelings of accomplishment and hope.

In December 1998 I went back in Tanzania for the first time in 37 years. The people were still welcoming and the country beautiful. However, the population had grown five-fold and the farming practices had changed little. Poverty was now prevalent and HIV/AIDS was rife. The combination of these factors significantly impacted the well-being of the children. One morning, I wrote in my journal, “I am going to do something”. When I returned to the States, I decided to retire early and start Africa Bridge. Tanzania had given me a unique childhood, and I needed to do something for my community.  

I did not know how I could change the lives of MVC. I began by doing a series of over 50 interviews in Tanzania and South Africa. Then in 2002 I conducted a Future Search meeting for 60 children from Idweli village. The interviews and the children’s meeting were the crucible from which our program model emerged. The first income generating projects were a total failure. The first-generation co-ops were effective but not sustainable. Continuous improvements have been made over the years, leading to a robust model. What we do now is not just sustainable, it is generative.

In 1950, I was six years old, and my family was sailing to the UK on a cargo ship. We docked in Port Said. The air was hot and smelt of rotten fruit. A small Egyptian boy dressed in ragged clothes approached. His arms reached out and in broken English he said, “No mother. No father . No curry. No rice. Poor little orphan child”. I was transfixed; I wanted to help but I did not know what to do. I turned to my father; he gave me a coin which I gave to the boy. The incident left me feeling empty. A gap I did not begin to fill until later in life.    

After my 1998 trip to Tanzania, I realized what an indelible print the country had left on me. The country had given me many incredible gifts. At the same time Tanzanians were being ravaged by the double punch of poverty and HIV/AIDS. Children were the most vulnerable in this catastrophe. I believe that the future of all nation is in the hands of its children. Hence, my mission was clear.  

I have intellectual knowledge and a visceral understanding of the context. I grew up in Tanzania. From the age of four I would go on safari with my father who was an Agricultural Officer. I watched how he worked with the villagers. It was a process of involving the whole community, providing training, and demonstrations, supporting early adopters, and following up. He loved the work and the people. Before going to university, I worked for a year on a dairy farm.  

I had the good fortune to work for two of the best managed corporations in the world, Exxon and Abbott Laboratories in the UK, Germany, and the US. I worked as an individual contributor, manager and director, at regional, national and international levels. I served in multiple functions, marketing, sales, HR, IT, operations, leadership development and TQM. I learned how to get results in many different functions, countries and cultures. I came to understand that to run an effective project one must have the “hard stuff” such as capital, manpower, and technical skills but, also the “soft stuff” such as empathy, listening, and love.  

In 2000 I took early retirement from Abbott and founded Africa Bridge. I had few resources. However, Africa Bridge has gone from serving 1 village to 37, reaching approximately 10,000 MVC and thousands more care givers. The critical factors are working from the bottom up, enrolling others, taking a holistic perspective, and having the courage to move toward challenges.

In 2002, after months of meetings and interviews, our board and two experienced nonprofit advisors came to a consensus on building and launching the GCC (Godfrey’s Children Center) in the village of Idweli. I was assured that the village and a Tanzanian NGO would take over the operation after the launch. It was envisaged that building Children’s Centers would become the basis of our work.  

The GCC opened in May 2005. The 50 MVC flourished. However, no funding support from the village and the Tanzanian NGO were forthcoming. It became clear that 200 children needed to be in the GCC, not just 50. Meanwhile our co-op pilots were beginning to prove successful.  

I was at a crossroad. The GCC helped some of the children but made the community dependent. However, the co-ops had the potential to transform the lives of all the vulnerable children and make their families independent. I had to choose between a sure bet for some or the possibility of helping them all.  

In March 2007 I met with all the parties involved. After a four-hour meeting, a plan to close the GCC and instead focus on co-ops was agreed upon.

When I formed Africa Bridge. I believed that my experience in the business world was a valuable resource.  

Initially I struggled to find ways to do this.  In 2002 after the Idweli Future Searches, one of the actions was to start 13 income generating activities (IGA). 12 failed. I learned that alleviating poverty is one of the most daunting challenges anyone can take on.  

Two local churches were establishing IGA co-ops in our area. I decided to collaborated with them to pilot a pig and potato co-op in Idweli. Initially it was difficult determining which families were most eligible to join a co-op. We solved this in 2008 by introducing MVCC. One of the first tasks of an MVCC is to conduct a village census ascertaining the vulnerability all households.  

In 2012 we started recruiting villagers as problem solvers to, for example to ensure a quick response to animal or plant diseases. Currently we are piloting filters to ensure all new co-op members have the commitment to overcome the challenges of diseases, fluctuations of the market, and the costs of inputs.  

Establishing sustainable coops has taken listening, collaboration, creativity, courage, and persistence.