Posts by Lori McIlvaine
October 11, 2010
Lauren, Matt, and Erin are busy preparing for traveling to Nicaragua at the end of November. Check back for details!
October 11, 2010
The World Health Organization released their list of selections for the Call for Innovative Technologies that Address Global Health Concerns. A solar-powered autoclave is one of the featured technologies.
March 16, 2010
Click to read about Inauguration of a Microhydro Installation in El_Roblar. Richard Komp writes about his experience at its inauguration, as well as describes technical aspects of the installation.
July 25, 2009
Since January, I have been working at Whole Day Café, a locally-owned coffee/sandwhich/pastry shop in Wadsworth, Ohio. There, we do not accept tips. However, if tips are left, they are donated to a good cause, such as an orphanage in Guatemala or Relay for Life. Tips for the months of June and July were given to Salud del Sol, Inc.
Thanks to all of the workers and owners of Whole Day Café. Without such great service, such a generous donation could not have been made!
July 24, 2009
While the on-site blogs are certainly much more exciting, some exciting developments have been taking place on the home-front, too, that I would like to share.
On Thursday, July 2nd, I was invited to speak at my hometown’s Rotary Club. I was asked to tell the Wadsworth Rotary Club about my experience in Nicaragua and with Salud del Sol, Inc. They were quite intrigued, and especially pleased at our past interactions with the Rotary Club in Ocotál, Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan and U.S. Rotary meetings are strikingly similar… from food and fellowship, to learning, service, and of course, song.
This could be the start of a fruitful partnership. Some members of the Club are traveling to Nicaragua this winter to do service. I will be helping them to prepare for their trip and identify valuable service opportunities in Nicaragua. I´m excited to see where this partnership goes.
April 15, 2009
While I certainly did not attend the Summit with the intention of making friends, doing so was such a wonderful by-product! Madeline, Tracy, Catlin, Nadege… the list goes on and on of all of the wonderful relationships I made and hope to continue and even strengthen in the future. I have learned and have yet to learn so many things from these people, and I can see so many future partnerships for Salud del Sol.
I was able to attend Easter Mass before the final day’s activities commenced. We then participated in an open forum, which proved really useful. With everyone in the same room, we each wrote down our “burning questions” that we were still pondering. Then, six people were chosen to share their question and lead a discussion around that topic. The rest of us were encouraged to join one or more discussions, then each group reported their findings back to the whole group. I joined in a discussion about technology dispersion and organizational scaling. As one of the four more-developed projects represented in the conversation, I was able to provide a lot of good questions and reflections from Salud del Sol’s experience with the solar autoclave venture. We first differentiated between horizontal scaling (spreading the solar autoclave product or business model to rural clinics in other countries) and 3-D scaling (expanding into other arenas, such as military use of the product). The type of expansion we want determines our strategies for scaling, as well as IP protection. Other delegates provided a lot of brainstorming ideas for scaling strategies for the solar autoclave, as well as the three other implementation-stage projects. The general consensus for the most socially responsible approach to expansion was to support the global diffusion of ideas and the local diffusion of services and products.
The open forum was followed by our final small group session, wherein we provided feedback about the conference to the facilitators. This group of people, though from very different backgrounds and with very different projects, has proven such a valuable resource for discussion, acting as both a soundboard and a provider of critique. Our small group decided to continue this network through a Facebook group… appropriate, given the lessons I learned this week about the importance of social media networking! The summit ended with a luncheon, final announcements, and a picture slideshow of the week. We all exchanged any last-minute contact info, gave our hugs, and headed out. I was so excited to see my family, but it was sad to leave. But I can’t begin to describe the amount of inspiration and confidence gained through this Summit experience. The experience was so full and so rich that I was absolutely exhausted upon leaving. After resting up, however, I was excited to begin digesting all that had transpired at the Summit.
April 15, 2009
Saturday’s workshops were my favorite. My first one was about Social Media Marketing—basically, using tools like Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, and Google to further the goals of our organizations. Elliot Greenberger, of See3 Communications, first gave an overview of the main players within each utility, so he outlined important social networking, information finding, and blogging tools. He encouraged us to carefully consider what our goals are, instead of just jumping in to a tool because it is popular or new. He also advised us to use one or two tools really well, instead of trying to use too many different tools. Social media marketing, he said, is about STAR: storytelling, transparency, accountability, and relationships. The workshop was informative, but not overwhelming, as I had feared it would be. I tend to be wary of new and complicated software, but I left the workshop excited about the new tools, ideas, and tool functions I came away with, ready to expand the web presence of Salud del Sol.
The second workshop was about Socially Responsible Media. Daniel Yang and Harish Patel of Project Focus, led a discussion about the questions to ask and things to consider in the advertisement that organizations like ours will do. The main take-away was general disdain for pictures of African children with pot-bellies and snot, but we delved a lot further into the purpose of non-profit marketing, and how the images chosen will go along with the purpose. We examined two advertisements, one from Aldo Fights Aids and one from the Peace Corps, in small groups, to pick out the positive and negative things about both ads. We generally concluded that, though it is so common among non-profit advertising today, pity and guilt should not be the emotions we try to evoke. Rather, our media should work to promote emotions such as empathy, compassion, and solidarity. I hope to keep this in mind when adding media to any Salud del Sol-related material, including the website or future mailings. I think we’ve done a good job with this so far, but I invite feedback to anything on our site.
All that before lunchtime!! During lunch, I was one of four people interviewed by Pivot Nonprofit Consulting. A year of pro-bono consulting from this Chicago-based firm was one of the possible outcomes for delegates, and our project was one of four projects chosen as potential candidates for this outcome. While we did not end up getting this outcome, it was a really great interview, and I was really encouraged that the autoclave was chosen and that the members of Pivot doing the interview were so enthusiastic about us.
The afternoon included some announcements and small group time. Catlin Powers of One Earth Designs, a fellow delegate and member of my small group, and I used the time to peer-review each other’s projects. Both of our projects are implementation-stage projects, so we were able to offer each other valuable input.
Then, the closing keynote of the Summit was given by Premal Shah, of Kiva!!! I have been admiring this organization from afar for a few years now, impressed by its conception and how it has helped to make micro-finance popular. To hear him speak, however, was even more inspiring! He began with a quote from Howard Thurman:
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
But his speech was not just about inspiring us to continue the work we are doing. He gave us practical advice on using the web to further our project’s goals. He really encouraged full disclosure, first of all, calling us all to publically reveal all of our weaknesses. This not only builds trust, but also allows us to get feedback and advice that could help us. He encouraged connecting patrons to the cause as personally as possible. He talked about the success of his organization, especially how it encourages a business relationship based on mutual dignity, not pity.
I was inspired to keep going with the solar autoclave project, for Kiva struggled for years before serendipity striked and Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. This sparked mass interest in social investment, and Kiva was there to guide the middle class in its investments. Kiva has been the path through which he has connected vocation with avocation… very similar to my own experience with Salud del Sol, and I hope the experiences of the other co-founders.
April 13, 2009
Friday began with what I thought was a really innovative part of this conference: individual mentorships. Each delegate was paired up with a facilitator, most of whom were workshop facilitators or nonprofit company representatives. We had half an hour to discuss our projects and get feedback. Megha Agrawal, who has been working on a really cool project in Uganda, gave me some great advice for Salud del Sol. Importantly, she asked some questions that will be important as we move forward with implementation and training, including challenging me to really utilize ABCD–Asset-Based Community Development–ideas as we move forward. I also look forward to really looking through the “Theory of Change” worksheet we were all given during our mentorship sessions… it’s a tool to use to better articulate goals, identify obstacles, and make sure that our activities are appropriate and effective.
This was followed by my third workshop, which was “Public Health in the Developing World.” Victor Roy, of GlobeMed, led is in a discussion about the main players in the global health arena and a big-picture look at the terms “sustainability” and “pragmatic solidarity.” We then looked at a case study of a public health partner organization in Nepal, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the hypothetical partnership with any of our own organizations. We took this analysis even further by ranking five hypothetical programs by the partner in the case study, according to what we thought were the most effective or ideal programs. The workshop ended by exploring each of our projects in small groups, especially brainstorming potential partner organizations and the roles they would play.
We ate lunch at tables according to the regions in which each of our organizations work. It was mainly for networking purposes, and it was really great to get to talk to other people interested in Central America.
My next workshop was “ICT: Information Communication Technology,” led by Ken Banks of Kiwanja. I am excited to continue thinking about the potential that ICT has within the goals of the solar autoclave project. Particularly in this workshop, we discussed the appropriateness of different technologies. For example, what is better–a drum or a cell phone? It depends on the environment and the use. Similarly, our organizations need to consider the pros and cons of any communication technology we utilize, whether that is laptops, text messaging, or radio. SMS is the simple, low-cost technology of today, so I’ve been brainstorming about potential uses within our project… any ideas?!
Our small group session centered on discussing the article, “The toxis trickle downward,” from The Economist. This article points out, quite depressingly, the impact that the recent economic crisis has had and will have on developing countries. It led to a discussion about what the article missed, such as the effect it will have on war and climate change. But then we turned to signs of hope. Alex Merkovic of Global Peace Exchange pointed out that while some funds have recently dried up, private donations and foundation grants have increased. We discussed the successes of microfinance, as well as the continued spread of mobile phones, despite the crisis. Before reading the article, I did not realize the far-reaching repercussions of the crisis, which has the potential to affect our organization and our partners from multiple angles, all of which are important to consider.
The day ended with CareerConnect, which was mostly an opportunity to talk with some really great people from some really great organizations. I met Jason Selwitz from Green Empowerment, who works with many organizations, including AsoFenix in Nicaragua–a partner organization to Grupo Fenix! Small world!
April 11, 2009
Thursday of the Global Engagement Summit began with a 3-block walk from my homestay to breakfast at the Norris Center, Student Union at Northwestern University. Each delegate attended four 40-minute sessions as part of the “Core Curriculum.” I began by learning about Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) from Dr. Paul Arntson. The ABCD approach directly counters the current commonality of needs- or deficiencies-based development, wherein people or organizations come into a community and identify its needs, then try to fix them. Instead, ABCD involves mapping a community’s assets, combining these with your organization’s assets, and then putting these together for community development. Interesting to me, the capacity assessment we began with included identifying and sharing our gifts of the head, heart, and hands, which happen to be the three focus areas that we use to organize the Lay Marianist community I am a part of.
My next workshop was on Impact Assessment and Metrics, run by Allison Johnson of Mission Measurement, a Chicago-based organization that helps nonprofits to measure how effectively they achieve their missions. I am excited to further explore this topic, as mission measurement is important for our fundraising, strategy, and communications. She especially emphasized the importance of tracking our outcomes versus our activities.
The third workshop was a grant writing primer by Noah Jenkins, a freelance consultant, which provided us with information about basic sources for grants, pieces of a typical grant application, and some good tips. Finally, I attended a workshop by Molly Day of CampusCatalyst about Mission and Vision Development. While Salud del Sol has hashed out our mission and vision statements multiple times, it is still always good to take another look at them and ensure that these statements correctly portray our goals.
Over lunch, we each had a 10-minute consultation about what Outcomes we should apply for. GES provides many Outcomes for its delegates, that range from consulting to fundraising to metrics, so this was our first chance to learn what Outcomes to apply for. After lunch, I attended a workshop, also by Dr. Paul Arnston, about Community Consulting. We first explored the difference between community expectations and institutional expectations. He spoke of consensual interdependence as an important part of the ABCD model. We discussed communication, and how all communication has to end with feedback in order to be effective. The most interesting topic we discussed was the importance of three feedback loops between three “players” in community communication: the community’s values and beliefs, the problems of the community’s citizens, and the professional’s treatment plans. If there is not two-way feedback between each of these three players, communication will be ineffective. This is especially pertinent to our project in that we should further explore the values and beliefs of our community partners, particularly the nurses and other health providers, to ensure the acceptance of the solar autoclave technology.
We ended the day with a small group discussion about our personal motivations for our projects, especially challenging ourselves with Ivan Illich’s article, “To Hell With Good Intentions,” in which he spoke against any and all mission or development work. The conversation was sooo fruitful, and I’m still working through the arguments that came up. We finally got to experience Open Shutter, an art exhibit by Northwestern students showing socially responsible art intended to raise awareness and cultural appreciation.
The day was so full of new knowledge and conversations… incredible!!! I’ll continue blogging over the next few weeks to delve deeper into the issues raised and relationships developed… all that will be so beneficial for Salud del Sol.
April 10, 2009
I arrived, by plane and bus, in Evanston, IL just in time for the opening banquet of the Global Engagement Summit on Wednesday evening. I was instantly surrounded by 80 delegates from around the world, as well as an amazing staff made of Northwestern students. Every turn, I met someone who, on a normal day, I would feel privileged to encounter. All of the delegates have a passion about their project… some projects are in the idea phase, some in planning, and some in implementation phase (ours is somewhere between planning and implementation). All projects are about social development around the world. “Who are you?” “Where are you from?” and “What is your project?” are the questions, and they always result in an amazing conversation.
The opening banquet, where we sat with our assigned “small groups” for the summit, was followed by a keynote address by Nathaniel Whittemore, the founder of GES. I was inspired, as he talked about his hope for the summit, and our generation in general. Prior generations, he said, are accustomed to settling and accepting things the way they are. Our generation is “just naive enough” to not settle. We are aware of injustice, we realize that we are often even a part of the injustice, and we work to overcome it. I encourage you to read the address, found here. “Our obligation is to find our passion, and to unleash the passion of others,” he said. “Our responsibility is to remember that systems of oppression were created by people, and so too can people undo them. Our hope is to never stop believing that we can change the world, because we must.”
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