The Mercy Corps Blog

More then 3,600 students graduated last month from our INVEST vocational training program. If previous classes are any indication, 80% of them will find jobs or start businesses with their new skills. Photo: David Haines/Mercy Corps

Looking at the "parking lot," it seemed like the entire city of Lashkar Gah came out to see these young men and women commemorate their studies. Photo: David Haines/Mercy Corps

INVEST, our vocational training program in Helmand, Southern Afghanistan, has been running now for a little over a year. And last month, we graduated 3,615 students from the fourth semester — over a thousand of them were young women, many of whom had no education before enrolling in these courses.

The program targets out-of-work youth and offers them skills and financial literacy, enabling them to make their own way in the world. Since we opened the program to women, they’ve come to class with little knowledge of the world outside their tightly controlled home lives. They often begin with low self-confidence and little belief that there may be a future for them. They graduate as confident, ambitious young adults who want to contribute to society and make a difference in the world.

Over 80% of the INVEST students, men and women both, will go on to start businesses or get jobs. It’s a percentage that, for me, defies belief when you consider that these are not youngsters who have grown up in comfortable middle class environments in the West; instead, they were born into and lived through two decades of conflict. Almost all have lost close relatives to the fighting, many have seen their homes destroyed and many have fled the places where they grew up, just to survive.

Not only have they achieved something amazing — proving wrong the common misconception that Afghanistan is a failed state with no hope — but they have also had a significant impact on their society. The Governor of Helmand has stated that since this program began a year ago, the crime rate amongst young people has dropped, domestic disturbances have fallen and drug usage has dramatically decreased. He puts it down to one thing: These young people now have hope.

Working in development can be frustrating as progress is often maddeningly hard to pin down. But it is instances like this when you see that Mercy Corps and the international community can really make a difference. By tapping into latent talent and ambition, it is possible to harness enthusiasm and turn it into results. It is on days like this that doing this work really feels like the privilege that it is.

When we started this program, I was reading a book about changing lives for the better, and one line really stood out for me: “What matters is uniting people behind a common purpose, setting high expectations and sticking with it.”

This concept encapsulates the INVEST program, with its small but dedicated team and its large and committed student body. I get such a buzz when I see students that I have known personally now running their own shops or working for the Government or pursuing further study. Now that we have a new crop of graduates, I am looking forward to seeing what amazing things they will achieve, and how they will inspire the next generation of students.

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Mother around the world all want the same thing: happy, healthy children. Mercy Corps' Mothers Support Groups help new moms with skills and support to be the best for their kids. Photo: Jennifer Dillan/Mercy Corps

Portland, Seattle, Taipei, Jakarta, Brebes, Kutamendala. After 44 hours of travel my colleague and I wander into our final destination — a secluded village in the jungles of Java. We have come to make a video about some of the women who participate in Mercy Corps’ Mothers Support Group.

Because infant mortality remains high in Indonesia, education about breastfeeding, sanitation and health plays a crucial role in reducing illness. The women learn about improving the health of their young children by exclusively breastfeeding them for the first six months of their life. Since the program started in this village, breastfeeding rates have risen 23%.

As Creative Director at Mercy Corps, I work hard overseeing our creative output, but in a predictable work-week sort of way. This is not that. This is the surreal experience of walking through the photographs and stories plucked from the pages of our materials, like Alice in Wonderland. But very, very real.

Mercy Corps Creative Director Jennifer Dillan speaks with participants at one of the Mothers Support Groups we facilitate in Indonesia. Photo: Lisa Cicala/Mercy Corps

Sleep deprived, sweaty, bogged down with heavy gear, I feel the happy pulse of adrenaline that new experiences bring. Our welcome is warm and the women’s animated chatter in Bahasa is rhythmic and soothing. Food is offered: fritters, sweet tea, bananas and a hairy red fruit straight from Dr. Seuss called rombuton.

Nearly all of the women have babes-in-arms — on their hips, openly feeding at the breast, in a sling or a lap — and the babies aren't too keen on playing a supporting role. I look longingly at the cherubic faces and instantly connect to the shared experience of motherhood.

I left my own two kids at home. They are considerably older than these babies — 10 and 15 years old — but I miss them now just like I did when they were little. I think my job as a mom is to nurture my children wholeheartedly so that they can thrive and transform into amazing beings (yes, even when they take me to my personal precipice of patience).

Likewise, mothers adore their children in every corner of the planet. In the jungles of Indonesia or in Portland, Oregon, the drive to be the best mom possible doesn't vary.

Some of the participants travelled further than others to attend the meeting. One woman, Jumasih, is seven months pregnant and has committed to walking two hours roundtrip along slippery, narrow paths from a neighboring village.

Jumasih is seven months pregnant and walks two hours from a neighboring village so she can share tips and friendship with fellow moms at the Mothers Support Group. Photo: Jennifer Dillan/Mercy Corps

When I ask her what motivated her to come so far, she tells me that she enjoys learning new things and connecting with fellow mothers. She also mentions that she feels isolated at times. I remember how profoundly isolated I felt from my community when my own son was first born. I needed support more than ever and didn’t know where to get it. That was 15 years ago and a continent away, and yet I know exactly how she feels in that moment.

During our conversation, the women share their enthusiasm about the program. It has enriched the well-being of their children and themselves. They learn important information, foster a needed community and are inspired to spread the news to other young mothers.

It's a comforting realm women inhabit to nurture and get nurtured. The maternal warmth here in particular reminds of the shared human experience that connects me with the work that Mercy Corps does all over the world. While I can't wait to get home and hug my kids, I am so happy to be here, surrounded by healthier babies and happier mothers. I could have stayed for days.

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Every day, people are taking a stand for others in need, and they partner with Mercy Corps to do so. Millions of dollars are raised and millions of lives improved because of fundraising efforts driven by individuals and groups all around the world.

And now it's even easier to start a movement in your own community. Our redesigned online personal fundraising pages help you raise funds and awareness for the issues you care about — and where Mercy Corps is making a difference.

Fady created an online fundraising page to celebrate his birthday. Photo: Courtesy of Fady Masoud

You have the ability to choose where to fundraise for, such as the Horn of Africa or simply to send funds where they are needed most. Pages are easy to set up, designed to share with friends and family, and collect donations in a quick, streamlined interface. It's a place to bring your community together around a single goal, and everyone can watch the progress you're all making together.

In fact, fundraising pages are a great way to commemorate birthdays, weddings and other special occasions. Our friend Fady Masoud created a fundraising page for his birthday, saying it was "one of the simplest pages to set up — clear, concise and asks for relevant information only! It took me about 5 minutes." Check out Fady's page.

To get started and create your own fundraising page, visit the Fundraise for us section and and click "Get started." Your fundraising page can move Mercy Corps forward in our mission to save and improve lives in the world's toughest places.

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The sun sets over the water — both a valuable resource to rural Colombian communities and a danger if not managed well. Photo: Anne Castleton/Mercy Corps

I just returned from a trip to Colombia where, instead of sitting behind a computer, I sat in planes, taxis, boats, vans, dugout canoes and on horseback — in one day. Going to see Mercy Corps’ projects that have responded to last year’s floods required some intrepid travel to the Atlántico and Cordoba departments in the northern Caribbean region of the country. We were also there to monitor ongoing Xylem-funded activities designed to strengthen communities against future water-related disasters.

I was accompanied by Oregon's former State Conservation Engineer, David Dishman, who volunteered to share his technical expertise to help these communities recover in long term ways. In the wake of those recent severe floods — and facing rising sea levels as a consequence of climate change — Mercy Corps staff in Colombia are interested in developing a country-wide strategy to better protect themselves from flooding in the future, and I was there to help facilitate initial planning.

Horses rounded up community members brought Mercy Corps staff to Oriente, where they heard from residents about their water challenges. Photo: Anne Castleton/Mercy Corps

But first, we flew down to Monteria, capital of the department of Córdoba, and drove to Ayapel to visit flooded communities on the lake. Some natural dikes on the River Cauca recently burst during the flooding season, and Mercy Corps has been distributing emergency food aid; we are now moving into a food-for-work phase of the recovery, when people can begin rebuilding their community. Xylem also supports Mercy Corps with a standing emergency fund and donated funding to help two remote communities on the lake in the Ayapel municipality. Because the dike has not been fully repaired (for political rather than technical or financial reasons), these communities, along with many others on the lake, have remained flooded and have not planted crops for nearly three years.

We left the hotel at 5:30 a.m. to head to the boat launch. About a dozen Mercy Corps team members piled into a boat with a small outboard motor and headed across the lake. Ninety minutes later we reached a community that is a distribution site for the emergency food project. It was also was home to many bats.

There we transferred to more than 20 horses, which had been rounded up from community members for our visit, and traveled 45 minutes on horseback to the community of Oriente. The residents were gathered to tell us about their water challenges and had prepared a delicious lunch for us — turtle eggs.

The team traveled through the jungle in dugout canoes to reach another community, Guartinaja, where Mercy Corps is helping the residents build better protection from floods. Photo: Anne Castleton/Mercy Corps

After our feast, we walked 30 minutes and arrived at a rickety boardwalk where men from the community were ready to help us into their dugout canoes, which would take us another 45 minutes to the community of Guartinaja. They used poles to silently glide through a pristine jungle full of wild birds, water fowl and some domestic livestock (including water buffaloes).

Some of us had the good fortune to ride in dry, non-leaking dugout canoes. But not me. I met the good people of Guartinaja with a soaking wet derriere!

We retraced our steps and modes of transportation back to Ayapel just as the sun was setting over the lake. Everyone was tired on the boat ride back which allowed me to reflect on the day and how people we met treated us as though we had personally provided them help. It was very humbling to receive their gratitude on behalf of a global organization, a generous corporation and foundation, and the US government. It was a perfect day in the field.

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George Ngethe surveys the tea seedlings in the nursery he started with other young people in his village through Mercy Corps' Yes Youth Can program. Photo: Salma Bahramy/Mercy Corps

I’m crouched inside a tea nursery high up in the Central Rift Valley of Kenya, and George Ngethe is patiently explaining to me how tea is produced.

“What you see here will look like that in less than a year,” he points to the hills all around us. We’re surrounded by thousands of acres of tea bushes owned by small farmers throughout this Kenya’s largest province.

Just a few months ago, George and some other local young people started this nursery with the extra cuttings from the surrounding farms. Today, it holds over 8,000 seedlings that will sell for about 10 Kenyan shillings each, slightly above local market price.

So how did a few local kids enter Kenya’s booming tea market? George is part of Mercy Corps’ Yes Youth Can program in Kenya, which was created with funding from USAID to help empower young people to create businesses and promote positive change in their communities.

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Yousry Mehdi, as part of our Empowering Youth for a Stable Yemen project, leads a community service project rehabilitating part of the local mental health hospital in Aden. Photo: Victoria Stranski/Mercy Corps

Yemen’s youth are demanding change across the country on a large scale, but I’ve also seen them bring it in their communities one improvement at a time. Through our Engaging Youth for a Stable Yemen (EYSY) program, Mercy Corps is working to keep Yemeni youth away from violent activities and extremist groups by channeling their time and energy into civic life.

A few months ago, I visited ten young people in Aden who launched a community service project to bring a ward at the city’s Neuro-Psychiatric Teaching Hospital back to life. Over the course of three days, they provided new bed sheets and cleaned and painted a 208-patient section that was previously unusable.

“I passed by this hospital every day and wanted to do something to help,” said Yousry Mehdi, who is currently studying business management. His brother Yasir and friend Iman Hamood agreed, adding, “We wanted to take action to develop our lives and community.”

All three young men participated in EYSY workshops to prepare for the project. This USAID-funded program helps young people form positive social connections and overcome generational and community divisions with a combination of conflict management, consensus building and leadership training; dialogues between community, government and youth; community service projects; and internships.

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One of the great things about my job is that I get to meet people who contribute to social change from a million different angles. But of all the people I’ve met through my work at Mercy Corps, few have been as inspiring as a group of activists I met in Benghazi during a trip to Libya last week.

Ramadan, an ex-rebel soldier, and other activists tell Mercy Corps staff how they are fighting in a different way now — for a strong democratic government that makes the revolution worth it. Photo: Jeremy Barnicle/Mercy Corps

Benghazi, you will recall, was the birthplace of a revolution that ended the 42-year rule of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi last October, and when you look at what these people accomplished it is stunning.  
 
I am ashamed to admit that until my trip last week I tended to lump Libya’s transition in with the transitions of its neighbors Egypt and Tunisia: After a decades-long dictatorship, people finally got fed up, took to the streets in huge numbers and brought down the regime — and are now struggling to figure out what comes next. 

But this trip reminded me that Libya was different. Libyans fought an eight-month war that involved heavy NATO bombing, caused thousands of deaths, and temporarily displaced hundreds of thousands of people. So, for all the jubilation over Qaddafi’s demise, it’s also clear this is a place and a population in the early stages of a long recovery after a traumatic conflict.
 
That’s why I found these Benghazi activists so humbling. They took huge risks to overthrow Qaddafi, and they all endured hardship of varying degrees. But especially in Benghazi, there was an energy and optimism that made a stable, thriving democracy seem within reach.

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Tomihiro Kashiwagi and his wife, Akiko, have launched a new business converting cooking oil into fuel with a machine bought with a Mercy Corps small business grant. Photo: Randy Martin/Mercy Corps

If you had never visited Japan’s tsunami-ravaged coast until this week, the bleak landscape where homes and businesses once stood would be sobering.

Having watched the relief effort and the recovery, my visits back to the Tohoku region have been increasingly reassuring. In fact, my recent visit with colleagues from PlaNet Finance Japan and NVIDIA was inspiring. We were there to witness the signs of recovery – and we found many.

At a recent event organized by Kesennuma Shinkin, a local cooperative bank we’re partnering with to support small business recovery, 13 entrepreneurs were awarded grants. The recipients from Kesennuma and three neighboring coastal towns have used the funds to start new businesses in the disaster area. Their businesses run the gamut — from a day care center, a fish processor and a baker to a machine repair shop, a mulberry tea producer and an ice-making factory.

In only five months since its inauguration, the grant program has funded the startup of 20 new businesses (like the three featured in this video) and supported the recovery of an additional 50 businesses through a loan subsidy program. Well over 300 jobs have been created in the process. These numbers will continue to grow thanks in part to a significant contribution from NVIDIA.

But the program does more than restore jobs — it recreates livelihoods and self-determination. Each of the entrepreneurs has an incredible story to tell and an important contribution to make.

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Office workers evacuated outside their building in Medan, Northern Sumatra, after the first earthquake hit Indonesia today. Photo: Reuters/Y.T Haryono, courtesy the Thomson Reuters Foundation – AlertNet

Updated April 13, 2012: Given the scale of the earthquakes that hit on Wednesday, the damage and impact on lives in West Sumatra's Aceh province has been minimal.

According to scientists, this was one of the biggest slide earthquakes on record — at the fault line, the plates on the ocean floor moved horizontally a massive 70 feet. Because this was a horizontal movement, however, there was no tsunami and only minimal structural damage. It became apparent by Wednesday night and early Thursday morning that a big humanitarian response would likely be unnecessary.

We mobilized former team members on the ground in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh cities to assess the situation. While they saw large populations camped out on higher ground that first night, people have since returned home. The government has reported five deaths from heart attacks caused by shock and six injured in the quake, but they are not requesting any international support. As far as we are aware, there has been no displacement.

Today at 3:38 p.m. local time (1:38 a.m. PST), an 8.6 earthquake hit off the coast of Aceh Province in Sumatra, Indonesia — the same site of the deadly 2004 earthquake that triggered a tsunami killing 230,000 people. While we’ll have a team on the ground tomorrow to carefully assess the needs in the area, reports so far indicate far less damage and no fatalities — thanks in part to emergency preparedness work throughout the country in the eight years since the earlier tragedy.

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Women of all ages are so grateful to learn how to read and write at Mercy Corps' WAI literacy centers. Photo: Essam Al-Sudani for Mercy Corps

The noise was deafening. I had asked a simple question — “How has the WAI program changed your life?” — and everyone had an answer. I didn’t know what to focus on. Spoons clinked in tea glasses and the women never stopped talking. They said it was like they were imprisoned with no one to listen to their stories. One of them begged to me to tell me her tale, and when she started talking, another woman interrupted her to insist I listen to hers.

I had come to this learning center, run by Mercy Corps’ Women’s Awareness and Inclusion (WAI) program, to learn how literacy is impacting Iraqi women. Funded by USAID through our Community Action Program (CAP), there are currently 5,000 women enrolled in WAI classes at 88 centers across Southern Iraq.

Through my work as a mobilizer for CAP, I see the multitude of challenges faced by women in Southern Iraq everyday. Women are often denied their rights, and even more frequently, don’t even know what they are. My colleague, Venus, suggested I visit a literacy center to truly see the difference Mercy Corps is making in the lives of women here.

So we went to Al-Khdir district in the south of Al-Muthana province and discovered how many stories there were to be told.

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