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One of the first things tourists notice when visiting Africa is the amazing creativity of its people. Creative displays aren't limited only to artists and musicians. Creativity is on display in everyday life as old tin cans are turned into oil burning lamps, discarded tires are refitted into the world's toughest footwear, tire rims are becoming charcoal stoves. Resources are few, nothing is wasted, and resilience and resourcefulness are evident everywhere as people craft something out of nothing over and over again.
The Kibo Group is looking for partners with great ideas for making their communities better: ideas about education, about healthcare, about technology, about business -- anything that can help a community on its way to a higher point. The ideas we like best are usually simple, local, sustainable and well thought out. We also like ideas that are brand new, risky, socially aware and entrepreneurial. We do not issue large grants, we closely follow our recipients and seek to develop a long term relationship with them.
We don't have the projects, we don't have the agenda, but rather a desire to partner with creative young (and old) Africans who know their communities, know their needs and have creative solutions they'd like to try. We know they are out there. Some are our close friends, some we meet on the web. We have partnered with them in small ways in the past and are looking forward to increased ability to pursue such relationships with our newly acquired non-profit status.
Intentions can be great; it's when they make the transition into interventions that problems often arise. Interventions by well-intentioned individuals and groups such as ours have a long history in Africa...and it has not always been a positive history. Accordingly, Kibo forges each partnership with certain limitations in mind. While proposed projects should be simple, local, sustainable and well thought out, that does not necessarily mean they will be simple, low tech and boring. Development is becoming increasingly difficult to define in East Africa as Ugandans, Tanzanians and Kenyans recreate and redefine daily what it means to be indigenous in the face of increasing interactions with Western modernity.
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