No, this post isn't about the Alaska legislature!
Introducing generosity: A couple of years ago, an American on safari visited the elementary school in Minjingu. Minjingu is near the entrance to the national parks of Tarangire, Lake Eyasi and Lake Manyara. Most of the kids in the school are Maasai. Like many western tourists, he was overwhelmed by the needs of the school and generously offered to help build a new latrine. The existing latrine at this school has many problems -- it is water based in an especially arid region; half of it has already collapsed and been covered over, leaving only 8 "stalls" to serve between 600 - 800 kids. The "stalls" have no doors; 2 of them have ragged blue tarps strung across the openings -- these are for the girls! None of the elementary schools we have visited have toilets in the main buildings. All the schools have a latrine building separate from the rest of the buildings; most of the latrines are just pit toilets like a row of outhouses all lined up together under one roof. The one at Minjingu is just especially bad.
When the American tourist promised support for the latrines, the cost estimate for construction came from some of the teachers rather than an engineer. The American took the estimate at face value and promised the money. One of Janet's relatives is a teacher at Minjingu and when the support failed to arrive, she called Janet and asked her to follow up on the offer.
Janet contacted the American and offered a couple of options for him: give the money directly to the school; donate it into the school's account or donate it to Asante Network and let Asante oversee the construction of the latrine. Janet knew what would happen to the money were it just given outright to the school . . .
Asante Network agreed to oversee the project, and the money was donated. Asante hired Immanuel, (Janet and Julie's brother) who has construction knowledge and building sense, to be the manager. Immanuel went to work. The building site was excavated, and then the rains came. The entire hole collapsed and had to be re-excavated and then shored up from bottom to top with logs, stone and concrete. Ima worked diligently and efficiently to accomplish this extra step without breaking the budget. His efforts were supported by the school principal and the school staff.
Enter greed: A school board member started rumors with the village council that Ima and a few of the teachers were skimming money from the project. The school board member wanted to be the one to manage the project; or at least wanted a cut of the money since she didn't feel that a non-school board person should be in charge.
And corruption: The village council wanted it's share of the money, so they disputed Ima's work and the quality of the materials he was using. The village council even hired its own inspector to state that Ima's work was sub-standard -- this after the official government inspector had already commended the construction thus far! Immanuel walked off the job until the school staff, the school board and the village council came to some kind of agreement on the project.
This was the status of the project when Stan and I visited last week. After walking around the site, taking lots of photos and listening to the discussion between Ima and the school principal. we went in to meet with the rest of the staff (which included the school board member). We were met by a staff which, while not hostile, wasn't exactly welcoming . . .
There was lots of discussion which became quite heated! Unfortunately it was all in Swahili, so Stan and I couldn't understand any of it. Finally I asked Ima to explain what was happening. Turns out, the village council had met the previous day. The school board member was again insisting that she be on the payroll -- and the other school staff were disagreeing with her demands. I asked if I could speak. Since all the school staff understood English rather well (!) I was able to make the following points: who and what Asante Network is; how the money came to Asante for the latrine; why Ima was hired; who received the money from Asante, especially the fact that no one had received any money from Asante for the project except Ima, and that was only after he presented us with receipts; etc., etc.
By the end of the meeting, everyone agreed that they wanted Ima to come back to work and finish the project. They all agreed that he would be the one in charge and that there would be no control by either the school board member or the village council. Both were free to offer advice but all agreed that Ima was ultimately in charge. One of the teachers was to inform the village council of the decision.
Whew! Another example of how good intentions and generous acts can be misunderstood, misinterpreted and veer way off track because of greed and corruption. Hopefully this tale will have a happy ending. The new latrine is desperately needed; the existing latrine is a serious health and safety liability for the children. But if the original estimate is inaccurate and construction costs are greater than expected, Asante will need to explore options for financing the remainder of the project. It is unknown at this time if the original donor will be willing or able to contribute more . . . stay tuned for the next episode.
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