Building Sustainability in Locally-led Organizations
Learn how locally-led organizations identify community needs, derive innovative solutions to tackle local challenges, and harness external financial support in building sustainability.
Global humanitarian assistance, from public and private donors, increased slightly in 2021, however, less than 1.2% of the funds went to grassroots organizations (Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2022). Despite the localization agendas asserted by major donors, funding for grassroots organizations remains limited. The majority of funding continues to be made available to organizations with annual budgets exceeding $100,000 annually. This imbalance represents a barrier to community groups accessing increased funding and is particularly pronounced for exclusively African-led organizations which are less able to access funding when compared to their peers that have a Western co-founder.
In response to this funding disparity and the growing demand for a more authentic model of ‘Localization’ MAMA HOPE reviewed our role and operating model in 2022. Our ambition is to accelerate many more community-led grassroots organizations through a four (4) year Localization Development Accelerator (LDA) Program. Our revised impact model addresses the need for capacity strengthening of grassroots organizations for engagement in the global development sector with the goal of scaling successful locally designed and driven models.
We did not have enough resources to buy them schooling materials. All this time we were depending on our salaries to cater to the little we could afford. — Tobias Ounga.
The LDA impact model offers a realistic program for capacity strengthening, enabling grassroots organizations to grow into entities that are grant ready, free from dependency, and able to determine the trajectory of their own growth. One of the barriers preventing smaller organizations from qualifying for funding is their lack of established, proven operating systems. The LDA program also provides our partners with access to a wider network of collaborative organizations and potential donors and helps them become ready for next-level funding, enabling them to realize a bigger impact.
To further illustrate our model, we’ll be sharing Tobias Ounga’s story.
The Early-stages of a Locally-led Organization
One day, Tobias Ounga was on a bus, with his elder sister Karen and 6 children, heading to Kisumu. They had come from visiting a relative in their grandmother’s village. While they were there they found 6 children in tattered clothes, who looked like they hadn’t eaten for days. Their mouths were dry, skin infections, and signs of malnutrition. They were staying with their Aunty who was mentally challenged. Both he and his sister gave the last money they had to the Aunty but as they left, they felt they needed to do more. They opted to leave with the children in tow.
Having forgotten that they left the Aunty with all the money they had, they boarded the bus and when the conductor requested for their fare, they knew they were in deep trouble. Tobias tried to convince the conductor that once they got to Kisumu, he would leave his watch as he went to search for the fare money. However, as the bus approached Kisumu the conductor came back, but this time instead of demanding the fare, he gave them a reprieve — sharing that he had noted the state of the children they were traveling with.
Once Tobias and Karen got home, they distributed the six children amongst themselves and their father, establishing a place for them to stay. As they continued to care for the children, they also registered Tropical Focus for Rural Development in 2000.
Leaders Identifying Community Needs
Tobias Odhiambo Ounga grew up in Kajwang Village, in Kisumu County. This wasn’t his first stint supporting abandoned and orphaned children. After college he got work in Kisumu County doing veterinary work, tending to animals. Later on, he joined a project that was assisting women with the establishment of dairy farming from 1994 to 1999, while living in a rented house in Kisumu. It is here that he started to hear of desperate reports of people needing help mostly related to children. Some could not attend school, others didn’t have clothes, and others food. All of this was within the first 6 months of him starting his job and settling down.
“I would hear stories of a child who didn’t have a father or a mother, and now people were turning to us, those of us who had little income to come and support these children, and help. The people who used to contact us were people related to the children who could not help, and so they would turn to neighbors to help. There are some who were not even related to the children, some of these children were even my relatives. The information was getting to all of those who used to earn some income, my friends, my sisters, and other professionals in the village like the teachers. People started helping these children, they would help with clothes, they would help with food, and some would take the children and live with them. But after you help one, another one would come within three days. You would be told of a case of another child,” shared Tobias.
It was after a village funeral that Tobias and his sister noted that as people dispersed there were about five children all of them under twelve years, who had nowhere to go. They spoke with the community members who agreed to help the children. “We looked for a place for accommodation, and we started supporting the more severely affected children. Initially, we brought in around five children and we put them into the house. The house was small, we did not have enough resources to feed them. We did not have enough resources to buy them clothes. We did not have enough resources to buy them schooling materials. All this time we were depending on our salaries to cater to the little we could afford,” Tobias went on to say.
Meanwhile, Tobias’ job was going well. He was working on a government project that was introducing dairy farming in Nyanza. This job gave him a lot of exposure, as he visited many homesteads but he quickly found out that instead of the core needs being that of the animals, community members struggled with how to take care of the children.
“One day we went into the village, and we stopped the car at the gate. As we walked into the compound, we thought we had come to attend to the issues of the dairy cows, but we were taken to a grave, they thought we had gone to attend a funeral. And the people who took us to the grave were small children. There were only small children in the compound, there were no adults. So we wondered what was happening there. That is when we noticed that there was a big problem. There were several instances,” says Tobias.
Building Sustainability & Measuring Qualitative Impact
One of the ways that Tobias started building sustainability was by making and selling lampshades. His other sister based in Nairobi had introduced the lampshade-making concept to the guardians of the children under Tobias’ care. “The guardians of these needy children are the ones who would make them and then we would send the lampshades to my sister in Nairobi, and she would try and market them in the shopping centers around the capital city. One day as we were discussing the lampshade business and the sales with the needy guardians back in Kajwang, then that’s when she told me that she was looking for a market with some lady.”
It is how Margaret Ensign came into the picture when she visited the village to see how the lampshades were being made. Later she came with some friends and part of the team was Veronica Ensign. They noted that there were not enough facilities, beds, bedding and food. Thus started the journey of their support of the organization for years to come, supporting further with school uniforms, shoes, and books.
Gradually, with the support they were receiving, they started directly supporting the schools where their children were attending as they realized these schools were hubs. Most of the children in the schools were facing malnourishment which inspired them to start a feeding program. They would buy lunch for the needy children, and almost immediately noted that the children who were being supported started performing better, also that their school attendance and punctuality improved.
“We also noticed that it wasn’t only the students that we were supporting in school that were getting food, they used to take some home. We once asked one and they told us that they had a cousin back at home who might not have had food the whole day and so they were keeping it, they were being taken care of by their grandmother. This made us think of coming up with sustainable ways of feeding these children.”
Through further support from Maggie and Veronica, they bought 3 dairy cows, constructed a shed, and planted Napier grass to feed them. All the cows gave birth and this boosted the milk production which in turn supported needy children and orphans over lunchtime time, improving their performance in school. At the same time, they sold some of that milk to sustain the project by paying the workers who attended to the cows.
Tropical Focus continues to support underserved children with food, accommodation, health, and schooling needs temporarily. “When we find that there is a very needy child in the community, we admit them for the period that they are severely in need, some of the children can be supported for a month, a year, or more when the need is no longer there we can reunite the child back with their family or other relatives. The need might cease to exist if a member of the family for instance gets employment,” Tobias says.
Engaging Flexible Donor Support
In 2005, Margaret and Veronica switched to supporting Tropical Focus through an organization called Running Chicken where Veronica was the project coordinator and contact person. In 2017, they introduced Tobias to MAMA HOPE, doing similar projects in Africa. “Through the discussions, we were introduced to their Global Advocate Program and together we engaged in capacity-building activities. During our first Global Advocate Partnership, we identified a project that we believed was going to alleviate some of our community needs,” remembers Tobias.
Together with MAMA HOPE, they realized that if Tropical Focus could acquire some land, then it would support them in developing income-generating activities that would in turn help them support community activities. They bought almost 1 acre of land and established a poultry hatchery project by buying an incubator that could hatch up to 720 eggs at a go. “This project is running to date. It is giving us some income. We buy some eggs from people who keep chickens, we put them in the incubator they hatch and we market and sell them. This project has been of support to us,”
Growing up, Tobias noted that most of the land in his village was lying idle because people were not using it. He identified that the community used the land to grow maize and other crops that were damaged by pests, they were invaded by predators such as monkeys. He thought to improve their lot by introducing crops that could not be damaged by pesticides and crops that could survive the frequent change in weather.
“Once a household underwent a lot of losses in the previous crop, they would feel afraid of planting more crops and the next season the land would lie idle. This kept pushing them more and more into poverty. And that is when we started thinking of crops that could help them gain income, crops that could withstand harsh weather , crops which were not affected by pests or predators. Crops that did not rely a lot on pesticides or fertilizers. And also we wanted them to plant crops using methods that did not rely on the use of chemicals and fertilizers. We came up with some crops that when marketed would bring in income.”
One of the crops that they noted did well, was the yellow passion fruit and it also had a market in Kisumu city for fruit juice. Despite the yellow passion being a very hardy crop — it climbs very high trees and survives under very rough soil conditions and it lasts several years — Tobias felt they needed to use methods that could help sustain them for years, so they settled for permaculture. Other crops they grew included aloe vera, roselle, lemon grass, and chilies.
As the project continued, they felt the need for a unit to market products. A place they would buy or receive permaculture products from the community, value add, and sell them to other processors. Once we identified and developed the project, the team at Running Chicken introduced Tropical Focus to Bylo Chacon (now The Woven Foundation), an organization based in California. The organization agreed to fund the permaculture value addition project.
Join Tobias Ounga alongside Nora Burkey, James Kirima, and Rebeca Roberts for the Small Fish + Big Pond Online Event taking place on Wednesday 24th May 2023. Register here.
Interview conducted by Vincent Mwangi in 2020.
About Tobias Ounga & Tropical Focus
Tobias Odhiambo Ounga is a Founding Executive Director of Tropical Focus for Rural Development. He holds a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and a Masters of Science in Animal Science, both from the University of Nairobi. Among his key aspirations is a concern for the underprivileged.
Tropical Focus for Rural Development is a not-for-profit Non-Governmental organization working in the western region of Kenya to alleviate poverty and uplift the living standards of rural communities. We aim at improving the livelihoods of the rural poor through support for education and shelter of most underprivileged children and girls, development of income-generating projects, socio-economic re-stabilization against the effects of HIV/AIDS, development of domestic water supply systems, and support for basic rural infrastructures.
About MAMA HOPE
MAMA HOPE is a non-profit organization with a mission to champion community-led change in developing countries. We work to support community leaders who have big dreams to change the world. We invest in local, grassroots organizations and work with them by forming long-term, capacity-strengthening relationships that empower people to spearhead their own development. All of our work is based on our conviction that only locally generated solutions can produce long-lasting and sustainable changes and improvements in people’s lives. We have a tax-exempt status under 501(c)3 registration in the US.
