May 2009

I spent the 8 first days of May traveling around Valle del Cauca, western Colombia, as part of the project I am coordinating right now at the consulting firm I work for. This project aims to support the Ministry of Education of Colombia to follow up on 45 projects that are being undertaken by universities around the country with two ultimate objectives: to strengthen Colombia’s higher education retention rates and to connect our higher education programs with the real and ongoing needs of the country.

The change in weather brings with it many a connotation: exam time, beach days, and holidaying. Yet for some, the trip they make this summer will not be on a jet plane or to a resort; they will attempt a trip out of misery, for themselves and their families.

The past few weeks I have been exploring the socio-economic impact of remittances. Whilst statistics look promising, with development, education and entrepreneurship gaining ground, I realized that my researched population is somewhat different and suffers many issues that most studies do not discuss.

When I arrived in Egypt I had a plan to retain traditional craftsmanship through the empowering development of microfinance.  I was in love with microfinance.  I loved that it was not a handout, that it was partnering with poor people to launch their own initiatives and that it seemed so empowering and dignifying.  So I had this vision that I was going to use microfinance, but I wasn’t sure which artisan skill I was going to focus on (initially I was leaning towards much of the beautiful mother of pearl work and copper work that is done in Egypt…) 

I spent my first two months of working on Ayadi reasearching and meeting with anybody and everybody that would talk to me from the spheres of: artisans, microfinance organizations/institutions, development agencies, various non-profits combating poverty, and visiting various parts of the country to see first-hand artisans at work.  I decided to work with the khayameya (traditional tentmakers) – more on this later.

If you’re visiting the Youthink! blog, you probably have an interest in development. It’s the buzzword for all the work going on related to poverty reduction, better health, education and infrastructure. But do you ever think about what development really means?

Earlier, I wrote about an organization I worked with in London, and their efforts to find the perfect way to define things. In the face of all that over-analysis, I appreciated Youthink!’s streamlined, concrete explanation:

Reaching an acceptable standard of living for all people by improving economic and social conditions.