• SUMMER INTERNS TAKE OVER WMI
• WMI ADDS NEW LOAN HUB IN KENYA
• WMI WELCOMES NEW ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER
• CHECK OUT THE NEW BLOG POSTS AND PICTURES
• THE GAZETTE PROFILES WMI 
• LANDSLIDES IN UGANDA HIT WMI LOAN HUB

Front Row: Tara Kelishadi, Della Turque Second Row: Sam Pearl-Schwartz, Nikki Mills, Zach Watson, Nalini Pillai, Julia Medine, Johnny Rauch Top Row: Bob Mathis, Noah Martin, Ben James, Maggie Sullivan

The Walt Whitman High School student interns from Bethesda, MD (under the intrepid leadership of Social Studies Department senior teacher, Bob Mathis, and his wife Tali) arrived at Entebbe Airport at 2 AM on Sunday, June 17, only to find all their bags had been lost!  After a brief rest stop at a guest house, they started out on the 7 hour drive to rural Buyobo, arriving at dusk in the village, where they were welcomed by Olive Wolimbwa and the Buyobo Women's Association.  The interns were good sports about their lack of  luggage, donning WMI t-shirts that were in supply at the WMI building. Happily, the bags arrived after a couple days, so the students had fresh clothes for their first day at Buyobo Primary School, where they've been hard at work teaching - imagine classes of forty to sixty students in a room with three to four students to a desk.

The Ugandan students have been extremely responsive - among the topics our interns have been covering are geometry, fractions, English, grammar, and body parts.  The interns for their part have loved discovering the tradition where Ugandan students come up to them and curtsy before answering questions!  In addition to teaching, the high school interns are working with students to start a school garden, refurbish and paint old classrooms, and create a space on school grounds for teachers to grow food.  They have also been hard at work in the internet caf� tutoring borrowers on computer basics.

The school continues to benefit from the tea & buns program WMI interns launched in 2010, which provides a cup of hot tea and a bun to teachers each morning before school, and the library books generously donated by WMI supporters, as well as the solar installation.  This excerpt from a recent report by Ambrose Masolo, the acting head teacher at Buyobo Primary, notes the students' improvement and the changing academic culture at the school since WMI's high school interns have gotten involved:

"Because of great support you give to Buyobo P. S. and with the help of solar installed in the new building has enabled the pupils and teachers to continue teaching/learning up to late in evening because they assured of light. Also, teachers around the school benefit by making their preps and lessons for the next day. The library books have also helped pupils and teachers to improve their vocabulary, more pupils borrow books and after a week they refund them and they are able to read and speak better English.  So teachers of Buyobo send their great greetings to you and appreciate all the great work and support you are giving them. They send their kind regards."

In Bethesda...  Back in Bethesda, seven crackjack college interns joined WMI this summer to compile and analyze data from all of our loan hubs using the SAS JMP software, graciously supplied gratis by SAS in Cary, NC.  They will use the data to create updated Fact Books - available for view on our website in August - on the demographic conditions in our new loan hubs in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania and the impact of WMI's loan programs.  In light of new opportunities for WMI to partner with other major development groups, our Bethesda interns are performing grant research and writing in addition to analyzing reports from our loan coordinators on the ground in East Africa, updating our website and increasing WMI's social media presence, and organizing the WMI photo library.  

Top row: Chelsea Lo, Nikki Heimberg, Jess Littman, Ashley Grayson Bottom row: Rebecca Miller, Nick Shasy, Julia Graham

Among our Bethesda interns this year are two college students, Jess Littman and Nikki Heimberg, who had previously travelled to Buyobo as high school students as part of the Walt Whitman High School contingent in 2010.  

Additionally, from March - July, we are fortunate to have Hart Wood (University of Mary Washington 2010) working with us in Bethesda as a part time Assistant Program Director.  Hart had interned with WMI in Bethesda in 2008, as a sophomore in college, and also travelled to Buyobo for WMI that summer to help issue the third round of loans.  He will be heading off to law school at UVa. in the fall.

 In July, WMI will launch a new loan hub in the village of  Ntumburi, Kenya (outside of Meru), in partnership with the

Wendo Group member tends crops in Ntumburi

Wendo Self-Help Group, an organization of women in this rural area of central Kenya.  Wendo has asked for WMI's help in bringing our successful and sustainable loan program to their community, which has been impoverished by drought and disease.  The women currently survive though peasant farming and selling local poultry.  The women plan to use the loans for traditional businesses including selling produce and handmade crafts, raising livestock, and running small shops.  

 Elissa Eva, a Washington, D.C. native and active leader in the volunteering community, will act as WMI's liaison to Ntumburi.  Elissa met members of the Wendo Group while visiting Kenya last fall.  After working with them to expand their crops and livestock and improve their access to clean water, she reached out to WMI to set up a formal loan program there.  Elissa's previous experience includes founding and running a non-profit to help the children of families in need, organizing volunteers with the Women Faith and Development Alliance at the National Cathedral, and volunteering with Stand Up for Kids in California, where she now resides.