Half year update

The first six months of 2012 were memorable in Kenya and for my company Juhudi Kilimo.  We reached the historic financial milestone of “break even”.  After three years of initial losses we are now making a profit.  We were able to raise our required capital with some new investors such as Soros Economic Development Fund, Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.  Their funding should fuel our growth for the next several years.  The journey was not an easy one.  In 2008 I started with a small non-profit pilot program with a few thousand clients and about $800,000 worth in loans.  The organization was losing about $20,000 per month.  Now we are profitable and have over 13,000 clients working with us.  Half of them are servicing loans worth over $2.5 million.  It is fun to see the $7 million we raised go into our business system, help the rural smallholder farmers, come back out to pay interest to our investors, pay all our expenses, pay the staff salary and still be left with extra money each month to re-invest in the business.  We have a cool new logo too.

In the last few months, I spoke at the Columbia Business School, a United Nations Business Call to Action event, and an agricultural finance conference sponsored by the World Bank to get the word out about our emerging social business model.  Both of these events were nice opportunities for me to speak about Juhudi.  Everyone still seems interested in what we are doing and I hope to keep up the momentum.

One of the highlights this year was my overnight stay with one of our smallholder farmer clients in the rural town of Litein. This was a valuable experience for me because I was able to learn more about life as a smallholder farmer and witness the day-to-day challenges.  After one of my managers dropped me off at the farm, I spent some time entertaining the small children who kept calling me “Muhindi” (which means “Indian” in Swahili) because they have not seen many other foreigners. 

After a nice dinner of chicken and rice we all went to bed early and slept to the sound of the rain on the roof.  In the morning I was awake at 6 am to help feed and water the chickens which were all financed by our company. 

My next task was to milk one of the cows.  It wasn’t easy, but I managed to get about six liters of milk before my hands gave out.  I learned that milking cows is hard work.

I have also tried my best to get in some personal traveling.  Recently, a group of my friends took advantage of the low-season rates and rented a castle on the beach in the coast town of Lamu (the same place the pirates kidnapped all those foreigners).  The castle was well insulated against any pirate attacks with its 20’ walls and massive iron doors.
 

I visited the Middle East including Lebanon and Jordan in April and June.
 

 

Beirut, Lebanon had an extremely modern and cosmopolitan feel while Jordan still maintained its historical roots in places like Wadi Rum (from the Laurence of Arabia story) and Petra.

Many have asked me how long I intend to stay in Kenya and my answer depends on how long it takes to get Juhudi Kilimo to the next level of operation where we really look like a thriving business.  We are headed in that direction.  So far, so good in Nairobi.

2011 Year in Review

Dear all,

I did not realize how many people were following my blog until I stopped posting. Yes, I am still in Kenya. Here is a year-in-review post for 2011. I am giving the top five highlights at our company, Juhudi Kilimo, and the top five personal highlights for the year.

Top 5 Highlights at Juhudi Kilimo

1) The company received investments from the Acumen Fund and the Grameen Foundation of $1.2 million and the Ford Foundation of Program Related Investment of $2 million. It was a long and hard journey but we are now able to really start growing the company in 2012.

2) Juhudi Kilimo was recognized at the World Economic Forum last May for the Social Entrepreneur of the Year award from the Schwab Foundation.

3) We somehow attracted rock star volunteers from McKinsey and Google to work with us some key IT and operational initiatives.

4) AMSCO which is a consortium of the UN, IFC and African Development Bank, flew me to Helsinki to present at its board meeting and to some of their stakeholders about the work we are doing at Juhudi Kilimo.

(this is a sunset picture of Helsinki at 11:30pm!)

5) The Mulago Foundation invited me to join its class of fellows and I attended a retreat in beautiful Bolinas, CA

Top 5 Personal Highlights

1) My twin brother got married in September on the ranch near Vail, CO where we once taught fly-casting lessons. Two of the bridesmaids and I was almost killed by a runaway hay wagon and trampled by two draught horses. Luckily I can still move quickly in cowboy boots.

2) Adopted a baby elephant named Kainuk from the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi.

3) Went diving in the Gulf of Aqaba off the cost of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Climbed Mt. Sinai to see the sunrise and view where Moses received the 10 commandments. I did not find anymore commandments.

4) Led a trip of friends into the depths of Tsavo National Park where the lions are known to eat people.

5) After 3 years, my parents finally came to visit me in Kenya after 3 years. They arrived during the worst rains in 30 years. We were flooded in at the game range in Loisaba. My Dad and I spent an unsuccessful two hours pushing the safari truck out of the mud against a raging river bed. Fortunately the owners of the lodge chartered a helicopter for us to escape. I took them to the coast of Vipingo where we had to hit the ground to avoid a swarm of killer bees. On the day of the flight home, I managed to mix up the flight times and ended up driving from Mombasa to Nairobi, nearly getting killed several times by oncoming trucks and buses along Mombasa road. All-in-all the trip was a great adventure for my parents. They now know my friends, coworkers and living conditions in Kenya.