Coloring Coffins

In 2007, Sarah Grant (the white girl above) was a Peace Corps Volunteer living in Northern Zambia specializing in forestry and sustainable livelihoods. One day during a lesson at a local school, she asked a group of students to draw what trees are used for and five minutes later over half of the class returned with pictures of coffins.

Sad, right? But it makes sense. Death is a more familiar visitor to those struggling in poverty than many of us in the developed world realize. For Sarah, the motivation be a part of an ongoing solution to the challenges of poverty and a commitment to the students in the community school inspired Color Me In! We moved from a fuzzy idea in 2008 into a legit, 501 c (3) organization operating out of Boston, MA with over 25 groups of clients beginning small businesses in the rural areas and 30,000 new tree seedlings in the ground by 2011 (Non-profits for Dummies and the guidance and support of many wonderful individuals helped!).

So How Do You Help Someone?

From the get-go we knew that we would prefer not to work through grants to reach the results that we were looking for. Our primary goal was to find a way to identify groups with a vision for how to improve their lives, and help them access the resources needed to make continual headway on their own two feet. We decided to begin by supporting groups in Zambia who wanted to begin their own small business and supplied non-traditional loans and skills trainings to help them reach their goals. We began working with a core group of 5 partner organizations in Zambia to help implement programs on the ground.  

Is it a Loan or a Grant?

Because cash can be hard to collect when claiming payment on a loan (especially for a new NGO with little funds operating out of the US), we decided to allow clients to repay up to of their debt in-kind by planting trees. One tree per $1 USD (k 5,000) borrowed. The remaining 20% had to be paid in cash and could be forwarded to a nearby community development project that they wanted to support.  Why plant the trees?? Because deforestation is a rapidly spreading problem in Zambia affecting everything from water quality to weather to soil fertility and wildlife. Economic growth is great, but the environment is the foundation that everything ultimately stands on. 

What Now?

Since 2010, we have been working with several new clients on loans which are being repaid in higher and higher percentages in cash. Our goal is to keep the environmental element to our work while building a lending model which is more financially sustainable to our organization than a grant-based program. Also, if we can help people become familiar with how credit works and generate the confidence and skills to handle money, new opportunities can open up to our clients with other local and formal lending institutions for larger loans down the line. 

Cool huh? We think so. And we're excited to keep getting better. Development is not easy and it takes time. Each challenge however is an opportunity to learn, and we are always evaluating what needs to change in order to continue providing an effective service appropriate to Zambia, led locally, with an eye to the sustainability of our natural environment.