(As published on http://www.mediablackberry.com/)



By Stella Evelyne Tesha*

Sharing information is an important part of sustainable development. That is the reason why I have decided to write this article because I think a lot of people can benefit by understanding the different challenges that face young NGO’s during the grants application process.

Please note, this is just my story. It might well be that others have a different story. 

In 2001, I decided to follow my vision. This being, following up on what I have always believed to be true that ‘’everyone can make a difference’’. The first time I heard those words was in 1977, when the late Tanzanian president Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere uttered them as a completion of his speech. Needless to say, as a four year old I wasn’t listening to the speech at all, but the ending caught my attention and stuck forever.

With this in mind, I decided to take up development studies with Open University of UK.  As an African single mother in Netherlands, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But since I already knew what I wanted, it was pretty clear that in order to achieve this vision I had to work full time, at the same time ensure that my baby was well taken care of, make sure to take care of all the extra school bills as well as find time to study and pass my exams.

It wasn’t until 2007 that I was able to start Green Waters foundation. With the support of my dear friends Bianka Wettin, Neelis van der Holst, Melissa Yvonne Tesha, and Walter Simime we have managed to get where we are today. 

We both agreed that as a main project, we want to empower marginalized women in Africa to learn professional skills so that they can be able to support themselves and their dependants. As a team, we had the book knowledge about development, we had the understanding of the background situation in African communities, we could put together a project plan, but we had no idea how much drama is involved in grants applications. This last factor is the number one crutch for new NGO’s.

I am fond of donors, but at the same time I’m frustrated with donors. For example, NCDO, is a great donor and they sponsor a lot of wonderful projects. But my goodness! One needs at least half a year to fill in their grant application form, and before you are done, you have to write very good (and hopefully legitimate) promotion plans for your project in the Netherlands otherwise you might as well forget about the application.

After spending half a year filling in NCDO form I had to gave up. I figured when I decided to work in development, I didn’t sign up as a promotion campaigner. It takes a lot of time to organize events. And besides, where are young NGO’s supposed to get money for PR when they don’t even have money to implement the project or for running costs? It doesn’t make any sense when I look at it from a ‘’development’’ point of view.

There are many things that came up during the processes of grants applications, but I’ll tell you only one more which was quite interesting to me. You see, I can understand when a donor turns down a project with a good reason, at least a reason that assures me that the project has been read. But I got casual turn downs like this one ‘’ your project will only directly benefit 11 women, therefore it is not interesting enough for us’’ Well….!? I mean, I can understand when it is a commercial company turning me down based on profit and loss, but the whole point of sponsoring any number of women applicants to attend skills training courses is for their benefit as well as the benefit of their dependants. It might be that as a first group only 11 women applied, but these are women who have no jobs, no social security, no health insurance, no steady income of any kind and some of them young adults who have been orphans all their lives and widows with no safety nets. I wondered if the donor would have been more willing to sponsor me if I put an interesting number like 500 women? Are the lives of 11 women less important than 500 women? Doesn’t it make a difference if they can get economically independent by learning these professional skills and get away from domestic abuse or stand against genital mutilation of their daughters? I wondered if there was any ‘’development’’ logic behind the turning down of my project.

Anyway, these are all the challenges that young NGO’s may get while doing grants applications, some donors have more enlightened staff than others but some have simply become automatic pilots. They have forgotten the reason why they originally wanted to work in development. They have forgotten, to look beyond the figures.

You see, this is my point. Development has to be sustainable development. By empowering even 1 person who is committed, you may very well be empowering the whole community. On the other hand by pouring money into organizations that are good in PR, it doesn’t mean that they can do a better job in development, it simply means they have the money and they put it into advertising.

Donors have to understand, this is not just a job for most of us, it is a dedication to our heritage. When we hear of genital mutilation, those are probably our baby sister. When we see advertisements about Malaria, HIV/Aids victims, those are our friends and relatives. When you read of people who are dying from starvation, those are our brothers and sisters. When you read and get horrified with the news about fistula, that is the fate of our daughters and sisters. As Africans, we are not separated from these problems, just because we relocate to another country.

Now that the year 2010 has started. I urge donors to be more aware of their administrative procedures which are becoming a crutch to motivated migrants who are committed to make a difference where they come from.

As Africans, we have come a long way since our ancestors struggled to gain us independence. As a generation of this era, we too have a responsibility to make a contribution and help our communities move a step forward. I believe, sustainable development in Africa can be achieved through cooperation between migrants NGO’s and donor NGOs. In my opinion, there has to be a platform for both sides to communicate what is needed in order to be able to work together as partners. This is a wonderful legacy to leave behind for the next generations. We have examples that history has a way of affecting many generations to come. We now have this chance to influence the history that will be written in school books and alleviate the pain of past history.

In my opinion. The year 2010, the motto for all donors, NGO’s and all who read this article should be ‘‘Empowering people to make a difference’’. 

We sincerely appreciate the knowledge contribution received from COS Zuidholland, especially from Huub Severiens and Lavinia Oliveira while we were working on implementing Green Waters foundation. We also appreciate the financial support received from Oxfam Novib and Voeten in de Aarde towards project MIKITA.

*Stella Evelyne Tesha is with Rotterdam based Green Waters Foundation (www.green-waters.org)