Cover story: African dreams: Local group sows the seeds to help turn poor Africans' aspirations into thriving businesses Cover story: African dreams: Local group sows the seeds to help turn poor Africans' aspirations into thriving businesses (August 10, 2005)

By Renee Batti

Almanac News Editor

Brian Lehnen is just swallowing the last bite of a quick lunch at his desk when a reporter breezes into his cramped, cluttered office.

He offers a warm greeting, a chair and his time, but although it's only 1 o'clock, he already seems weary from the off-site meeting and other tasks he's managed to squeeze into the day so far.

He has agreed to talk about his work, his vision and his mission -- serious matters not easily illuminated in a brief conversation with a perfect stranger. But when he's asked to produce tangible results of the work he pursues from that tiny office in San Carlos, the weariness disappears from his face. And the tangibles speak volumes.

"Look at this -- it's one of my favorites," he says, smiling broadly as he draws a tyke-sized, forest green sweater from one of several boxes near his desk. The sweater, he explains, was made by a small business in Kenya that specializes in making uniforms for school children -- one of more than 9,000 businesses that got their start with seed money from Mr. Lehnen's nonprofit group, Village Enterprise Fund, or VEF.

And as with the other businesses, the handful of people who launched the clothing business were grindingly poor and holding little hope for a brighter future before they were given their shot at entrepreneurship.

The subsequent show-and-tell is fascinating and compelling: There's the unadorned tin charcoal grill no more than a foot or two high, the means by which a poor African villager was able to open a restaurant. Sharp, variously shaped blades are attached to long wooden handles leaning against the wall in the corner -- farm tools, created on a giant anvil purchased with a VEF grant and used by East Africans to till their fields and feed their communities.

There are the "Italian" sandals made by Joseph, a Kenyan who used to do a few shoe repairs at a roadside stand to survive, but now creates spiffy footwear made to order or ready to wear. And there are the sandals crafted by another grant-recipient, who recycles rubber tires to create the soles of the shoes he sells to fellow villagers.

All those and thousands of other businesses were launched by $100 grants provided by the organization co-founded by Mr. Lehnen of San Carlos, and supported by a number of local residents, including Debbie Hall of Menlo Park, who chairs the VEF board of directors; Peter Carpenter of Atherton, who also serves on the local fire district board; and entrepreneur R. Eliot (Bob) King, founder of R. Eliot King & Associates of Menlo Park.
Bang for the buck

As a funding mechanism, the VEF operates on a simple but seemingly effective model: It offers small grants, rather than loans, to people living on less than $1 a day who want to join forces with fellow community or family members to start a business.

Through a strong network of volunteers who live in the villages served, it also provides mentoring and other support to help the fledgling entrepreneurs succeed. The volunteers are recruited and guided by a small number of African VEF staff members, who direct the day-to-day operations of the program in the countries served.

"The method of using a small amount of money to have a whole lot of impact resonated really strongly with me as one of the key tools of changing the face of poverty," says Ms. Hall, who joined VEF's board about eight years ago.

VEF focuses its efforts on rural villages in three east African countries: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Most people in the target areas have no electricity or running water, and unemployment is very high.

In addition to the $100 grants, VEF has made several larger contributions when needed. It also supports existing businesses through small loans for community-based projects.

For example, loans funded two commercial trucks that support enterprises of 25 or more people who needed to move their products to larger markets in surrounding areas. One of the trucks allowed the enterprise to double profits in six months, according to the VEF Web site.

Eighteen years after Mr. Lehnen and his wife at the time, Joan, founded VEF, the small investment/big bang approach has produced solid results, Mr. Lehnen says. During his frequent trips to villages where VEF businesses were established, he has observed "improved nutrition, improved quality of clothing and improved housing. The children have shoes now and are in school," he says.

The two biggest measurable benefits, he adds, are increases in the accessibility of health care and the number of children who attend school. And boosting the satisfaction level for him and VEF board members and donors still higher is the steady rise in the number of VEF business owners who are now able to send their kids to secondary school, he says.

The organization estimates that since 1987, some 130,000 lives have been improved by the long-term effects of VEF grants and the work of its volunteers on the ground in Africa.

The VEF "is one of my most rewarding public service efforts," says Mr. Carpenter, a man long involved with charitable programs.

"VEF's mission is clear -- to help the poorest of the poor become independent," Mr. Carpenter says. "Those of us who, by luck and the blessings of others, are secure and comfortable have an obligation to help those who are not."

Many board members have traveled to East Africa with Mr. Lehnen to see firsthand the effects of VEF's work. Often, Mr. Lehnen says, villages in which VEF businesses have been funded will host a ceremony in the visitors' honor, sending them off with gifts that have included goats and a turkey.
Doing something concrete

Although Mr. Lehnen's background is in biotechnology, he was drawn to the world of social work to alleviate poverty early on, when he traveled with his mother-in-law to Latin America. She was making the trip on behalf of World Vision International, a nonprofit trying to improve life for the poor.

That experience and subsequent involvement with groups and people "doing something concrete" to help others inspired him to establish VEF after he moved back to his hometown, San Carlos.

His attempts to establish a board of directors led to Gilman Robinson of Menlo Park, who hosted an event to garner support for the fledgling organization, Mr. Lehnen recalls. Support was forthcoming, and included Bob King, whose experience as an investor in a number of Silicon Valley and overseas start-up companies made him a credible judge of VEF's viability.

"My friends [the venture capitalists] on Sand Hill Road would love to have success statistics like this," he said in a press release, referring to VEF figures showing that 88 percent of its businesses continue for at least a year; 75 percent continue for four years or longer; and about one-third launch a second venture.

Mr. Lehnen says those statistics are only part of the reason he continues his VEF efforts. "When I first began, I was interested in alleviating poverty in the abstract," he says. The idea was to apply a certain model, businesses would succeed, poverty would diminish.

And those things have indeed happened. But now, he says, what really sustains his effort are "the relationships I've built, the friendships, with the people in Africa.

"It's amazing -- it's somewhat cliche now -- but they give so much back to me."

Now, he says, he doesn't see himself as their benefactors or savior, but as "a facilitator of their work."
Future efforts

The organization has just begun the second year of a four-year fundraising campaign. He, board members and other supporters are happy to have improved the lives of 130,000 Africans since 1987, Mr. Lehnen says, but they're not satisfied.

"The Next 100,000 Lives" campaign aims to raise $3 million over a four-year period to continue the momentum created so far by the VEF grant program.

"We are now seeing whole villages become transformed, because there is enough critical mass, raising the level of economic well-being of the entire community," says Ms. Hall.

She thinks the Peninsula and Silicon Valley are especially favorable areas for supporting the VEF effort. "In this community, people understand the power of entrepreneurship uniquely," she says.

"We think what this entrepreneurial community could do for Africa could be phenomenal."

In addition to Ms. Hall, Mr. Carpenter and Mr. King, VEF board members are Jay Friedrichs and Tim Tight of Menlo Park, Larry Langdon of Portola Valley, Mary Rauner of Redwood City and Christopher Wuthmann of San Carlos.
INFORMATION

The Village Enterprise Fund office is at 1161 Cherry St., Suite G, in San Carlos. Individual donors and foundation grants account for most of its funding. For more information, call 802-8891; or log on at www.villageef.org.

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