This spring the class was pleased to welcome guests from Bridge International Academies and Sanergy into the classroom. Both organizations will be hosting 3 students in each of Liberia and Kenya for the summer of 2019.
Catherine Yeh is a Project Manager at Bridge working with the Academics team to maintain and expand BIA’s innovative model that provides high-quality, low-cost education to thousands of children across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Liberia, and India. Based in Cambridge, MA Catherine also assists the Global Teams group to bring talented people into our organization across markets, including the newest launch site in China.
Students in our class first worked with Bridge in Nairobi during the summer of 2018. A key element of their engagement was focused on student retention programs – assisting Bridge to identify how the core customer – parents and their children – identified with Bridge and what improvements might be available to help assure a consistent year-to-year progression for these pupils in the Bridge academic system.
We are pleased to be returning to Bridge in the summer of 2019 where 3 new students will travel to Liberia where the government is a key supporter and collaborator. Once again, our project will be focused on parent/student engagement and retention.
Ruthie Rosenberg is the Director of Citywise Advisory Services, leading expansion efforts for Nairobi-based Sanergy to assist other African municipalities as they struggle with their own sanitation challenges.
Since 2011, Nairobi-based Sanergy has been building and installing affordable sanitation products designed specifically for urban slums, Sanegy also collects and transports sanitation waste from the community by handcarts and trucks – allowing them to install and collect waste from deep in slums A primary aspect of their revenue model is to then convert the waste at a centralized facility into valuable end-products such as organic fertilizer and insect-based animal feed.
Cities are growing faster than ever. Currently, 60 million new residents move to urban areas every year. 25% live in slums, amounting to 1 billion people with inadequate housing and limited access to basic services. This number is expected to double to 2 billion by 2030. In Kenya, loss of productivity due to illness costs the country 2% of its GDP every year and at current rates, complete sanitation overage will take 150 years.
Our student team will work with Ruthie identifying municipalities cross Africa and establish a communication strategy for Sanergy to share their experience providing a knowledge-based resource to customize non-sewer solutions for all or part of slum sanitation challenges.