In the past years I was asked often why we need to invest so much on building local MMH centers and run donation based community activities in Kenya and India if ourintent is to support social entrepreneurial approaches? Why Community Activation on the ground, considered as a pure Non Profit investment profit in local NGOs, is needed if we were focusing on creating a high impact through social enterprises? How these Non Profit activities could ever become a real self sustainable business model ?

There is a simple answer: you are building a “landing base for solutions and solution makers that bulls the connection to the vulnerable communities and their needs”

Only if many solutions come together in one place a real empowerment, a real change in people’s life is possible. The MMH community center are points where good social enterpreneurial solutions and solutions from other organizations and players “land”. The many and diverse solutions empower through the center underserved communities ina very holistic way, up the point that the people are able to empower themselves. How?

• get a clear holistic idea about ALL basic needs, not just the one aspect only you might be interested in.
• invest time and resources in building trust and long lasting partnerships with local NGOs who work over a long period together with you. It is them who make your solution makers & solutions land and distribute your “goods of all kind” among the people in the right way
• Make this landing place “tangible and a visible point of reference point – for the communities AND for the solution makers. Also airplanes need airports, right? Forming landing places is about change engineering, and not changemaking projects only.

It takes a few years to build those landing places up, but then it pays off in many ways: people can grow and empower themselves. social entrepreneurs come for trainings regularly / on many topics. Academia will support with data in projects and benefit from practical assignments for students. Local governments support us, as well – in many ways.

Here is our story in short:

2019: the first health programs started with the selection of one our first local partners who founded GAASP NGO, focusing on people living with albinism and elderly. The selection of additional Core partners was under process.

2021: we inaugurated our first MMH center GAASPP, built up with the minimum viable approach, starting small, growing big. Many online programs and onsite activities became regular and the number of participating community members had more than doubled. Seven more “landing places across Kenya are under construction” and connect to each other as the System changer network Kenya…

It was time to make our landing places, our centers financially independent and self- managing, but how?

2022: we inaugurated the first MMH guesthouses, a first source of income. Not too big, not even complete: our dining hall was at the same time the training hall for people who rented the guesthouses for a meeting. We had not always enough rooms, but we found “interim” solutions …

November 2023: Today, we have inaugurated a very nice training hall and an additional 25 rooms. The African Eco village is another special attraction. a continuous flow of tourist and locals have started to come in, day by day. The local government had asked to do regular meetings there, first requests for weddings arrive…

It will still take us some days unless our MMH GAASP Ressort will create enough profit to maintain fullly our “first landing place” -and to cross finance even more solutions for the vulnerable communities who we target: at the moment ca 250000 people in more than 5 counties – just through the MMH- GAASPP “landing place” who connects to additional 7 landing places under development to become financially independent, as well.

We are on a very good way: From a Non profit organization approach to one of the most powerful , integrated, impact making and self- sustainable turntables of change in the region where social meets business and business cares for social.

We will now be able to bring in many more ideas of social enterprises we are working with – for supporting the underserved community in the best way and in many ways.

Our biggest learning?

Start to think out of your own boxes and clusters. You want to invest and create a real big and sustainable impact? Let’s not talk about non profit or for profit, NGO or social enterprise as the better investment, it is the mindset and vision those organizations have and your ability to see what kind of structures, landing places you need to build and to link up.

What counts is to make the right things happen in the right way so that our overall goal “to empower people living at the poverty line”, our big dream and vision becomes true. With little money, step by step, while connecting supporters from many different backgrounds, with the help and ownership feeling of many local people in the community and many local organizations.

All Our system partners are very proud of what we are putting up together. The impact it makes on the community is visible everywhere. We are sure that we will make it.

For our 2nd MMH center the financial selbstständiger solution is also coming soon. We will need one year more. It will work differently, but even a very promising idea is on the way. Stay tuned. You are an investor and curious now? Well, then contact us.

We offer insights weeks onsite for companies and private donors.

Why to invest without experiencing before? Due to our network and systemic approach we can “Organize a personalized trip based on your interests”. We have a large network from Academia to hospitals, from working with local Media to water solutions, from African social enterprises to innovation hubs. In Kenya, we have formed exchange structures among 8 landing centers. You want to invest in one of them? Together they form the System Changer Network Kenya, including urban and rural locations: From Nairobi to Homabay, from Eldoret to Bungoma County and back towards Nyeri, selected with care and based on the same set of vision, values and system change.

Feel free to learn more an investor trip and contact.

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Jfyi: You will find here soon also a link to the TV news about the inauguration of the MMH GAASPP Ressort.