Responding to the pressing need for maternal care in Tanzania, Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) graduate Lucy Chuwa launched Mama Kits - a business that is saving lives in East Africa. Chuwa graduated in 2019 from AWE, which is an educational exchange program for women entrepreneurs created by the U.S. Department of State in collaboration with Arizona State University.
For five years Chuwa lived in Masaailand, a vast tract of savannah in Tanzania’s Rift Valley that is well-known for the pastoral communities that inhabit it. Maternal death rates here – and across Tanzania – are high due in part to lack of knowledge about maternal care, but also scarcity of healthcare and medical equipment, which means that more than half of women give birth at home. According to the World Health Organization, maternal mortality in Tanzania accounts for almost one in five deaths in women aged 15-49, with hemorrhages and infections among the main causes. Lucy Chuwa made it her goal to do something about it.
“When I became a mother and had the joy of holding my babies, I went back to where I came from and looked for an affordable solution to save this society,” says Chuwa. “That’s when we came up with the idea for this product,” which she aptly named Mama Kits, and then she got help distributing the product through the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs.
Mama Kits are small packs containing basic clinical items critical to preventing infection during childbirth - things like gloves, cotton rolls, a clean sheet, and a sterilized blade. In Tanzania, these simple things can be hard to find; women have to search multiple pharmacies and pay premium prices to get these necessary supplies. Mama Kits make it easy - they can be picked up in local pharmacies and medical centers and cost about half the price of buying each item on its own.
And it's not just families that want Mama Kits – it’s doctors too. “Our [Mama Kits] team encourages women to start saving when they learn they are pregnant,” Chuwa explains. “Then when they go to clinics, the nurses and medical doctors introduce the kit and also encourage them to save up and buy it.”
Not only do Mama Kits provide women with sanitary medical supplies, but they also equip mothers with critical health information. Chuwa is currently developing a smartphone app to provide medical info and answer women’s questions about caring for themselves and their babies before, during, and after pregnancy. Chuwa also hopes to set up an SMS service to send reminders about appointments, medications, and other critical steps to ensuring a safe pregnancy.
Chuwa’s Mama Kits have been helping women and their babies thrive, family by family. By identifying the maternal health crisis and developing an affordable, accessible product, Chuwa has had an impact on more than 8000 lives, providing kits to more than 4000 women which helped them safely deliver their babies - a feat she attributes in part to her technical training with the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE).
“It would have been so much harder for me to get where I am now if it wasn’t for AWE,” says Chuwa. Through AWE, she learned how to develop a business plan and keep detailed financial records, which helped her assess the strengths and weaknesses of her business and make changes to maximize Mama Kits’ impact. Since Mama Kits is a social enterprise that prioritizes helping the community over making profits, record keeping has been critical to maximizing operations and minimizing costs to enable future growth.
In addition, when she graduated from AWE, Chuwa applied for and won a competitive $25,000 grant for catalytic seed funding from the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF), a U.S. government agency that supports African-led development and community enterprises. This seed funding was a significant capital investment that Chuwa used to distribute her product to more medical centers and provide one remote village with 100 kits for free.
Chuwa is excited about AWE’s impact on other African businesses as well. “There are many small businesswomen here, but many lack proper knowledge on how to run a business. It’s not just about capital but also proper knowledge,” she explains. “And AWE is a good platform for people to get this knowledge and make new connections.”
The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs is a U.S. government-funded exchange program that gives enterprising women the knowledge, networks, and access they need to launch and scale successful businesses. Launched in 2019, AWE has empowered more than 16,000 women in 80 countries to grow their businesses, helping local communities thrive.
Last month, Hungarian journalist Szabolcs Panyi won his fourth Transparency-Soma Award for his investigative reporting. But to him, the award is less a showcase of his work and more of a reflection of the scarcity of Hungarian investigative journalists in the field.
“The field is narrowing, and I think that’s also one reason why there are very few outlets that are still independent and at the same time have the resources and have the manpower to allocate people to conduct investigative journalism,” he says.
Panyi, an ExchangeAlumni through two programs - the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) and Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship in Journalism - was recognized for his work on a number of stories highlighting corruption and foreign influence, including on Chinese influence in Hungary and on the Pegasus spyware used to surveil him and five other Hungarian journalists.
When Panyi noted that he was subject to surveillance by the Hungarian government, he said he remained undeterred – and in fact did not worry about any threats to himself. Instead, he was concerned about his sources.
“The most important for a journalist is credibility, and part of credibility is telling people that they can trust us, that if they help us uncover wrongdoings, we make sure that they don’t get into trouble, that the information that they give us can remain confidential,” he says. “We won’t reveal their identity and also the laws, even in Hungary, they grant us with the right to the protect our sources.”
Panyi’s sense of integrity and inspiration for his work comes both from the “adrenaline” of the work and from his international exchange experiences. While on his first IVLP in 2014, he met an older journalist in Dallas, Texas who had covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The journalist had a visible scar on his throat from covering the activities of the mob, which Panyi says serves as a testament to the importance of the work. Later on, he and the other IVLP participants got to meet the veteran journalist Bob Woodward, who is known from his work on the Watergate Scandal as a reporter for The Washington Post.
But what continues to inspire him most is his time on the Humphrey Fellowship meeting other professional heroes, including Leonard "Len" Downie Jr. , a former executive editor of The Washington Post, and Walter Robinson, an investigative reporter from the Spotlight team at The Boston Globe who broke the story of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
“I remember Walter Robinson’s, or Robbie’s, classes at Arizona State.... There was one class where he introduced a set of ethical rules, and these are very practical rules that every journalist should follow and I remember he had 12 ethical rules for journalists to follow. And these are very down to earth, very practical things, like, ‘Always give a fair shake to the others, if you’re reporting on someone, make sure that his or her voice is also heard in the reporting,’” Panyi said. “I remember this other one, ‘Kill people with kindness.’ So no matter how many times they slam the door on you, no matter how many times people hang up on you, you always have to remain calm. Because your job is not to get into quarrels or debates or express your frustration. Your job is to obtain information so that the public can know what’s happening there.”
Panyi continues his investigative journalism work to this day, notably covering surveillance in Hungary in the lead up to the country’s parliamentary elections. He says that while he learned a lot from American journalists, his experience was made by the cohort of fellow international journalists on his exchange programs, whom he now considers to be not just professional contacts, but also lifelong friends.
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For Foreign Service Officer and ExchangeAlumni Heather Joy Thompson, it never entered her mind that she could have an international career -- until she had to return home to the United States for routine dental work during her Peace Corps service in Burkina Faso. It was then that one of her Spelman College sisters put her in touch with the woman who changed Heather Joy’s career trajectory.
On this episode of MentorTalks, hear how Heather Joy went from law school to working for American singer, actor, and rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, and on to the Foreign Service for the U.S. Department of State. An international lifestyle blogger, Heather Joy seems to do it all – she says it’s a commitment to staying true to herself that keeps her motivated.
Heather Joy also shares why having a coalition of sisterhood and like-minded people is important, and how she has drawn on her experiences interacting with people of different beliefs and perspectives to succeed in her career. In light of Black History Month, Heather Joy also discusses how we can continue to support and encourage diversity in international exchange.
“Your ideas matter, and it’s your duty to carry them forward,” Heather Joy said.
Want to learn more about joining the Foreign Service, studying abroad, or the Peace Corps? Or, seizing a moment? Tune into the episode on @VoicesofExchange to hear more about Heather Joy’s experiences, where she sought mentorship and inspiration, and why it’s important to help and raise up the next generation.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
Heather Joy Thompson, Esq., is a lawyer and an award-winning career diplomat at the United States Department of State. She learned to cook at her mother’s knee while preparing treasured family meals. Heather Joy later developed both her culinary skills and a talent for elevating food and lifestyle experiences through the deep appreciation for cultures she gained while traveling the globe. Heather Joy served as a representative to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly and was an International Career Advancement Program Fellow at the Aspen Institute. She was previously the State Department’s Diplomat-in-Residence and a Senior Fellow at UCLA. She also has served in Washington, D.C., Mexico City, and Johannesburg.
While living in Johannesburg, Heather Joy co-founded Abafazi Ambassadors, a leadership development program for students from The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, in Henley-Upon-Klip, South Africa. Heather Joy started her career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Her travels and studies have taken her to more than 40 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, Central America, and Australia.
Heather Joy grew up in Southfield, Michigan. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art from Spelman College and a Juris Doctor from Wayne State University Law School.
Prior to joining the State Department, Heather Joy was Sean “Diddy” Combs’ personal assistant and went on to lead his “Vote or Die” voter education campaign. Heather Joy currently stars in a national television advertisement campaign for ‘Dove Amplified Textures.’ She has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Where Are They Now, and in the pages of the New York Times, Town & Country Magazine, Ebony, Essence, JET, and on PEOPLE.com
What does it take to jump from your set career path to a totally different one? How can you change hearts and minds on contentious issues?
Chef, author, and TV host Pati Jinich joined us on MentorTalks to talk about how she transitioned from working on policy papers to becoming an award-winning chef, why she is a proud immigrant, and how she experiences and explains the world through food.
Pati also shares her “aha” moment and the challenges she faced, like one person in her family who felt like she would be wasting the master’s degree she earned, as a merit scholar, from Georgetown University. In the end, Pati is grateful she went for it.
“I tell people to not prepare – if you want to do something, just jump for it. If you’re trying to research what the obstacles are going to be, you’re just not going to do it,” she says.
Watch the episode on YouTube to hear more about Pati’s experiences, from being a guest chef at two big White House events, to how she uses her background in policy in her dinners and shows.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
Pati Jinich – Chef, Author, & TV Host
Born and raised in Mexico City, Pati is host of the 3x James Beard Award-winning PBS television series “Pati’s Mexican Table” and the PBS primetime docuseries “La Frontera.” She is resident chef at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C., and a cookbook author. A former political analyst, she switched policy papers for cooking pots to make exploring and sharing Mexico’s cuisine her life’s work. She has cooked at the White House for President Obama’s Cinco de Mayo celebration. The Council of the Americas named Pati one of the “Top 5 Border Ambassadors” who have performed outstanding work bringing the United States and Mexico closer together in their Americas Quarterly (AQ) magazine. She was also named one of the National Immigration Forum’s “Keepers of the American Dream,” which honors individuals who embody the spirit of immigrant achievement and contribute to the well-being of immigrants in the U.S.
She lives in the Washington, DC area with her husband. They have three sons and a dog named Mila.
International Climate Change Development Initiative, a non-government institution raising a climate-smart generation in Africa. He is a 2018 alumnus of the U.S. Department of State's International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP). Read on to learn how Olumide’s exchange influenced his life and career path, how he’s paying it forward, and how he got the nickname “Mr. Climate.”
What exchange program did you participate in, and what was the highlight of your experience – were there any key learnings you gained?
I participated in the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation 2018. The exchange was majorly focused on how local and regional land-use practices protect biodiversity while supporting economic growth, development and tourism that benefit local communities.
My visit to Miami, Florida was overwhelmingly impactful. I saw in practice many things that I had only read and talked about in environment sustainability. My IVLP group was welcomed to Miami by Global Ties Miami. Our visit to the Miami Waterkeepers was full of learning opportunities. It was great to learn about protecting and preserving South Florida's watershed through citizens' participation. Our conversation with Charles Kropke at Global Ties Miami was my highlight. I got vital insights into using citizen engagement and community actions for environmental sustainability. This knowledge exchange has informed a significant part of what I do through the International Climate Change Development Initiative. We also saw the screening of the movie, “Battleground Everglades.” The film was about the struggle to save the world's most revered wetlands. We also had a community volunteer program to clean a beachfront with a local organization in Miami.
How did you get the nickname, ‘Mr. Climate?’
I was known for talking about climate issues way back at the university, and, fortunately for me, I was able to attend some open hearings at the National Assembly. During this period I asked questions related to climate issues, and people would say, “Mr Climate, you have the floor.” Suddenly, everyone started calling me Mr. Climate, and I decided to make that a brand.
What is the most significant change you have experienced in your personal and professional life due to participating in the exchange program?
The IVLP program is a rich and once-in-a-lifetime experience. It helped clarify my professional goals and set my career priorities as an environmentalist. This clarity remains my biggest takeaway from the program. Another thing that made the program remarkable was the people I met, from the program coordinators to the participants and everyone we met along the way; the human interactions gave me a deep understanding of diversity and why it matters. I spent three weeks with 20 strangers who have now become friends. I got to know myself better, nurtured knowledge, and expanded my dreams.
How are you paying forward the impact of the USG exchange program on your personal and professional career?
Since my return from the IVLP program, I have trained and engaged over 5,000 young people in environmental protection and biodiversity conservation. I aim to position these young people for economic opportunities in environmental sustainability while equipping them to take responsibility for the environment. I have also represented Nigerian youth at several climate change conferences worldwide, including the recently concluded United Nations Conference on Climate Change, Conference of Parties, COP 26, in Glasgow, United Kingdom.
What fun or unexpected thing did you experience during your exchange program?
I visited one of California's private and oldest islands, the Heal the Bay Lab. We also visited the Joshua Tree National Park and went on a boat cruise to the Catalina Island Conservancy. Visiting these places helped me learn about the threats to native and wildlife, ecotourism policies, and how to enable economic success while preserving the natural environment.
What was the impact of your IVLP? Did you receive any awards, scholarships, recognition, or promotion as a result of the USG exchange program?
I have done more impactful work since completing my IVLP program. I became the Youth Focal Point for the National Steering Committee Member on the Small Grant Project for UNDP Nigeria. In this role, I review the proposals submitted by Civil Society Organizations for GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP) in Nigeria. I also became the Youth Lead Author of UNEP's Global Environmental Outlook (GEO6). I joined the World Green Growth Organization as a Board Member. My organization now has a partnership with the Netherland government for five years’ funding support to train 10,000 youth across Nigeria. In addition, I got into the Atlas Corps international exchange program in the United States.
