This July's Partnership Trip to Zambia was a small but incredible group - three spectacular women joined Rich in Zambia, getting to know the incredible children and leadership at Hope Ministries. Now that they're back, we asked each of them to send us a few...
Read More
Meeting one of the founding Tías at the marketplace where Las Tías was founded more than 20 years agoIn an effort to test my international travel stamina, I spent a total of 6 hours on the ground in Chicago on Tuesday when I arrived from...
Read More
Day five of the nine day Partnership Trip to Zambia is long. We build up your endurance during the first several days and then pack about as much activity into Thursday as humanly possible. Memories are created that will last a lifetime – for the...
Read More
In May, during the bi-annual clinic at Hope Community School, we helped introduce a new dental hygiene program. It was a best practice that we learned from our partner Las Tías of Nicaragua and when we shared it with the school in Zambia, they were...
Read More
Chimfembwe Ng’oma is a key leader of our Zambian partner Hope Ministries who completed his education degree from Kwame Nkurumah University in Kabwe, Zambia twenty years ago. He was hired by the government to teach and was stationed for his first six years in what...
Read More
Our Zambia Partnership Trip is well underway this week. So far, our group has participated with students in one-on-one reading time, creating a mural and sharing music lessons. Below is a photo journal of some of the highlights thus far:After School: Boys hanging outLunch Time:...
Read More
“Nosotros no pensamos en chiquito” * In between the extreme heat, rains and thunderstorms, and getting used to annoying promotional text messages sent day and night by the local cell phone provider, the last few days seemed to pass by in a flash. An intense flash....
Read More
Greetings from Lusaka, Zambia. I’m sitting in my hotel room suffering from jet lag, which happens to be keeping me awake far past a reasonable bedtime, so I thought I’d draft my first blog for this trip.It’s an exciting time to be investing in Africa....
Read More
Spark CEO, Rich, has arrived in Ndola, Zambia to visit our partner organization, Hope Ministries. Rich will be blogging from the field during his visit, giving us a glimpse into the lives of the children and people in Zambia.Rich is doing prep work before our...
Read More
Last month, we held a Nutrition Training for the moms and guardians of Hope children. Led by two local nurses, the group discussed which of the locally available foods are the most nutritionally dense and how they can be prepared in the healthiest of ways.Interested in...
Read More
For the past three weeks, a team of four MIIS graduate students on the west coast has been working remotely with Spark on an intense amount of research, in what is quickly growing to be the foundation of blue prints for a social enterprise that we’ll be...
Read More
We’re excited to welcome our new Finance Manager, Marcia, to the Spark team! We asked Marcia a few questions to help us get to know her and the background she comes from.Where are you from?I grew up on a farm in a pretty small town...
Read More
Coming to Zambia was my first time leaving theUSA in my 20 years of life. As you can imagine I was pretty nervous for the trip. Over 24 hours of travel as well as immersing myself in the culture of a new foreign country were...
Read More
Last week, we held a Nutrition Training for the moms and guardians of Hope children. Overall, the event was very successful and provided a new means for nutritional and community outreach.The training was facilitated by two local nurses and led in a participatory, interactive style,...
Read More
This week, we opened the doors to one of the biannual clinics during which Hope provides medical care to the 350 children they serve. The lack of healthcare for children in Zambia is one of the most difficult challenges this country faces. Supported by a...
Read More
The capacity building efforts that Spark Ventures supports in Zambia run the gambit. This includes supporting professional development opportunities for the teachers at Hope Community School, lending the expertise of a Spark board member to conduct financial audits, and, most recently, funding the construction of...
Read More
Whenever I travel, these days that being mostly for Spark, I tend to write quite a bit. Whether in an electronic format, paper journal, or leaving notes for myself in my iPhone, I carry either pages or fragments of information and thoughts. The last time...
Read More
If you ever fly United Airlines, their Hemispheres magazine has a great feature in each issue called “Three Perfect Days in…”. Each month they highlight a different city and recommend restaurants, hotels and activities that make for a perfect vacation in places like Toronto, Munich,...
Read More
Of course one of the most important aspects of Spark’s Partnership Trips is the time that we spend with the children served by the programs. In the case of Las Tias, there are two centers that are run on weekdays: one for adolescents and one...
Read More
Thursday night’s dinner will be one I won’t forget for a while. Our team of six had a full day- in the morning we had gone to the Younger Children’s Project and had a chance to spend several hours playing games with the kids, making...
Read More