Arriving to Kenya couple of weeks ago, I was super excited to learn first-hand if all the buzz about the “Silicon Savannah” (as Nairobi is often referred to) was true or not. Are startup companies really taking off in Nairobi or is it yet another hype soon to explode? On a personal level, I was also particularly interested in comparing the entrepreneurial scene in an emerging economy like Kenya to the one in the Silicon Valley or Europe. Over the last couple of weeks I have been getting closer to answering those questions by meeting a broad spectrum of entrepreneurs, listen and learn.

Mobile agents from the startup M-Kazi register young job-seekers

Big human needs

One of the first things I noticed when on the ground in Kenya was how different the problems being solved are from those in the Silicon Valley. Overhearing a conversation at a Philz Coffee in the Bay, I would probably hear something like “mobile-social-local-gaming” sticking out. Whereas at Pete’s Coffee (no, not Peet’s!) at iHub in Kenya, I hear something like “mobile-money-food-health” sticking out.

Now, of course one shouldn’t stereotype and there are obviously social gaming startups in Nairobi as well as health and agricultural startups in the Valley. But the general trend is clear. In Kenya, more startups are trying to solve some really big human needs – but with the same (mostly mobile) technology.

Nascent but fast-growing

Mbwana Allyi, MBA '07, conducts a workshop on startup valuations

After hearing so much about the tech scene here, the second observation came somewhat as a surprise. Although there are certainly some indicators of early success stories, most of the startups here are very early stage and still have a long journey to go. As one young entrepreneur put it “Kenya is selling its future when it comes to tech entrepreneurship. There is a great potential but a long way to go – we are kind of faking-it-‘till-we-make-it”.

To some extent this is true but I think there is definitely some real potential being built up in the region. Not only are startups, incubators and seed stage VC’s popping up all around but the large multinational technology companies are also moving to the region to attract talent. Google, IBM and Nokia which all are moving (or expanding) to Nairobi are such examples. On top of these private initiatives, the government has an ambitious plan to build a technology city named Konza for $7bn just outside of Nairobi.

Generation - and Geographic - Gap

m:lab's mobile testing space

The third notable observation I will mention here is the generation gap on one hand and the geographic gap on the other hand. The younger generation in Kenya mostly dominates the technology scene while the “elders” are more focused on tangible assets such as real estate and manufacturing. One of the reasons, I believe, is simply the fact that very few people have yet to make real money out off technology ventures and hence local investors are conservative.

This brings the questions to where all the influx of startup investments is coming from - and there’s plenty of it if you ask me! There have been a number of seed funds popping up as well as a handful of VC’s and PE firms – but to my knowledge almost all of it is foreign investment. Having these foreign investors, who hopefully also bring knowledge and good contacts, will definitely help bridge the gap until the young locals will exit their first companies and start investing themselves. Let’s just hope these foreign investors are not all “drive-by investors.”

Finally, back to my original question of whether startups are really taking off in Kenya or not. The willpower, determination and potential is certainly there, but most companies still have a long way to fully exploit their potential. The same goes for the technology scene in Kenya in general but given the fast growing ecosystem, foreign investment and ambitious young startups, I can’t wait to continue following the Kenya’s trajectory and see the potential unleash in the years to come.

- Andri Kristinsson, MBA ’13, SEED Global Management Immersion Experience Fellow

Women lined up for work; their manager (front and center) tries to blend in.

I have admired Acumen Fund for years, since I first read The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz, GSB ’91 and Acumen’s founder and CEO. I have also been dying to return to East Africa after working in Rwanda before business school. When I got the chance to join Acumen as an intern in Nairobi, I couldn’t have been more excited.

The summer has not disappointed. I have been continually impressed by the passion, thoughtfulness, and insight my colleagues exhibit in and out of the office, and I am inspired by the impact Acumen’s portfolio companies are making in East Africa.

Acumen is a social venture capital fund that invests in businesses that deliver critical goods and services to people earning less than $4 per day. I am working in Acumen’s agriculture portfolio. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been helping one of Acumen’s investees determine how to maximize social impact for the smallholder farmers they work with through field visits, expert interviews, and close collaboration with the investee’s management team.

This experience has demonstrated for me the power of the social enterprise model in agriculture supply chains. The social enterprise I’m working with is in many ways a traditional agro-processor. The company purchases a crop from farmers, processes it, packages it, and exports it to international buyers. In this sector, as in many agricultural sectors, though, the traditional models are broken. There are two types of players in the sector: private exporters and cooperatives. Private exporters are often unconcerned with the welfare of the farmers they source from, so they pay the minimum possible price. Cooperatives supposedly serve the interest of farmers, but are often inefficient or mismanaged, so not much profit is left for the farmer after waste and corruption. In both of these systems, farmers often receive less than 10% of the end-price of the product they grow, and many remain trapped in a poverty cycle. With insufficient income or incentives to invest in their crops, farmers rarely bother with productivity-improving fertilizer or pest management, and the quantity and quality of their crop falls short of its potential year after year.

This social enterprise seeks to chart a third model that combines the efficiency of private exporters with a cooperative-like commitment to improving the lives of its farmers. This model offers more social impact, and it also makes business sense. By paying farmers a premium for a higher quality crop, the company will provide them an incentive to really invest in their farms for the first time. By paying this premium during a critical time when farmers are often cash-poor and need to purchase inputs for the upcoming year, the social enterprise will improve buying power for inputs. Through this model, the company hopes to create a virtuous cycle of improved farmer income, crop quality, and company income. For the entrepreneur I worked with this summer, this would represent a real win, not only for the company, but for the agricultural communities that they source from.

-Nena Sanderson, MBA ’13, Stanford Management Internship Fund Fellow at Acumen Fund

When Ami first tried launching her flower business, her father refused to loan her 50,000 rupees ($1,000), saying he would rather get her married. Priyanka* was studying to be an entrepreneur, when she was forced to drop out as 4th year engineer student so that she could get married. And when Nayna was launching her chocolate factory, her husband reminded her daily that it was a bad idea.

Members of the 10,000 Women program, discussing the challenges they face being a women entrepreneur in India.

These were stories shared by women entrepreneurs at the Goldman Sach’s 10,000 Women workshop last weekend in Bangalore, India. Although each one alone was intense enough to captivate a TED audience, the countless stories echoed repeatedly were almost too much to bear. And yet, something magical was happening: each story seemed to bond the women together more tightly, a real life example that the East African proverb holds true across the globe: sticks gathered in a bundle truly do become unbreakable.

Although the 2012 Acumen Fund fellows and I had been prepping for this workshop for several weeks, it became clear that the biggest accomplishment of the day wasn’t necessarily our negotiations session or feedback framework, but rather this simple act of providing a platform for the women to connect. To remind them that they are not alone in the struggle.

It also became clear that their successes were not individualistic either. Each accomplishment that was announced had a resounding ripple effect of inspiration: From Ami’s 20^th corporate hotel client for her flower business, to Priyanka’s 10^th employee hire for her media and advertisement firm, to Nayna’s second chocolate factory launch.

Later that night, as I thought about the Acumen Fellowship (and similar programs I’ve been involved with), I realized that the power of community has almost always emerged as the most critical component.

This takeaway is also particularly true of my time at Stanford University, which coincidentally is currently exploring how to best support developing world entrepreneurs such as Ami, Priyanka and Nayna. As a summer fellow in this $150 million initiative – known as the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (SEED) – I spent time interviewing the women entrepreneurs to get their input (see video clip here). As expected, the power of the collective echoed loudly.

It’s a simple insight, but a critical one for us not to lose sight of.

- Benje Williams, MBA ’13, SEED Stanford Management Internship Fund Fellow

*Names in this post have been changed to respect confidentiality.

Summer flies incredibly fast, especially when you are really enjoying it. My summer internship at Ignia (Impact Investing Venture Capital in Mexico) proved to be a great experience both personally and professionally.

First, I would like to share a few personal and general takeaways from working in both Impact Investing and Venture Capital in Mexico.

Impact Investing sounds really appealing, but it has tremendous challenges still ahead. It is complicated to manage the double bottom line. The key lies in carefully selecting the social enterprise that has a definite alignment with the fund’s objectives of social impact. Then you can manage the enterprise as a regular one, and the social impact will come naturally along the way.

Also, there are by far, much more great ideas than available funds to support them in Mexico. However, there exists potential to raise even more capital destined towards funding social enterprises (IGNIA is headed for the second round of fundraising after raising more than $100 M USD in the first one).

Additionally on a more personal level I enjoyed from working directly with a social entrepreneur at Ver de Verdad (one of Ignia’s portfolio companies). I worked closely with a very hard-working manager who is not afraid of taking the necessary risks in order to not only start and grow a company, but also to be able to sustain it for the long run. Clearly, not only capital and a good idea are needed, but a lot of effort and trial and error in order to achieve greatness.

As my summer slowly comes to an end, I have renewed a personal commitment to my country and revisited the reason I came to Stanford GSB: to change my world.

- Damaso Fernandez, SEED Summer Intern Management Fund, Intern at Ignia Partners LLC

It’s been over a month since I arrived in the megacity of Lagos, Nigeria, and I still marvel at my life here.

Mine is an unusual summer fellowship, in that I’m working on the organization I founded almost three years ago with undergrad friends and McKinsey colleagues. It’s called Generation Enterprise (GEN), and it’s a microbusiness incubator that co-creates and invests in businesses run by at-risk youth in the urban developing world.

Team Generation Enterprise at their incubator: Portfolio Officer Anna Ying, Fellow (investee) Emmanuel Gbenga, Founder and CEO Clara Chow, MBA '13, and Business Development Officer Itunu Adekitan

At GEN, we partner with unemployed and marginalized youth to launch low-tech, high-growth ventures that can generate jobs and wealth in slum communities. Fueled by plantain chips and my Summer Management Internship Fellowship grant from SEED (as well as the GSB community’s support through Challenge for Charity this year), our half-Nigerian, half U.S.-based team is on a mission to expand our portfolio companies, scale GEN’s operations through public/private/social sector partnerships, and figure out a sustainable business model for GEN itself.

Our time here is full of incredible contrasts. For instance, today is so different from yesterday, it makes my head spin.

Today I’m at the upscale Protea Westwood Hotel on Ikoyi Island for a two-day retreat with the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN). The Federal Minister of Trade and Industry is speaking. Air conditioning is going full blast. Coffee and pastries will be served before we transition into working groups and dive into the order of the day: shaping the National Policy on Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

After the session, I’ll rush (as much as the “go slow” traffic jams will allow) to a mixer I’m co-hosting at hip Caffe Araba for HBS, GSB, and Wharton alumni, students, and friends. The goal there: engage the b-school communities in angel and impact investing in “Bottom of the Pyramid” businesses.

Yesterday I was smudged with dirt and thoroughly rumpled from squeezing into a beat-up public bus/van for a long, bone-rattling ride through the slums of Agege, deep in the Lagos mainland. The familiar smell of garbage cooking in the July sun greeted me from the neighboring dump as I strolled into the Lagos State-run Job Opportunity Center to meet the Director of Job Creation at the Lagos State Ministry of Special Duties. Together we reviewed the progress of the five highest-potential microenterprises we launched last year. The agenda: lay out expansion plans that will lead to new job creation – and returns on investment – this calendar year.

Right now, GEN’s portfolio contains 17 businesses, of which half are generating recurring revenue. Of the investment-grade companies, the average youth investee (a “GEN Fellow”) has gone from zero steady income and zero savings to ~25,000 Naira ($160) in monthly net income and 10,000 Naira in total savings ($70). Businesses include Fruit2Go, which manufactures and distributes healthy and hygienic fruit snack packs to slum dwellers; Xodus Fashion, a popular designer of Western and African-style suits; Superior Blends, which trains, equips, and books budding caterers; and Bash Photos, a full-service event coverage and portrait photography studio with clients at major Nigerian magazines.

Each entrepreneur and business made it through the selection, training, and testing steps of our incubator, in which we employed selected youth to identify business opportunities and rapidly prototype and test them with minimal test funds from GEN and regular financial reporting, pivoting, and feedback. This process shakes out the best entrepreneurs and the best business models before we accept them into our Enterprise Portfolio and make a larger investment.

Our team has identified and is implementing a series of improvements in the areas of operational efficiency, record-keeping, and customer acquisition and retention. The highest-impact area, however, can best be described as “shared CEO services,” in which GEN’s investment team helps entrepreneurs refine their value proposition, develop their competitive advantage, and then lay out a growth plan, including brand-building, HR, and technological investment. Our local Business Development Officers then break down the plan into stages and work directly with the entrepreneurs to implement and monitor.

Sampling local treats: pounded yam, amala, and moi moi.

As I review a list of “Key Challenges confronting Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria” back at the SMEDAN conference, I find myself connecting the GEN model and mission to the larger strategy being laid out by the Nigerian government, newly equipped with data from its first survey of the MSME sector (e.g., microenterprises of the type that GEN is launching and growing, account for 99.87% of MSMEs in Nigeria).

What links yesterday and today is the big question of how to build businesses that last, grow, and employ. The need for inclusive economic growth is as clear in this hotel conference room, where state commissioners voice their fears of a ticking time bomb of marginalized youth, as it was in the dim, sweltering Job Opportunity Center, crowded with youth preparing for jobs they might not find.

The stakes are high. But dancing on the edge of the big problem is tantalizing opportunity.

If this “lost generation” of youth could be integrated into the formal economy, developing countries would turn a time bomb into a demographic dividend. C. K. Prahalad’s book, now a decade old, continues to promise a “Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid” for those willing to engage with the poor as customers and collaborators. The burgeoning PE/VC sector here in Africa is hungry for investment-worthy deals. And at GEN, we’re seeing glimmers of a model that could work.

- Clara Chow, MBA ’13, SEED Stanford Management Internship Fund Fellow

A white rhino in Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, where I worked earlier this summer as a business advisor for the Northern Rangelands Trust.

Growing up, I adored dinosaurs. From the moment I laid eyes on my first Triceratops skeleton, I was hooked. I would drag my parents to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum as often as I could and hold weekly screenings of Jurassic Park in my basement. My parents still tease me because I dressed up as a neon green Tyrannosaurus for six consecutive Halloweens (and, for full disclosure, Halloween was hardly the only occasion for which I deemed that outfit appropriate). While the costume has long since fallen apart, my love for nature’s most majestic creatures remains.

As that story might suggest, I was devastated to discover much of today’s wonderful wildlife may soon go the way of the T-Rex. Over the last century, tiger populations have plummeted from 100,000 to 3,200. Since the 1970s, black rhino numbers have fallen from 70,000 to 4,200, and the trends are worsening in some places, with an estimated 450 rhinos poached last year in South Africa alone. With global human populations expected to jump to 10,000,000,000 by 2100, it is easier than I would like to envision a world in which mankind’s well-intentioned attempts to subdue nature for civilization’s benefit somehow devolved into a planet-wide slaughter. At Stanford, I have spent the last year trying to better understand how I can use my managerial skillset to restore wild spaces to their former splendor and ensure my favorite animals are still around to inspire my grandchildren.

Although many share my love for nature, few see conservation as an appealing business opportunity. Yet, effective species management can generate substantial financial returns. In Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, economists estimate each male lion is worth over $500,000 in tourism revenue during its lifetime. In Rwanda, mountain gorillas are the main attraction for a tourism industry generating $250 million in foreign exchange each year, and strong demand recently led to an increase in the price of a single-day permit for gorilla tracking to $750 per person. Too often, however, local communities (typically in remote, poverty-stricken areas of developing countries) do not benefit from conservation and, consequently, view the immense biodiversity with which they live as a nuisance instead of an asset. Conservation enterprise aims to change that reality and identify market-based solutions that can transform the relationship between man and wildlife from one rooted in conflict to one of harmony. Examples range from sustainable agriculture and forestry to ecotourism and wildlife-friendly consumer goods.

One of the women's groups of Kalama Wildlife Conservancy, in the process of making high-quality beadwork and handicrafts for NRT Trading.

Earlier this summer, I traveled to Kenya to see conservation enterprise in action and provide business planning support for an early-stage company called NRT Trading. NRT Trading is run by the Northern Rangelands Trust, a Kenyan nonprofit that facilitates community-led conservation by helping pastoralists legally organize, obtain land ownership, and determine how their natural resources are managed. They believe empowerment begins with choice, so NRT Trading aims to create meaningful economic alternatives for communities sharing land with endangered species. To achieve this goal, NRT Trading helps adapt local beadwork and handicraft products to meet Western quality standards and consumer preferences. Then, it markets these items as premium souvenirs to safari-goers in Kenya as well as to zoo gift shops around the world. In just a few years, these items have generated sufficient sales to begin to change local attitudes about the environment. Poaching is down, land management has improved, and wildlife populations appear to be recovering.

NRT Trading is but one example among many recently launched conservation enterprises, and this field has shown enough promise to catch the recent wave of excitement surrounding impact investing. In fact, several large foundations and environmental NGOs (including Wildlife Conservation Society, where I currently work) are beginning to acknowledge the role small and medium enterprises can play in achieving conservation goals. When it comes to the places where man and wildlife still coexist, perhaps Carl Jung said it best: “nature must not win the game, but she cannot lose.” It remains to be seen whether conservation enterprise can help us find a sustainable balance between conservation and economic development, but I’m hopeful we’ll soon have a chance to find out.

- Matt Schiller, MBA ’13, Stanford Management Internship Fund Fellow at Wildlife Conservation Society

I believe I can make a difference in this world and change my reality. That is what matters most to me, and is definitely what drove me to seek a different opportunity this summer in a social enterprise and an impact investment fund in Mexico, my home country.

Social enterprises and impact investing are relative young concepts here. However, I was very attracted to the idea of coming back to my country and being part of an innovative enterprise that was breaking paradigms in terms of seeking the famous “double bottom line”.

Ignia is the largest impact investment venture capital fund in Latin America, and is not only focused on the financial returns, but is also investing only in companies that effectively are directed to the bottom of the pyramid and have a social impact. Ignia has 8 active portfolio companies, in which they have invested over $50 M USD, and that represent different industries such as health, housing, telecom and payments and potable water. Ignia’s role is to provide financial and strategic support to the companies, and enable entrepreneurs (and investors) to realize superior social and financial returns.

One of my main responsibilities as a summer intern at Ignia is to work directly with one of these social enterprises: Ver de Verdad. Ver de Verdad (“Truly See” in Spanish) is a chain of mini ophthalmological centers that offer free consultations and low cost lenses in 45 minutes or less. In Mexico, it is estimated that 50-60% of the population needs lenses and not even 20-30% of those people are using them. The biggest issue is not access or lack of education, but simply that people cannot afford them (insurance companies do not cover these costs). VdV rises as a solution to this problem, since it offers the lenses at approximately 10-15% of the retail prices of the main competitors in the country, giving access to a big portion of the population (and in less time than the competitors) without sacrificing the quality. However, it does so as a social enterprise that indeed is seeking to solve the social issue and at the same time grow as a business.

I have worked for the past four weeks helping design the growth strategy to increase sales and help more people have access to these affordable lenses. We have developed so far five initiatives that will help this startup social enterprise to grow; and starting the next week we will start with a pilot program to launch two of those initiatives.

I spent some days actually learning how to make an optometric exam and in fact immersing myself in the selling process to better understand the customer needs. The most rewarding moment so far has come in the shape of a young 12-year old boy’s smile when he was receiving his first lenses after more than 4 years of struggling in school due to sight problems.

I look forward to the second half of my internship and to keep helping to make a small difference in my country.

Change lives? Change organizations? Change the world? It starts with small steps indeed.

- Damaso Fernandez, SEED Summer Intern Management Fund, Intern at Ignia Partners LLC

BBOXX Partners with Great Lakes Coffee to provide solar electricity for their pulping stations. From left to right: Laurent Van Houcke (Co-Founder of BBOXX), Andreas Nicolaides (Owner of Great Lakes Coffee), Arnoud Otjacques (BBOXX Uganda employee), Karl Skare (MBA '13 intern), and Mansoor Hamayun (Co-Founder of BBOXX)

I have only been in Kampala, Uganda for one week now, but I have already been impressed with how amazing this city is. My first day in Kampala I went to Lake Victoria and went on a boat ride around the lake where I saw a sampling of Uganda’s more than 1,000 bird species. The people here are also so friendly… more friendly than any other country I have ever been to. My taxi driver from the airport couldn’t stop smiling and laughing during our 30 minute drive to my hotel and the host at the house party that I went to my first night in Kampala was very generous and kind.

The start-up life isn’t all fun and games though, and BBOXX has a grand vision to bring electricity to the 1.6 billion people who currently live in darkness. I first learned about BBOXX through a classmate named Chris Hopper. Chris was the chairman of a charity called e.quinox at his undergraduate institution, Imperial College of London. The three founders of BBOXX were also members of this charity which designed and built solar kiosks in Rwanda. While the founders of BBOXX were proud of the 5 solar kiosks that they initiated that served over 800 households, they wanted to have an impact on rural electrification on a much greater scale. They have developed their own solar kits that come with a solar panel, a battery box, and LED lights. One of the features that makes their products stand out is that they have a range of different sizes of solar kits designed to meet the budgets and demand profile of different customer classes.

While BBOXX has offices in over a dozen countries, I will be focusing on distribution strategies in Uganda that will then be implemented in BBOXX’s other

Great Lakes Coffee pulping station owners receive their BB17 Solar Kits

markets. I am looking forward to the chance to see rural Uganda first-hand and I already got a taste of it last week on my first field visit. After a 4 hour drive, we arrived at a coffee cooperative outside of Mbale where we installed our products in their pulping stations and performed a demonstration of our products. The local farmers were so impressed with the solar kits that several of them approached us after our demo and asked if they could become a distributor of our products in their region.

What was even more exciting for me occurred on the ride back. One of our vehicles broke down and we ended up stranded in a village until long after nightfall. The power in this village went out, but we had our products with us and turned on our lights. We drew a huge crowd (mainly children) who were curious about where all the light was coming from. We gave our lights to the children and asked them to try and break them. What occurred next had to be some of the best field testing of a product I have ever seen. The children took the lights and started bashing them against our truck. When one child failed to break the light the others eagerly clamored to get their turn at trying to break it. After repeated failed attempts, they asked me to try to break the light. I am embarrassed to admit that even after a great deal of fanfare and build-up, I also failed to break the light. Amidst all of the excitement, we were able to gather some good market research about how many people didn’t have electricity in the area and we had many people say that they wanted to buy our product. Unfortunately we had only brought a couple for demonstration purposes.

Unbreakable Lights

After the success we had on our first trip out in the field, we have now scheduled several more. I will be leaving on Thursday and will not return until Saturday evening. The goal of this trip is to sign up more distributors of our products and get them to commit to come to our office to receive training on how to size the systems appropriately for each customer. I actually performed my first training for distributors today and I am looking forward to several more trainings in the near future. This is such a rewarding field to work in because you can see the look of joy on peoples’ faces when they take home a product that will bring light, mobile phone charging, radio, etc to their families. Needless to say, I am excited about the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of thousands of Ugandans over this summer.

- Karl Skare, MBA ’13, Stanford Management Internship Fund Fellow

1298 Ambulance Crew, from left to right: Bhupesh (driver), Sunil (helper), Vineet (EMT), Benje (MBA '13, intern), Anuj (Bombay Lead)

Two weeks ago, a friend in Pakistan passionately claimed that Bombay is the most exciting city in the world. Although I mostly agreed, I quickly realized that excitement wears multiple faces, as 3 near-catastrophes unfolded within 24 hours of my arrival here: first a bicycle side-clip by my taxi from the airport, then a fender-bender going to work, and finally a near (i.e., 12 inches short) head-on bus collision by my rickshaw driver.

Fortunately, everyone walked away safely, this time. Tragically, however, 114,000 people each year never walk away at all: In India, at least 13 people die every hour on the road. The country has the highest rate of accidents – 35 per 1,000 vehicles compared to the world average of 4 – resulting in more Indian deaths than from HIV, malaria, and cholera combined.

For this reason, 1298 Ambulance – the social enterprise I am working with this summer – has launched one of the country’s first ambulance services, with the Gandhi-inspired philosophy that: Saving a life is one of the most rewarding experiences a person can undergo. Over the past 7 years, they’ve amassed a fleet of rewards, launching 860 ambulances and transferring over 1 million patients. (video)

Despite this success, suffering (and death) seem to be an inescapable reality of life here.

Three days into my project, I wandered aimlessly around the emergency room of a public hospital in Central Mumbai. Surrounded by pain, I speechlessly returned to the stretcher that carried a 29-year-old teacher whose relatives dialed 1298 after she had a kidney failure. Only one year older than me, and yet she was given a 2-3 year life expectancy.

These are the days where heaven does not seem so close. Days where it seems that no matter how much you sacrifice, it’ll never be enough. Days that test whether you can really sustain a life dedicated to alleviating injustice without disconnecting from the associated suffering.

Although I’m not sure answers exist, these are questions and emotions that I’m hoping to explore further this summer. Most likely from the backseat of a 1298 Ambulance.

- Benje Williams, MBA ’13, SEED Stanford Management Internship Fund Fellow

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