Three UF students are on a mission to raise money to visit Kenya to see the effects of two major projects they’re working on through the Southern Economic Development Organization.
The organization, started in 2007, addresses the problem of poverty and bridges the gap between research and practice in Kenya and other areas of Africa.
UF doctoral student Levy Odera, a Kenya native, founded the organization with friends at Valdosta State University during their undergraduate studies.
Odera said the goals of the organization, which is registered as an international nonprofit in Kenya, are to prevent business failure, create long-term and stable employment, increase employment and collect enough data that can be used for other African countries.
Linguistics junior Fiona Hogan, 19; food and resource economics senior Caleb Christmas, 22; and criminology and law senior Robert Shelton, 22; are the UF students interning for Odera.
The organization sent its project to the Dell Social Innovation Challenge to compete for grants.
People can vote for the project on the challenge’s website.
“We really need those votes,” Odera said.
He said the results will determine if they can go to Kenya.
Hogan said people log into the website and register. The website will then send a confirmation email to let them vote.
The organization’s main system, Solving Poverty in Real-Time, monitors and gives advice to small businesses instantly in Kenya.
“This system will connect them to experts all over the world and advise them how to succeed in an instant,” Odera said.
The poultry project and the microfinance project are programs under the main system the UF students will be working on.
The poultry project helps women who already know how to raise chicken expand their businesses for profit in Kisumu, Kenya. The microfinance project is for women with HIV or AIDS in Kenya with businesses that are not succeeding.
This story has been edited to reflect corrections.
