“I was able to give the young girls hope,” says Dorothy Mwawasi, reflecting upon the impact of volunteering in her home country of Kenya.
Though Mwawasi is a now a United States citizen, she is originally from Mombasa. In 2014 she spent three months as a volunteer there working with a local nongovernmental organization, Sauti ya Wanawake Pwani. She is one of 40 U.S. volunteers who have traveled overseas through the Diasporas for Development initiative, a private-public alliance between Cuso International, Accenture and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
In Mombasa, Mwawasi worked side by side with volunteers who did not have Kenyan roots, and while they all were able to provide professional expertise to the NGO to help build its service delivery capacity, Mwawasi said her impact was different because she had grown up in the region. She was able to talk to families, particularly fathers and young women, about the importance of education as an insider who understood the cultural and economic context of the region.
About the authors
Erin MacLeod
Erin MacLeod is monitoring and evaluation officer for the Caribbean, Central American and Andean Regions at Cuso International. In addition, she lectures at the Institute of Caribbean Studies at the University of the West. As a recipient of the 2013 Bob Ward Fellowship, MacLeod's research now focuses on the impact of diaspora volunteering on poverty reduction.
Kayla Sainato
Kayla Sainato is program support officer for Cuso International, She is currently managing the monitoring and evaluation of the Diasporas for Development. Prior to joining the organization, Sainato volunteered in Ghana and served with AmeriCorps for 2 years.
K. Malaika Walton
K. Malaika Walton is senior officer for U.S. Programs and Partnerships at Cuso International. Her primary focus is guiding the completion of the 2-year Diasporas for Development initiative, a public-private partnership between Cuso, USAID and Accenture to mobilize U.S. professionals from immigrant communities to volunteer in their countries of origin.
