Feel Good Friday - Bridges to Prosperity

The start of a new year is a great time to think about building new connections and metaphorical bridges. It’s also a great time to learn about an organization building literal bridges, Bridges to Prosperity. 

Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda, Bridges to Prosperity (B2P) “partners with communities, governments, private sector, research and technology, and other stakeholders to help plan, prioritize, assess, construct, and manage transport access for rural communities around the world.” 

Why bridges? According to info on their website, “almost a billion people around the world don't have safe transportation access to critical resources like health care, education, or employment due to an impassable river.” This lack of connectivity affects more than 1 in 7 people living in rural areas and is a root cause of poverty. B2P believes that “connection is the foundation to opportunity” and that’s what inspires their work. 

It starts by building better data. As CEO Nivi Sharma explains in this TedX talk, 60% of rivers and waterways in Africa are not mapped making it difficult to know where a bridge might have the most impact. Working with data scientists and deep learning models, they’ve been able to map waterways and can now predict travel paths and travel times.

Next, B2P works with local communities, governments and foundations to build footbridges, also known as trail bridges, in areas where they’ll have the most impact. Right now work takes place in Rwanda, Uganda, and Ethiopia with plans to expand into Zambia and Kenya. This 1 minute overview video shows many examples of the bridges that have been built.

Trail bridges are an effective solution for rural communities where people mostly travel by foot, bicycle or small vehicle. They’re easy to build, maintain, and replicate in addition to being cost-effective, durable, and safe. By connecting people to educational, health care and economic opportunities, B2P impacts households across multiple dimensions.

Since they began, they’ve built over 600 bridges providing more than 2.5 million people with safe access to the resources they need. In the areas surrounding the new bridges, farmer profits increased by 70% because they were able to take their crops to market, household incomes increased by 30%, girls’ attendance at school is up by 200% and vaccination rates increased by 45%. That’s a lot of prosperity!

If you’d like to help Bridges to Prosperity reach their vision of “a world where poverty caused by rural isolation no longer exists” there are a few ways to do so. Make a donation and help amplify their message on social media. Follow on them Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Feel Good Friday - Outdoor Afro

Happy Feel Good Friday! Today we’re going get outside with Outdoor Afro.

Founded in 2009 by Rue Mapp and headquartered in Oakland, CA, the mission of Outdoor Afro is “to celebrate and inspire Black connections and leadership in nature.” The work they do is designed “to disrupt the false perception that Black People do not have a relationship with nature.” 

How does Outdoor Afro foster these connections? With help from over 100 passionate, volunteer leaders. Every year these leaders are required to attend a training event to receive ongoing education. Training topics include risk management, policy and storytelling interpretation. These volunteer leaders then create and guide monthly trips to foster collaboration and strengthen people’s connections with the outdoors. Each year more than 40,000 people join a trip with Outdoor Afro!

With locations in 56 cities around the country, the recreational activities available are quite varied. Examples include hiking, birding, fishing, kayaking, and gardening. In 2022, the focus is on swimming. Black children ages 5-19 are six times more likely to drown in swimming pools than white children so Outdoor Afro has a goal to teach 100,000 Black children to swim. They’ll do this by offering scholarships for swimming lessons, aka swimmerships. Learn more in this 30-second video.

For Black History Month, Outdoor Afro is encouraging Black people to share photos of their outdoor adventures on social media using the hashtag #BlackHistoryOutdoors. In 2020, Oprah joined Outdoor Afro to hike in the redwoods at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland! If you’d like to join an adventure, use this link to find a group near you. As they explain on their website, “anyone who supports our mission is welcome to attend our events. You don’t have to have an afro, to be part of Outdoor Afro.”

You don’t have to have an afro to support Outdoor Afro either. Make a donation, shop for merch, and help amplify their message on social media. Like their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter @OutdoorAfro and Instagram @outdoorafro #OutdoorAfro.

Feel Good Friday - Free Convo

Free what now?

Conversation! Online communication has become the default way to connect. While it's extremely handy and a way to reach many people at once, it's just not the same as talking to people in person. On this Feel Good Friday I want to let you know about a group of people that's encouraging us to sit down and talk to one another.

FreeConvo is a group created in 2013 by Michael Scotto and Tony Cai. Their goal is "connecting real people in the real world."

It started when the founders sat on an abandoned couch in Brooklyn and wrote "free conversations" on the back of a pizza box. 7 hours of conversing later, they realized they were on to something. You can read more details of the origin story here.

Now the people of FreeConvo, which includes many volunteers, set up inflatable couches around New York, hold up their "Free Conversation!" signs and start talking. To get an idea of what it's like, you can watch this 3 minute intro video or go to their video page to meet the people on the couches.

As stated on their Facebook page, "Each FreeConvo session turns into hours of sharing ideas, forming connections, and gaining new perspectives - all with people who have never met before. We love what we do and hope to meet you soon!"

If that doesn't make you want to take a trip to New York, I don't know what will! Before you go, like their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter @freeconvo so you'll know where to find them. You can also always strike up a conversation with people you encounter in your world, no inflatable couch necessary.