Seena George MBA '09
Giving Back for MBA Student Seena George is an Understood Requirement
July 07, 2008
She serves on the board of a non-profit organization committed to using 100 percent of funds received for the purposes specified
“I was brought up by my parents to understand that it was my responsibility to help others who are less fortunate than me,” said Seena George, a second-year MBA student at the Jenkins Graduate School of Management in North Carolina State University College of Management.
So when George heard about a new nonprofit organization – Sequoia Helping Hands – from a colleague at work, she decided to see how she might support its efforts.
Sequoia Helping Hands was formally established as a non-profit organization on 2003 to help children in Wikondiek, Kenya, who are struggling with basic life needs as a result of health issues and death of family members caused by AIDS. Its projects focus on food security, health, education and self-sustainability
George now serves as secretary of the organization’s board of directors, a role that has her doing “a multitude of things,” she said, including donor management, fundraising, sponsorship management, event planning, and communications.
When interviewed for this article, she was preparing for a June 8 information session in Morrisville, N.C., at which the organization’s officers reported on its activities to donors and other supporters.
The event was “open to anyone who might be interested in making a difference and wants to know more about the work we do and how we do what we do,” George said.
About 40 ‘friends’ came and learned that in its first five years, Sequoia Helping Hands has raised just over $71,000 from 110 donors in the United States, Germany and England. The funds helped provide services to more than 800 widows and children in six communities in Kenya: Wikondiek, Wimagak, Wachara, Seka, Kendu Bay and Kosele.
Services included starting a high school, building a dormitory and desks; providing uniforms and paying for school fees, books and other expenses; and building houses and providing clean drinking water.
The organization also provided food during times of drought, helped relocate internally displaced people, held medical camps and clinics to provide basic health services, and mentored students.
Two girls who benefited from the organization’s services have completed their college education; one now is a veterinarian and one is a scientist.
George [above, standing] met its organization’s founder and board president, Juni Asiyo [above, left], while both were colleagues working in the Research Triangle Park before George started her MBA at NC State’s Jenkins Graduate School. Asiyo and her friends “have been doing a lot of work in Wikondiek from as early as 2000,” George said.
“Juni and I were talking about the work she was doing there and the fact that she was thinking of registering it and making it official. I decided this was what I was looking for to give back, and since I did not have a lot of money to donate I decided to give my time and effort. Since then, there has been no looking back.”
Born and raised in Zambia and Nigeria, George said she has “a soft spot for Africa. I think Africa is a continent that is greatly misunderstood and although there is a lot of donor aid being sent there, because of rampant corruption, not much of the aid gets to the neediest.”
Sequoia Helping Hands is small non-profit that works directly with members of the community being served. “Because we are an organization where 100 percent of the donations go directly to the people (for whom) they were intended, we need to make sure that we do all the work that we can on our own.” That means the board members cover overhead and other expenses.
“When talks were going on about registering (the organization)… it was decided that every single penny that was donated for something should go to what it was donated for. So if anyone wanted to donate money for administrative work that is going on there, we would use that donation for administrative work.”
The organization hasn’t requested funds to cover administrative costs but “they are planning to look into getting grants to help out with administrative work because, yes, it is a very big commitment. But every board member that is part of Sequoia is committed to the work that is being done there and we try to do the best.”
Also on the board are Don Karl, member of the Roycroft Guild, based in East Aurora, N.Y. , and Nedi Gaya, a nurse at Duke Hospital, originally from Kenya. Birdie Midgette is a founding member of the nonprofit who has been involved with work in Wikondiek since the 1990s.
“Karl helped with the construction of 15 houses with help from the local residents. When we have medical clinics, we have a nurse who comes to help and a gentleman who takes care of doing the blood work. Nedi also went and performed tests.“
Asiyo’s father, a retired pharmacist in Kenya, assists, and her mother serves as liaison to the communities served. A group of Duke University nurses are also planning to go for a working visit soon, George said. “So it just depends on the projects and the number of projects that need to get done.”
Sequoia also has partnerships with several organizations that provide targeted services.
York University in Toronto, Canada, for example, selects and sends two graduate students in education to Wikondiek every summer for their student teaching, working with a professor from the Maseno University in Kenya.
The graduate students “teach in the school and help the students with issues they may have. Some of them go back and talk to their friends and family, who then sponsor the education of the children there. York University has sent a total of six students and five professors to Wikondiek thus far. We have a continuing relationship with them,” George said.
“C3 Communications, a company that specializes in executive communication training, is going to Wikondiek in June this year to train the high school and primary school students with public speaking. They will be accompanied by a 14-year-old Cary Academy student who plans to teach the kids waffle ball and Frisbee throwing,” she said.
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