Bridge Building in Nairobi
by Tommy Lee
It has been one year since I last arrived to Nairobi with some co-workers. Now, since battling cancer and getting my feet back under me, this second trip allowed Resource Global to continue learning about the local environment and also focus on the establishment of a cohort in Kenya.
Over the course of five days, we had over 13 meetings with our future partners, friends, and key leaders, pastors and business leaders in Nairobi. I wanted to take some time and highlight some of our conversations.
We met an old friend, Joshua Wathanga, who is the chairman and founder of the Hesabika Network, which is a catalyst for a value-driven socio-economic transformation of Kenya. More info here: http://www.hesabika.com/. Joshua will serve as our first Chairman of the Board in Nairobi and Resource Global will also be under the Hesabika Network because of their credibility and network in Kenya. We are excited to have Joshua be a part of our team as his experience and reputation provides our work with credibility and opened doors for us that otherwise would not have been opened. He has experience in the ministry, the marketplace, and the political world.
Along with Joshua Wathanga, during the week we met with Pastor Calisto Odede of Nairobi Baptist Church, Pastor Oscar Muriu of Nairobi Chapel, and Pastor Erastus Weru, Missions Pastor and Church Planter for Nairobi Baptist. Many people we met with were impressed that we had Joshua, Calisto, and Oscar involved in what we were doing. Both Pastor Oscar and Calisto have committed to helping promote, recommend, and support the work of the cohorts in Nairobi. It is imperative to have them involved because pastors play a huge role in the success of the ministry in Nairobi. We are thankful for favor with these two men who now have become dear friends.
Along with ministry leaders, we met with other business leaders like Reuben Coulter, Director of the Business Transformational Network in Africa and Sunru Yong and his wife Anne. Sunru is a friend from college and is the current COO of Mobius Motors, a new start up car manufacturing company that produces cars strictly for the tough terrain of Africa.
During the week, we also had the opportunity to visit some of the slums of Nairobi called Kibera. This is definitely a tough site to see, but we hope that as we start a cohort in Nairobi that our cohorts will be able to visit these slums because many Kenyans do not choose to go into them.
Overall it was a great trip and we are looking to partner with Hesabika and start our first cohort in Nairobi in 2019.