Refuge Re-imagined

REFUGE RE-IMAGINED

Refuge Re-imagined aims to provide and transform substandard shelter/settlements around the world into healthy, self-sustained, vibrant communities.

We are fortunate to be living in an environment where we turn on the tap, clean water comes out; when we flip the switch, the room turns bright; when we open the bedroom door, a comfy bed is waiting for us. There exist on this world many people who don’t have this luxury. They either don’t have roofs over their heads, or their place of residence is so crowded with family or either inhabitants that they cannot guarantee a restful sleep. Los Angeles certainly has a substantial homeless population, and this persistent issue is global. While some of this is more visible and closer to home, there are estimated 863 million people in urban areas that live in slums. They are recorded in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and many are unaccounted for.

Slums are a peculiar and fascinating kind of living:

• densely populated, with self-arranged buildings
• lacking reliable sanitation services and electricity,
• Lacking supply of clean water,  
• lacking proper infrastructure/connection to outside,
• and with very informal law enforcement.

Despite all these insufficiencies, many slum communities are vibrant and most of the time self-sustained, almost forming their own sub-culture. The problem then, for the government and NGO groups, how to provide adequate housing options without destroying their identity and community?

As we have learned from several global initiatives, it is all too easy to treat building affordable housing as a charity case, giving resources without acknowledging their cultural and social identity, that each group of people as unique and therefore requires a tailored solution.

One successful example in India, the Aranya Housing Project, takes a unique approach. Instead of force-feeding a western style town planning, the city commissioned a local architect and devised a set of manuals. The project only laid out the roads, divided the lands into plots, and built only toilets. This might sound odd initially, but this guarantees sanitation and supply of water. Then the residents are free to built as much or as little as they like around this main unit. If you are a bachelor, build a single room, and have a large garden for shared space; once you have a family then go ahead and build more rooms to accommodate additional people. The project does not mandate what needs to be built but only suggests materials and housing types that are most suitable for the the climate and use. This enables local tradesmen and workers to get in on the action and generate local initiatives and jobs.

What we think as fitting the locals may not. Our initiative then requires knowledge of the specific group and knowing what to change and what to preserve when implementing a master plan. There will be no one-size-fit-all kind of planning. In fact, that may bring unforeseen consequences and alter the community dynamic, causing instability, unrest, or even disperse the existing community.

Refuge Re-imagined will work with local groups and connect local professionals to investigate mass housing options for today’s slums, while preserve the unique community dynamics of the neighborhood.

Refuge Re-imagined will:

• Consult and surveyed local residents
• Hire local architects and train young professionals
• Devise community and housing plans
• Connect local trades to build the project
• Set up sustainable surveillance and maintenance for the facilities  

And as a result, bring the community together to accomplish the great goal that is improving their living conditions and possible create even stronger bonds. That way, not only are the people  reaping the benefits of an sanitized, equipped and well-connected modern community, they are also preserving their identity and dignity as a community in that much of the effort came within the very people who are living there. Anima Mundi Development Partners should support Refuge Re-imagined in that we recognize the individuality of each settlement, and we are guiding the the development of the community with our resources and expertise, and not imposing our logic on the locals, and ultimately achieving a healthy (physically and culturally) living environment for the less fortunate.

A World We Dare to Imagine (Pt.1)

We are fortunate to be living in an environment where we turn on the tap, clean water comes out; when we flip the switch, the room turns bright; when we open the bedroom door, a comfy bed is waiting for us. There exist on this world many people who don’t have this luxury. They either don’t have roofs over their heads, or their place of residence is so crowded with family or either inhabitants that they cannot guarantee a restful sleep. Los Angeles certainly has a substantial homeless population, and this persistent issue is manifold. While some of this is more visible and closer to home, there are estimated 863 million people in urban areas that live in slums. They are recorded in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and many are unaccounted for.

Slums are a peculiar and fascinating kind of living: densely populated, lacking reliable sanitation services and electricity, supply of clean water, and with very informal law enforcement. Yet the community is vibrant and most of the time self-sustained, almost forming their own sub-culture. The problem then, for the government and NGO groups, how to provide adequate housing options without destroying their identity and community? This requires knowledge of the specific group and knowing what to change and what to preserve when implementing a master plan. I am interested in investigating mass housing options for today’s slums while preserve the unique community dynamics of the neighborhood. (although still working out the where and how…) 

Blue Sweater Part 2

In the second half of the book, The Blue Sweater, Jacqueline recounts many of her past encounters from her 20 years of experience in Africa, India, Pakistan and other disadvantaged countries. She quotes a poignant line from Tennyson’s Ulysses, “I am a part of all that I have met”, summing up how her life is flipped upside down and she has been changed herself as much as she changed lives.

I want to comment on her approach to charity and solution to poverty. After the trial and errors, she figured out that the solution to poverty must be driven by discipline, accountability, and market strength, not easy sentimentality. The last point is one that costed her quite dearly to figure out. A blind kind of giving without knowing the local needs and without thought on economic sustainability is doomed to fail. A great example in the last chapter illustrated this well: Charity is not just handing out crisp notes to the two little girls in a Pakistani town she visited, but using the note to buy some of their proud creations, and in the act teaching them the virtue of hard work, as well as giving them the dignity that they need to grow up to be strong, independent women.

This is the best kind of charity in my opinion, a subject previously discussed on the genius of money. Giving loses meaning if it is only done to gratify the donors. It becomes a kind of consumption of others misery and the poor compete for a soured compassion.

In the end, Jacquline found a happy balance between entrepreneurship and philanthropy. By supporting local entrepreneurs who have the same values in creating solutions that will enable the poor to help themselves. The hierarchy does not create distance, but rather serve as a knowledgeable link that translate investments into applicable resources, and infusing the people with qualities of leadership.

As told on a story of bed nets in a village in Zanzibar, the saleswomen pitched their sales using only languages that appeal to beauty, family, vanity and comfort; never once did they use “musts” or “shoulds”, and the effect was evident. The local people work with the mindset and a level of empathy that outside forces cannot compete, and in this case it is better to give them the chance to better their lives with their own hands. Learning to let go is as important as the will to act, and the focus for drive to fulfill the ambitions.

Blue Sweater Part 1

In the book The Blue Sweater, written by Jacqueline Novogratz, we follow her journey from a banker to the founder and CEO of Acumen – a non-profit organization that funds social enterprises and aims to tackle issues of poverty. The story started off with a rather miraculous story about a blue sweater that her uncle once gave her. When the sweater fell out of her favor, Jacqueline donated it to Goodwill, only to find that the same zebra and mountain blue sweater appeared on a little boy when she visited Kigali, Rwanda, 12 years later. She even checked the clothing tag and sure enough, it had her name on it. This incident reassured her that people’s actions around the globe can have far and wide influences, no matter how negligible or small they may seem, and propelled her to continue her good deeds in the foreign continent.


Jacqueline started like the most of us in rather privileged upbringing, graduating from college and transitioning to a job at chase bank. She then realized the harsh realities of the world and in her current position, she was doing little to help them. Banks, particularly in well-to-do areas, were manipulating large sums of money to create overnight wealth, where people in impoverished areas were struggling to make ends meet. She then took action to her own hands. She “did what I now tell young people to do: I started where I could and where I was given the chance.” This advice is something that I think people need to take to heart. From what I see in my family and friend group, there is a lot of pressure to know what you want, have a set goal, and to be instantly successful in whatever it is you decide to do.” This is a very noble cause that a lot of us can learn something from; whether it is seizing the opportunities on hand, resisting societal and family pressure, and having a heart of gold and caring for the less fortunate.


The other point that I want to highlight is that charities may not always be well-received. In the book she had several bitter setbacks when the local people did not want her help, seeing her as hostile and imposing and even went to lengths as to poison her food. She then reflected her intentions and realize charity is just as much about the methods and attitudes as the actual gifts and resources. It is less about feeling good when you give, and more about how people perceive you and use your gifts. The people will not appreciate if they don’t see or understand your efforts to help. Initially she didn’t ask what they wanted or needed and assumed a role of expert, but as she learned through her mistakes, connecting with the locals, learning their needs and making conscious advisement will empower the people by giving them a sense of accountability, reward, success, confidence, and therefore freedom. Traditional charities were not a long term solution to help the poor, and that the best solution was to provide loans to the poor to start a business and become self-sustainable.

Coagula Sweet 16

Zombie Words

After a leisurely walk in Pasadena and an exhaustive conversation about... well, conversations, I decided to write about the way we speak and write. The following video by TED-ed, resonated with me a lot. (take a minute to watch it if you haven't!)

In the video, Helen spoke of the phenomenon of "zombie-fying" words, adding prefixes and suffixes, turning verbs into nouns and making otherwise vibrant action words into corporate soul-sucking rhetoric. Why say "use" when you can say "utilization"? "The proliferation of nominalization" (see?) seems to be the problem with a lot of writing nowadays. These often empty, abstract phrases are viewed as a mastery of the language, and an indication of education and sophistication. Heck, it is how we aspire to write in school and academia. It is also wildly common in corporate, legal, or philosophical materials, where they are used to convey objectivity, precision and overall convoluted ideas. They certainly have a place in the society today, but should we always strive for complicated sentence construction and word choices? My answer is leaning towards, "whenever you can, write simply," (thank goodness for this class!)


I must admit there's merit in using the "right" word in your writing, however. There may be no substantial difference in "plethora" and "myriad" (both of which sound rather obnoxious and should be used with discretion), but there are occasions where using "livid" say more than just "mad" - "livid" tends to bring an associated imagery of a flushed, fuming person who is much more angry than a "mad" person. And the umbrella of "mad" words also includes "crossed" or "irritated", both of which are milder expressions than the ones mentioned above. So I say there is nothing wrong with having a command of extensive vocabulary at your disposal, but keep an keen eye on how frequent they are used in a sentence, and how indispensable they are to your argument, or you risk losing your readers or sounding like a pretentious... prick. (I am guilty of this too. I am quite aware that this post is full of zombie words. I apologize if it sounds too pedantic to you - wait, is using "pedantic" too pedantic?)

Growing a Farmer Pt. 2

At the latter half of the book (chapter 12 onward), he delved into the rather graphic details of slaughtering and butchering, including his physical struggles and internal turmoil. At some point he spoke very matter of factly, about the technicalities of the butchering down to the buckets to hold the organs; but most of the time, he spoke with passion and compassion, showing the care for his animals. Kurt seemed to have found his calling in the ending of the book. He opened a farm-kitchen is that is quite novel to most people living in big cities, and he focuses his effort in cheese-making, as commercial crop like wheat, carrot and such are hard to produce cheaply and efficiently compared to larger farms, and butchering required much governmental supervision. Cheese, with its craft and artisan air, fitted perfectly with Kurt’s vision and available resources. He is now “cooking from the land”, this journey has enriched his culinary insight as well as changed his relationship with the nature, a wild ride to be more in touch with where our food came from.

I like the book not for its literal description and farm technicalities, but for the grander discussions about attitude on lifestyle, consumerism and nature. Much can be extracted from his plain and straight-forward writing style: entrepreneurs may see the failed business ventures and different more economically viable options; environmental activists may see the sustainable approaches and applaud the effort towards “cradle-to-cradle”, and many of us lay people may just enjoy a fun read about changing the urbanistic lifestyle for a busy but zen, rural life. Kurt didn’t write this to urge people to churn their own butter on a Saturday evening (to quote his own words). In my opinion, he was happy to share his shift in lifestyle and re-orientation of his priorities, and perhaps in the process inspire some of us city-dwellers.

I appreciate his story and it made me reflect on our (perhaps ignorant) acceptance of mass-produced food. I grew up watching “how it’s Made” and although it was fascinating seeing the technology behind producing commercial products, I am now aware how inhuman and detached the whole process is. Wheat flow from silos into glistening stainless steel mixers, and all ingredients travel in tubes into the mixer, and the results get pumped out and packaged, all with nearly no human contact. This is the manufacturing we have come to accept, as efficient, clean, and normal. But Kurt reminded us how it used to be done, with hands of the farm workers and lots of care and attention. And the scale and intimacy between him and his farm products really gave me a new perspective and appreciation for the things on my table.

I have attach short clip from a silly childhood movie “Chicken Run” for your entertainment! . The chicken pie machine in it has been how I imagine butchering is done for a very long time.