Technology, skill help volunteers SPANAfrica

Now that Kai Staats doesn’t have to be fully immersed in the day-to-day survival of his technology company, the local entrepreneur is putting his expertise to work on his other passion – providing know-how and support to nonprofits in Africa.

Staats founded Terra Soft Solutions Inc. in 1998 and steered the company through several rocky patches as its technology partners made huge changes in their platforms. Late last year, Terra Soft was purchased by Tokyo-based Fixstars to be its U.S. headquarters.

Staats still serves as chief operating officer of the firm, but found that he finally has a little bit more time to dedicate to a cause he became impassioned with about eight years ago.

Staats traveled in 2001 to Africa, specifically Oshigambo, a small town in northern Namibia. He helped high school teachers and students reconstruct an antiquated computer lab using what parts were readily available. After this trip, Staats began looking for other opportunities to help in a practical manner.

In 2006, Staats joined three others to serve as the executive board of SPANAfrica, a nonprofit devoted to putting their varied backgrounds to work helping African nonprofit groups get the resources and expertise they need. SPANAfrica strives to promote grassroots economic development for communities across Africa by tapping volunteers to help with local efforts.

The other board members are:

n Rebecca Mitchell, founder of SPANAfrica and a medical student at the University of California-San Francisco with expertise in global health issues;

n Cameron Dunkin, a Canadian political studies graduate currently completing a graduate degree in South Africa;

n Brad Beherns, a political science graduate and current law student in San Diego with experience tutoring immigrants and refugees in English.

SPANAfrica was founded in 2005 as the Student Project Africa Network – the name was shortened in March. The board is now setting up an organizational structure to take it to the next level, which would include hiring a full-time executive director.

SPANAfrica relies heavily on partnerships. One of the important aspects of the nonprofit is to not assume the needs of individual communities. Instead, SPANAfrica works to support nonprofit groups set up by locals, who know better than anyone the needs of their communities.

Now, SPANAfrica has partnerships with eight groups. It is working in Kenya, has hired a regional director in Zambia and hopes to expand into Ghana and South Africa this summer. Dunkin said there are a number of groups that have expressed interest in working with SPANAfrica, including nonprofits in Nigeria, Uganda, Mali and Cameroon. He will be working to expand those relationships while he spends time on the continent, working toward his master’s degree.

Nonprofits benefit from Internet

Having people in Africa to coordinate the work – and finding volunteers with the right skills to go there – is hugely important. Unfortunately, not all the needs of local groups can be met by on-site volunteers, so SPANAfrica is launching a new virtual tool to address those needs.

“It’s actually something I designed in 2001, but never had time to implement,” Staats said.

He sees the new Internet portal as a resource center for African nonprofits and eventually for other groups.

“It’s a dial-a-nurse concept,” he said.

Nonprofits will be able to tap the expertise of volunteers all over the world through the interactive database. People wishing to volunteer some time but unable to travel to Africa can get involved.

“Realistically, not everyone can go to Africa,” Dunkin said.

The aim of the Internet portal is to provide expertise over e-mail – anything from how to engineer and build a water system to assistance with grant writing. The portal will also make available “white papers” so that several organizations can benefit from the expertise requested by one.

The Web tool is now in development, and Staats hopes to see it go live by July. He explained that it is a fairly complex system that requires a bit of server-side programming and testing. Luckily, this is where Staats’ expertise comes in handy; in addition, Fixstars is hosting the SPANAfrica site.

on Facebook on LinkedIn