THE SONDER PROJECT YEAR 2017
welcome to the team ,
MARTIN NANSIA
We met Martin on our first project as a new nonprofit in January of 2015 when we traveled to Burkina Faso to build a primary school . We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into , but we knew we wanted to help . Martin was our translator on that trip . A wonderful young man who was smart , funny , and incredibly kind . The perfect liaison between our group and the village . He possessed an amazing ability to make everyone feel comfortable . After that first trip , we stayed in touch with Martin . For all of our complaints of modern technology is certainly does make the world a smaller place . It wasn ' t that long ago that regular communication with someone on the other side of the world wasn ' t so easy . Later that year , we brought Martin to the U . S . along with another wonderful man we ' d met on that first trip . We crammed as many firsts as we could into that short visit . We went to the beach , did swimming lessons , went to a foot ball game , bowling , state parks , the fire station , you name it , we did it . It was amazing to see all of these things through their eyes . When we decided to focus on Burkina Faso in 2018 , we knew we needed boots on the ground . As the board discussed options for hiring an international employee , Martin seemed the obvious choice . Martin was hired in September and brought back to Florida for a job overview and briefing . Since returning to his home country , he ' s been very busy getting everything set up there including our new office in Ouagadougou , the nation ' s capital . For the remainder of 2017 , Martin spent a good deal of time visiting villages personally to collect the data that will help to shape our 2018 projects . The idea is for him to visit the villages and get direct feedback from those living there so that we may look for patterns of need and move forward with the projects that will create the biggest impact . It ' s one thing to study the statistics , but it ' s another thing entirely to hear directly from those affected . We are also proud to announce that Martin received his bachelor ' s degree this year from the University of Ouagadougou . An accomplishment no matter who you are , but in a country where the adult literacy rate is only around 35 %, this is a pretty big deal . Congrats , Martin & welcome to the team !