Steve (host):
Welcome to the 22nd Wonderspace Journey, it's great to have you on board. My name is Steve Cole and since September 2020 I have been asking the same 6 questions to people from around the world. The questions revolve around life and wonder, places of reset and stories of hopefulness which I think we need more than ever. The setting for all of our interviews is a virtual window seat on the space station 250 miles above earth where we see everything from a different perspective. This week our journey will take us from Tanzania to Afghanistan and to experience these views with us in this ultimate window seat we welcome Kanini Matuni who is the Managing Director of the DRK Foundation, which is a venture philanthropy firm supporting early stage, high impact social enterprises.

Steve (host):
Kanini is also an advisor for a global action network of impact investors called Tonic and is the board chair of the Global Innovation Fund which focuses on investing for people living on $5 a day and below. A shorter version of this episode together with footage of this journey from Tanzania to Afghanistan can be found on our website ourwonder.space where You will also find the previous 21 episodes. I start by asking Kanini, from this seat 250 miles above earth, which city or country would you want us to fly over and why?

Kanini:
It would have to be the African continent, and I would say the city would be a place called Kakuma, so not where I was born, it's a refugee camp that I spent 2 weeks in, and I have had the most eye-opening revelations that I've ever had during that two-week period. So I mark it as a milestone in my life and it's probably the most special place geographically in my life right now.

Steve (host):
Kanini, give us a glimpse into your life story so far with an emphasis on what you're doing currently.

Kanini:
I would probably say this is 1 of the most difficult years in my life, especially because of COVID. But at the same time, I have this feeling that this is exactly where I need to be and where I want to be in many ways. And I'll explain why. Right now, as I'm talking to you, I am in Africa, in Kenya, and my sole purpose, my time is spent investing capital in early stage social entrepreneurs who are basically trying to change the state of the world. So these are young people, young Africans who are spending their time trying to make the world a better place.

Kanini:
And I have this incredible opportunity to deploy capital to them and help them in building their organizations, helping them scale, helping them select teams that will see them through all kinds of challenges. And at the same time, just see them grow as human beings throughout the period of time that we're investing in them. So I really think that I am so fortunate and so blessed to be able to do this work for a living and just be a part of people who are trying to change the world and not just accepting it for what it is but really making an effort to change it. So that's what I'm doing currently, that's my life story right now. On top of that, I am also a mother of 3 wonderful children.

Kanini:
In the last couple of months, I've seen myself shift from being a working mom to being a working mom who's teaching and cooking and coaching and being the emotional cushion, if you like, for my children during this COVID period as they stay home for homeschooling. So again, I would say this has been another pivotal moment in terms of just really learning what patience is, what it means to deal with uncertainty, what it means to do something that you were never trained to do. I was never trained to be a teacher but I have had to do it every single day for the last few months. So I think this is going to be a really significant part of my life story and it's probably something I will tell my grandchildren And it's building me as a human being. It's building me as an investor.

Kanini:
It's building me as a mother. It's building me as a sister, as a daughter. It's just really building me as a human being overall. So I think those 2 things in my life right now, I would say, are pivotal and, you know, they're going to shape who I end up being in the future. I think just to finish, Steve, 1 thing I would say is my journey continues.

Kanini:
My life is still a work in progress, I will never get to the point where I would say my journey has ended. But I would again just say that I'm so excited with where my life is right now and who I'm becoming. Where

Steve (host):
on earth is your place of reset or recharge? And who

Kanini:
I'm becoming. My place on earth of reset and recharge is a place called Tammu. It's right on the Indian Ocean and it is really the place where I feel my soul is completely at peace. It's the place where I feel my soul is fed and it's the place where I feel everything comes together. Now just to clarify, I think it's important to note that my place of reset and peace is in myself but this is just a physical place that enables this to happen.

Steve (host):
What wonder of the natural world excites you the most?

Kanini:
I would say what really excites me the most is I had the opportunity to go to Greenland 2 years ago with a group of with other leaders And I was completely blown away by just seeing the icebergs. We went to Antarctica as well. And also just starting to understand what climate change really means. I think we all read about it. I'd read about it, studied it, but I'd never really seen it for myself.

Kanini:
When you see the icebergs melting and then we actually saw polar bears sort of moving away from parts of Antarctica that they couldn't live in because it was actually too warm. So I think for me that's my place of wonder because it really brings home what could happen to the rest of the planet if we don't take climate change with the urgency that it needs.

Steve (host):
Kanini, what is your story of hopefulness that's not your own about a person, business or non-profit who are doing amazing things for the world?

Kanini:
My story of hopefulness right now would be 1 organization that is based in Ghana that is focused on helping informal workers, and informal workers are those who do not have a fixed wage, do not have a pension, do not have savings, who are unbanked, helping those informal workers who are about 70% of the African population with creating a saving spot for their retirement. And the reason why this gives me so much hope is that this is not a profitable business at all. It really is a mission filled with passion. It's a very difficult mission. It is a very challenging thing to do and it's something that people don't focus in because it's just not sexy.

Kanini:
So I think when I see this organization, it's called People's Pension Trust Ghana, pushing through with this mission and really finding a way for Africa's workers to have a pension, for me it just brings me so much hope. And on top of that, this organization's founder, who I met at the beginning of March, unfortunately caught COVID and died in the middle of building this organization. And that was a really profound loss, not just for the organization, but for the world and for this space. And many people thought that the mission would die with him. His name was Samo, but it was completely wrong.

Kanini:
Samo's passion, his mission has remained active and since he passed away we've had about 30, 000 more savers come into this organization and put their money aside, whether it's a dollar a day, $2.50 towards their pension. So the mission still lives. I think that's the ultimate test of a mission and a passion, that when the founder is no longer there, the work continues unabated.

Steve (host):
Finally, as we prepare to re-enter, what insight, wisdom or question would you like to share with us?

Kanini:
The insight or wisdom I'd like to share is I realise how very small we all are in our spaces. We are really small when you look at the size of the rest of the world. But the wisdom of that is no matter how small we are, we truly can make a difference wherever we are. Whatever small action, whatever small act of kindness, whatever small thought that we have, that can really be amplified in the rest of the world and it's such a beautiful vision to see here on the screen that 1 action, 1 small act can really amplify and change the world. Never forget that.

Steve (host):
More information about the work of Kanini can be found at drkfoundation.org and tonnic.com. Information about Kanini's story of hopefulness can be found at peoplespensiontrust.com To join the Wonderspace community and share your own wonders and stories of hopefulness or to listen to the previous 21 interviews the website is ourwonder.space I want to thank Kanini for joining us on this Wonderspace and I hope you can join us next week for more wonders and stories of hopefulness.