A Partnership of faith, vision and love really?
Can you imagine a business partnership based of faith, vision and love? That’s what we have with KMET. Today we went to Nambale to visit Nangeni our second school in this tranche of schools. They are a bit behind Nina in their PICD work, but that was lucky for me. I got to see another skit they used to help villagers take ownership of their community.
It was a simple skit really. They asked for volunteers to represent different people in a community. There were: a banker and his wife, a retired civil servant, a shop keeper farmer, a widow and 2 children, a day laborer, a woman who dropped out of school after 3rd grade, a teacher, a minister with 6 kids. What on earth were they going to do with this? And then Rosemary, the magician, got started.
The volunteers lined up and Rosemary asked questions. If they could answer yes to a question they could take 1 step forward.
How many of you can have 3 meals a day? The banker, wife and retired civil servant.
How many can count on 2 meals a day? The banker wife, civil servant, farmer., shopkeeper.
How many can count on 1 meal a day? Banker, wife, civil servant, farmer,teacher, minister.
On it went, how many could afford to go to a doctor? Same 3 as first question
How many could afford school fees for their children?
Those in the audience began to laugh and offer suggestions, but pretty soon it became evident that only a very few people could afford the basics of life.There were some in the community who could make no steps. And from there the question turned to the community of how could they make a step? How could they catch up to the banker, the retired civil servant and the shop keeper? What could they do? It was amazing to see how the PICD team turned a passive audience waiting for answers into a vibrant group of men and women talking excitedly about a future.
Monica and I sat back with a feeling of joy and optimism. We could see so clearly now the way forward. There will be no more feeding programs put in place. They are not sustainable. But what we will do is work with communities using PICD to help them identify their strengths and gaps. Then when they have decided what projects they want to work on, we can offer seed money.
I marveled at the simplicity and power of the way Debra, Rosemary and Beatrice (the PICD team) led the people. Their love for their work, their belief in what they do and their modesty in taking any credit for it is remarkable. Monica leads her team well, and I, I believe in them. And I know that changing the program and learning and revamping is a good thing.
What makes this so special is that we morph together. We agree together, no one feels bad or ashamed that the first things didn’t work. We just move on and see what does, and that my friends is a very special partnership. We are blessed for the journey.
Keep the faith y’all.