28 October 2008

October 27th, 2008 by Kelly Earp

I’ve been here slightly over 1 month, and I’m happy to report that progress is being made in Future Hope Foundation, or FUHOF. We’ve been meeting twice a week since I’ve arrived. The first couple week’s meetings were to elect chairman, secretary, treasurer, etc. We also worked on a resolution and constitution for the committee, as well as discussed membership requirements and dues….various business matters that weren’t as fun as they were important. The committee is 7 members of the community who have volunteered their time to come together to form this community based organization (CBO). One of the members is Courage, my counterpart, whom I’ve mentioned before. Another is Simon (pronounced Simone). He is the chairman, and as I came to find out he’s quite an activist for development in the community…but more on him later.

I must say, that I think I really spent the first month learning and trying to get an idea of what I could do for them. Unfortunately, there was very little guidance from the non-government organization (NGO), BRIDGE, that placed us in our communities, but I figured a lot out on my own. I really woke up one day and said that this is going to be what I make of it, and I’m going to just work hard, and hopefully things will start to happen. The time is really my own, so what to do with it is totally my choice, and lord knows, I HAVE to busy…and I only have one thing to do here – help FUHOF and the wonderful village of Adaklu-Have.

So they made a constitution that I thought was so smart…I was very little help other than chiming in every now and then with ideas. At the same time, BRIDGE was donated books from an organization in the US called “Books for Africa.” After many hours in a dusty, hot warehouse sorting through the massive amounts of books, we got them to their respective schools. Also, some of the villages were to receive computers for their schools…mine included. This was pretty exciting b/c it was all done in the name of FUHOF, so we could immediately show the villagers that we were making a positive impact. The funny thing is that we got this computer, but were missing one thing…electricity!

SO, I’d taken on the task within the first week I was here to see what needed to be done to get electricity in Have. The first step was to meet the District Chief Executive (DCE) and get his approval and blessing. This seemed so attainable, and the next day Simon and I went to his personal residence to find him, only to wait for 3 hours and he never showed. No problem…we’ll go back the next day. Well, 2 and a half weeks later we FINALLY reached him…we were referring to him as a precious commodity that was rare to find. I was very annoyed, and arrived in his office with a letter I intended to send to him and his bosses were he to not be there. But, alas, he was and my frustration was shelved and replaced with excitement. We received good news that he would not only support us, he would provide us with the low-tension poles we needed…not some, but 50 of the possible 70 poles needed. He may even supply all, but either way this was great news to us. The other poles with have to be purchased by the community. With his blessing, we accomplished the first step better than expected. While we were at his office, we also registered FUHOF and made it an official organization. Last week, the DCE was supposed to send an engineer to our village to access it, and sign off on the number of poles needed…but he didn’t show, so we’re back on the chase and trying to fight for quick action. The next step will be to take the news of our readiness to the energy supplier. This is done through the government, and we have a chief in a nearby village speaking for us. Without our knowlegde, he actually went to the capital city 2 weeks ago and went to the energy supplier…did not see Have on the list of candidates for electricity, so he took it upon himself to sign us up. Again, this was great news…we were extremely greatful and he was pleased to meet me and learn that we had begun the effort as well so his gesture was not in vain.

This really excited me, and made me realize that my role may be more symbolic that anything else. It may just be that they needed someone to stand for development and change, and to encourage good citizens like Simon to keep doing what he’s doing. I can see how it could be easy to be discouraged because each process is slow, but I also see that these things are SO possible if they just don’t give up. Now, I’m going to begin to focus on bringing potable water to the village. My first discussions reveal that the village has already begun the process of digging the ridges for piping, but have not even looked into how many pipes they need and the cost. Enter Kelly. I plan to find out what we need and how much, and what physical work the villagers are willing to do, then apply for grants. After that, I will just keep applying for grants depending on what projects we deem most important, and most possible to maintain in the future. I have great concerns for what they will do when I leave and in a year, when Courage leaves. But I am teaching them all along the way, and not simply applying for hte gratns FOR them, but showing and teaching them how it’s done. This brings me to another scary thing, which is that I’m sort of teaching myself, and with the help of other volunteers, how to write grant proposals. I haven’t begun tackling that yet, but it’s next. Wish me luck.

I’m also so impressed by the work the community has done to build the kindergarten school room. Another NGO brought supplies and all the townspeople came to build the structure. It’s pretty awesome to have Simon come to my house to say hi, and inform me that he’s accross the street at the school, helping construct the KG. I asked who was there, and he said, “OH! The whole town!” So I had to see this! And he wasn’t lying either. The woman had their jobs, and the men had theirs. The women brought big rocks to the grounds, and are to crack them with a hammer, that they will mix with the cement mixture. They also bring the water to make the cement mix. I have to just add, that anytime these women carry ANYTHING, it’s on their head…with no hands. Imagine how heavy these big bowls of big rocks or water are! (I’m always trying to carry anything I can on my head, but I’m just not good at it). So the men, are mixing cement, pouring it, leveling it…digging a moat all around the are and throughout that’ll be filled with cement. It’s hard to describe and appears a little chaotic, but when you get in there and see what they’re doing, you realize it’s quite the well-oiled machine.

So, I know this is a little all over the place, but that’s pretty much how I feel with my work here. I have personal goals I’m trying to acheive and ideas I want to share. For instance, I would LOVE to have FUHOF members meet once a month and have a ‘community clean-up’ day. I also have various administrative things for FUHOF such as opening a bank account, designing a logo (I already did the letterhead), getting all their info on a computer, teaching the treasurer how to, well…be a treasurer and track the money (perhaps on excel???), and getting t-shirts made. Plus there’s general FUHOF responsibilities that have to be started to make the organization be sustainable – income generating activites to support our various projects, plus ultimately identifying what projects we want to focus on by priority, then getting the who and how worked out. And, ultimately, we need to get the support of the government, when nessessary, and NGOs for funding. It’s a big task and I know that I won’t be able to do all I wish I could. BUT, if I stick to it, and start to ‘bang things out’, then I can leave them with ideas and a promise to help them even from the US.