So what can you learn from some of the poorest people in the world? What has the struggle with poverty taught them, and is it of any value to helping answer your life questions?
As you seek to really understand those currently in poverty, what surprising and interesting things might you learn that could benefit your own life?
In the previous blog entry, I invited people to submit a short audio or video about a dream they have and what their next question/need is to accomplish it.
I loved the questions people submitted:
* How should I know what to do with my life (e.g. after graduation)?
* How can I get the money and resources I need to start my project/organization?
* How can I help people who are from different groups, even considered enemies, to better trust and understand each other?
* I don’t know what I have to share, so how can I help people in a way that matters?
* How can I inspire others to find their potential and live their dreams?
* How can I help those who are rejected and do not have a voice?
* Is what I want to do with my life ultimately worth doing?
Below are the first responses to their questions from the Karamojong refugees located in a settlement near Jinja, Uganda (pushed out of their native land in the north because of war and famine, now trying to start a new life).
[Soon I will post some of their videos about their dreams and what they think they need next, which I hope you will want to respond to.]
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Monika’s Dream:
To open a great coffee shop, to travel, to somehow help others, and really to figure out what she ultimately should be doing with her life.
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Thoughts from Rose and Lucy on Monika’s first two questions
Q1: I don’t know what I have to share, so how can I help people in a way that matters?
Q2: How can I inspire others to find their potential and live their dreams?
Summary of Advice:
* Help people to help themselves, so they are strong whether you are there or not.
* One of the most valuable things you can give someone is knowledge on how to help themselves.
* Sometimes people don’t believe in themselves at all, they need “sensitization” to the idea that there is more inside of them than they see in themselves.
* Give someone a job or responsibility, to help them see how much they can do for themselves, and to find what strengths each person has.
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Thoughts from Lucy, Rose, and the Chairman on Monika’s third question
Q3: I am nervous as I get close to graduation, how should I know what to do with my life after that?
Summary of Advice:
* There is always something important to do with your life, because there is someone who needs your help.
* The trials and life experiences you have gone through can teach you ways in which you might be able to best help others.
* Ask advice from God, He can help you know what to do with your life.
* Also ask advice from others in your life who are close to you.
* Thinking about how you can best help those you love in your family, as well as those far away, can help give your life direction and purpose.
* After university, people should spend their time focused on helping others who were not lucky enough to have education yet.
* It is not in this video, but the leader of the community (the “chairman”) also recommended to Monika that after she graduates, she can marry his son. That was until I told him that she was already married. 🙂
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Anitra’s Dream:
To help teachers integrate and give a voice to those with severe disabilities.
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Thoughts from Rose, Lucy, and Christine on both Anitra’s questions (with special bonus: an African chief from a tribe in Ghana, who was staying in my hotel, adds a thought at the end)
Q1: How can I help those who are rejected and do not have a voice?
Q2: Is what I want to do with my life ultimately worth doing?
Summary of Advice:
* Many of those children with disabilities are not even in school in this area of the world.
* Actually, it is tough for any kids from this community to be in school, so how can teachers help them if they are not even in school?
* Before children here can even have time for school, they need to have some security that they will have food, or else they will have to spend their time picking from the garbage pits, begging on the streets, or working different jobs.
* Teachers do need further training, to be specialized in how to help those with disabilities. Once they know better how to help, then they will help.
* Do it in a way that is legal, and with the proper support from local authorities
* There are many people without a voice, and they definitely do need support from you, Anitra.
* Keep those good desires and that hope alive and burning in you, always, and you will know what to do.
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Joey’s Dream
To start a business/organization that highlights the common humanity in us all, and helps even those who are now considered enemies to better trust and understand each other.
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Thoughts from John, Rose, & Lucy on Joey’s first question
Q1: How can I get the money and resources I need to start my project/organization?
Summary of Advice:
* It struck some people as funny that you (driving a nice car like that) thought you needed money, Joey. 🙂
* You could get a job, get a loan, or get a friend who can loan money to you.
* Find an unmet need you could help solve to generate some initial income.
* Save, save, save money whenever you get some, then use it to invest in things that can bring more money (e.g. retail businesses, rental properties, passive/residual income sources, etc).
* Be smart and use credit money and your own hard-earned money for different things.
* Maintain a good credit history and great relationship with lenders. When you get a loan, pay it back so you can get a larger loan – and keep building from there, investing in residual income sources.
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Thoughts from John, Rose, Lucy, Christine, and Joseph on Joey’s second question
Q2: How can I get people who are from different groups, even considered enemies, to better trust and understand each other?
Summary of Advice:
* To help people from different tribes, get people into groups where they can talk with each other.
* Help people from different tribes or religions overcome labels by getting them to be in one group.
* Don’t label people by calling them “bad” or calling them “wrong” — look at the thing they do and call it bad or wrong — not the person but the action.
* Someone will not be trusted if they are hurting others.
* Find ways to get them to help each other, and to work together to help the helpless.
* Do not segregate people – get them to interact with each other.
* Unite them with “the machines”.
* Involve them in joint projects or some work together.
* Address when there are things people do to hurt each other, but do not exclude them from the group.
* When people ask for help from others, and give help, they will naturally be closer to each other.
* Integrate God into what you are doing.
* Figure out ways for people to be friends, and make friendship with each other.
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My Question for Monika, Anitra, and Joey —
How helpful was this advice, honestly? And why was it helpful or not helpful?
If it wasn’t helpful, that is OK. If it was, great.
When we bring back other people’s video responses to the dreams and questions they have (which I will post soon), we can also bring them your feedback on their responses to your questions, if you like.
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Potential Challenges: (to continuing this project, if people think it is worthwhile)
At the end of each day, I asked the translators and others what they thought went well and what they thought could be improved. Here were a couple suggestions and questions regarding a few challenges:
1. Ensuring there is a good translator for those who can not speak English.
2. Figuring out a way to have local people take over, or find a way to overcome the way that even the presence of a mzungu (white person) in this community “looks money” and thus naturally evokes different responses to certain questions.
3. On the second day, all the power in the entire area had been shut down after a flood destroyed the cables, so when our batteries died in the camera and computer, our interviews were over.
4. How to have the equipment (computer, camera, battery supply) and person on the ground in each country (with an Internet connection who can capture responses, download and upload videos) to help keep the channel of communication open for the conversation to continue, if people would like.
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Two Favorite moments:
Aside from when the chairman recommended to Monika that she marry his son, when Lucy laughed to think that Joey driving his car needed money, and when I recommend to the chairman that he invest in Joey’s business, there were a couple moments that stood out.
1. “What do we have to share?”
When we first showed up to this refugee camp and asked for the leader, he asked us what we were there for (expecting us to be an Aid organization).
My translator explained that we came because we needed their help.
He looked confused, and asked more questions. She told him we thought he and his people had perspective which could benefit others in the world. He said, “What do we have to share? How could we help anyone else, we have so little, and these people have so little in their heads!”
I told him, “Maybe you can’t help, but then again maybe you can. Just let us play the videos where people are asking their questions, and you may end up being surprised how much of value there is in your knowledge and experience.”
That is exactly what happened.
For him, perhaps particularly this happened when he realized that he had something of incredibly value to share in how he helped people from tribes that usually fight up North to live in peace and harmony in this community.
2. “My view of the Karamojong has totally changed”
At the end of the first day, I asked my translator if she was impressed by anything that day.
She told me that she herself had been changed and moved a great deal.
She said that as a born again Christian, she had previously spent a lot of time preaching to the Karamojong, but had never before taken time to listen to them or learn from them. She said she used to think like the leader, that they had nothing of value in their heads and that they were only looking for handouts all the time.
After the interviews that day, however, she said she now knew how much wisdom they had, and how much they had to share.
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I suppose when it comes down to it “development” can mean many things, and it can happen in so many ways for each of us as we are trying to better understand, love, and help each other.
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To see what happened next, please visit: http://clint.wisdomoftheworld.com/2009/05/24/dreams-analysis-vs-needs-analysis/
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I forgot to say, if you have a video question you would like to submit, I will be going to Senegal next week…
Would you like to start a conversation with someone in an informal settlement on the outskirts of Dakar?
(if you speak French, that would be really cool)
I agree with your second point under challenges because I could sense the nuances in the responses based on my background. I think your presence skews the responses somehow because they tend to look at people’s questions from their own problem-view as opposed to that of the person asking. But I think it was an eye opener for them in many ways too. I am wondering whether you asked any of them if they were surprised to see that “foreigners” also had problems.
Exploring ways of localising it will certainly help in the responses and make it an ongoing discussion or exchange as opposed to a one-off.
Thanks for those thoughts Ali. Especially with you coming from Uganda, they are much appreciated.
I tried to emphasize with each person to focus for a few moments just on what they could give, not what they could get, in answering the questions — and I keep trying to brainstorm the best ways to help that happen. Ultimately there must be some good ways to break the cycle of dependency that both sides invite and reinforce through their actions. Any ideas on how to best do that?
You know, we didn’t ask that question you mention directly, but there were moments were you could tell there was some surprise that “foreigners” had the same problems which they had too.
It especially came out in the question about how Joey could get money. Lucy started to answer the question that she assumed she heard – trying to tell him how could he give money in the best way. When she realized that his question was how he could get money, she couldn’t help but laugh.
On the other hand, listening the “the Chairman” talk about going from penniless (not even having sandals) to where he is today (renting out 80 rooms for 800,000 Ugandan Shillings passive income a month), it is obvious that he has been better with finances than almost anyone I meet in the U.S. or Europe. For example, he is awesome at:
* finding unmet needs to generate initial income,
* keeping a good relationship with creditors,
* saving, saving, saving,
* being smart about using borrowed money and hard cash for different things,
* investing and reinvesting income, savings, and credit into passive/residual income sources,
* etc…
Honestly, there is so much to learn from that guy about being disciplined and clever with money!
If you became as good with finances as he is, and with the opportunities you have, you would become financially independent in a short period of time.
Wow. What a cool paradigm shift to be asking for help from those that are accustomed to recieving the help.
i think that by giving them the opportunity to serve is when they realize their own strength, and that strength grows.
The only true way to give someone independence from others help is for the to realize that everything they need is within them already.
You’re my hero clint.
more videos please.
Thanks Gerald.
Something of a poignant lesson for me actually is this. In the last months I have been with some of the richest people in the world, and with some of the poorest, and everything in between.
It seemed at least one concern for almost all of them is how they can get more money to do something else that they want to do (this feeling of not having enough, needing more, regardless of how much they had).
I’ve been left wondering if it is human nature that we often either don’t realize or don’t appreciate the riches that we already have (monetary or otherwise) nearly as much as we could, in our pursuit to chase “something else”?
How did you come to realize that everything you need is within you already?
These people are really intelligent!
Especially for Monika, Rose has a good view of the things, I cannot imagine where she can get to if she has the opportunity to continue studying. But one thing I am sure, it can go far.
These videos show that if all people have the same opportunities it is possible to built better world. Sometimes some people do not have opportunity and resources to show what they can do.
I think that Clint had good ideas and did good work making these videos.
Xavier, I agree with what you say. I’m excited to see if with you we can get a similar thing started for a community in Mozambique.
One other thing that really impressed me about Rose was after the interview was over. Her and Christine were walking us to the road, and I was toward the back. We walked past this little boy with a dirty face (about 2 or 3 years old) who sitting in the mud and crying uncontrollably. I stopped to just crouch down and rub his back, but he just kept crying. Rose reached down and offered him some little of what she had and he stopped crying. That just stuck out to me.
That is a great questions:
What would others do if they had the opportunities that we have had?
I love watching these videos! I like the response about how you should give someone some responsibility or job to do so that when you are gone they can still support themselves. I think it is especially great coming from a refugee. I think a popular mentality in the US and many other nations is that people like to fly to lower-income areas and give people ‘stuff’ because it makes us feel good about ourselves, but is it really helping? I think another popular mentality among some areas of some poorer nations is ‘give me something’ which doesn’t empower people to know they have power within them. It seems to be a never ending cycle.
So, how do we help give people jobs or responsibilities? Do you think microcredit fills the need, at least in part? In what instances? I have heard some horror stories, such as a woman whose business failed. She was so ashamed of not being able to pay off her loan that she locked herself in her home, and her daughters actually began to prostitute themselves to help her. I’m not saying it was the lending institutions fault, just wondering how to avert instances such as this.
However, I have a friend in Botswana named Angelina who used her loan to buy a small oven and started selling muffins. Soon she was able to use the profits to buy more ingredients and sell even more, until she ended up employing four people to help sell while she stayed home and cooked. The solidarity groups seem to pretty effective as well.
What is the difference in the two cases? Just luck, or personality, or a failure to administer microcredit in the right way? Does microcredit ‘force’ some people to be entrepreneurial? Reading the E-Myth made me wonder if some people just are entrepreneurs and some just are not. What is the best way to give people responsibilities or give people knowledge that will help them be self-sufficient? I really like her response, but the next question is how? And when, and where, and to whom?
Even living in the US, I’ve often needed a push or consultation with many people to decide what I want to do career-wise or make other decisions in my life. All I really had to do was save some money for school and pick a major. Choosing one seemed to be this daunting, confusing, and excruciating process when it should have been easy. Study something and interview for jobs once you graduate. Pretty straightforward?
How much harder it must be for people who are living hand-to-mouth with only enough resources to have the basic necessities of life and often having no access to education as a child, and in areas where it is nearly impossible to interview for and find a job? How to help give them that extra little push or inspiration to find something to do that they like and get them enough start-up resources to do so? How to help people have confidence they can do so and where can they find the training they need to make it successful? How to do it in a way that they receive training and mentoring without relying on outside sources?
Maybe once they have a successful venture they can mentor others in their community so as not to be dependent on ‘foreigners’ who end up leaving once their program is finished.
I like the church’s neonatal resuscitation program because it teaches local people how to teach it to other local people and therefore affects a lot more people. How do you set something like that up with business training?
I liked the approach of MicroBusiness Mentors in Provo as far as microcredit goes. We provided basic business training, helped people submit proposals and business plans for their idea, and provided continued mentoring for a year after the loan was given. But, our scope was small, there were only a limited number of us, and our understanding of the community was limited.
How to increase the scope of these kinds of programs without abandoning people? How to use local people so as to branch out even more and not put ‘foreigners’ who are less familiar with the real needs or the culture in charge?
Okay, I am just babbling now. Any comments?
Sarah,
You have articulated so well some of the additional questions, thoughts that I have had over the last little while. (It took me a while to reply as I was in Senegal, etc – but I loved reading and thinking about your post)
In this community, I saw several instances of how micro-credit had helped certain individuals, and I can see your point about how it is not the solution for everyone.
Maybe one of the things I could do is try and capture the essence of your thoughts/questions and bring them to these people, to at least include them in the conversation? Maybe together, with your insight, their insight, and other people who might also participate, we could come up with something that could work? Even if it doesn’t solve all the world’s problems, perhaps we could do something together that would really work for these particular people?
Already, I have shared this with some local Ugandan mentors in entrepreneurship and general problem solving, (who are really phenomenal by the way), that have made contact and are starting to help some of the people in this community, at the same time that the people in this community are helping them, and together they will be mentors to help others.
At least that is the idea, and it seems like the first tentative steps are bringing us all forward in it.
Thanks so much for your thoughts, questions, ideas, etc – keep them coming, they are very helpful!
Yesterday I took a time to read your blog and I was amazed by the work you do. It’s beautiful and really made my emotions go high.
I just didn’t like one thing, the tittle. “the poor” I know you mean it as a social class and really this people are at the lowest social ground possible in the world, wich is very sad, because we never stop to think that we have everything plus the knowledge and power to make it better. However the word poor sounds negative. As I could see in the videos they are very rich in hope, dreams, expectations of life and good willing to be better and as Rose and Lucy said they only need to learn how to grow seeds, they want knowledge more than anything. How can I girl who doesn’t have enough food, a small sister with AIDS and no tools to change things have so much hope in life? It this poor?
I used to work for the government in Brazil, I worked in many projects for the development of tourism including really poor areas that had great natural potential. One of the areas is full of slaves refugees, all african descendent wich we call them Kalungas. they are fortunate to leave in one of the most beautiful places i’ve seen in my life, even tough they leave in very poor conditions. We did a project of almost 6 months in that place integrating it with the other destinations around, and our target was to improve tourism in the area. What I was amazed is that we didn’t give much of our knowledge but we were able to wake them up to see with different eyes what they had, and they were able to tell us what they could do to make the place better and attract people. (It’s just like the girl said in the video, give them work and we’ll be amazed what they are capable to do). They organized activities and improved their places to receive visitors and everyday they try better. After the project finished and I went to visit (not on work) and I was amazed by the changes and talking to some people we could notice they had more hopes and wanted more and more. Based on this I preffer calling them not “the poor” but the developing comunities as once you put them in better conditions even in the terms used, there is already a change happening.
Hope you like my story!
Now, your blog really helps understanding the power this people and it’s a big change you are making by interacting “fortunate ones” (social conditions) with “fortunate ones” (hope).
Lua,
I didn’t know you used to work for the government, and it sounds like you had a cool job.
Your point about the label – I totally agree with. I don’t think they are in the same kind of poverty as a lot of people in the world who have so much stuff but so little meaninging or joy. That is why I put it in quotation marks – to indicate that they are the so called “poor”, but really, as you so beautifully mentioned, they can often be extremely rich in things like perspective, hope, industry, drive, etc…
In that way, opening up the communication between these two groups of people (fortunate in different ways) will hopefully unlock a two-way flow of “riches” 🙂
Thank you for your great thoughts, and for that story about your past work!