I wrote a note earlier (see post below) regarding the generous donation from my old speech Club in Vancouver. I've been asked to post the speech I sent them. Hope you enjoy it...
"M. Chairman, M. Toastmaster, fellow TM’s & welcome guests…
It only feels like a couple of weeks since I was last with you. But how time has flown, and … frankly, so have we!
One week in Britain, 3 weeks in Australia, 2 months in South Africa and four months in our new home here in Arusha, Tanzania….
Truly we feel very much at home, thoroughly blessed to be beautifully situated at the foot of Mount Meru, towering a majestic 15,000ft above sea level and within an easy 60 kms of Africa’s highest peak, Mt Kilimanjaro.
Awe-inspiring as it may be, we’re not here for the view … to be honest, the Coastal mountains and the odd trip to the Rockies would have sufficed, were that our ‘thing’.
So, you may well ask, why are we here? and …what are we doing?
Firstly, we are here because we were given the opportunity to be involved in a multi-faceted mission that attempts to address, at least in part, the endemic problem of critical poverty in East Africa. It’s captured our hearts and broken them at the same time…
There is something radically wrong with the African picture. No continent on earth has more going for it in terms of natural resources and opportunities.
In terms of area and population – Africa takes up almost a quarter of the world’s entire land-mass (larger than China, India, Western Europe, Argentina, New Zealand and the continental USA combined), while only hosting 14% of its population, compared to 54% in the countries I’ve just mentioned. Plenty of room for growth.
In terms of natural resources, Africa is the richest continent in the world. African mines produce most of the world’s diamonds, half of the world’s gold, 85% of the world’s platinum and 90% of the world’s cobalt… not to mention vast resources of oil and gas, and much, much more!
In terms of agricultural potential, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo alone could feed the entire continent, yet, all these things considered, it boasts 17 of the 21 poorest countries in the world.
While the West could be accused of stockpiling human resources, we’ve decided to invest ourselves in an environment that might better benefit from what we bring. That is not to say that we think we have the answers… far from it. We are here to help find some solutions – to help the nationals explore and exercise their options. In most cases they don’t even know they have any.
The reasons for Africa’s plight are complex and unfortunately we don’t have time to examine them today. Suffice to say that cultural and religious paradigms, superstition and tribal factionalism (among other issues), have opened the door to wholesale exploitation from the West and corruption among the empowered.
What are we to do? As for my wife and I, we feel very fortunate to be involved in two organizations that has a holistic philosophy of mission.
While taking action in crisis situations, addressing short-term needs like food and medical, or advocating in cases of injustice, we also are actively involved in medium and long-term development.
Medium term strategies involve skill training like carpentry and metalwork, and sustainable agricultural techniques that produce significantly higher yield as well as being eco-friendly. Truly a win-win situation.
Our long-term work involves a teachers’ training college, majoring in the neglected areas of critical thinking and social development.
Critical thinking is essential for any democratic system to work. Typically people learn by rote – and believe what they’re told. Hence situations like Rwanda have occurred and are destined to reoccur until people can process issues for themselves. So the challenge is to invest in the coming generation, grass-roots education that will in time help deal with destructive issues from within.
We are committed to train leaders from the best that the West has to offer, doing so on African soil in the kind of environment that they will be working in. This makes it on-the-job training, with them working out issues as they go, much more effective than taking people overseas where they have to try and adapt what they learn to their own context.
In many these cases the taste of the West beguiles them to stay and their nation loses yet another potential leader.
Our vision is to see gifted men and women of integrity raised up to take their place in the halls of the judiciary, of politics and education.
If it works, we might even try doing this in Canada! (Optional ‘tasteless’ aside)
Now I want to address a short-term issue that we’re facing, and hope to enlist your help.
In our immediate vicinity we have encountered a serious food shortage due to a failure of last year’s crops from drought. Thankfully there’s been good rainfall this year, with a promising crop in September, so the shortage is short-term but we are experiencing firsthand the pain of lack; getting to know by name, people who are surviving on only one small bowl of maize per day.
Elisante (pronounced elee-a-santay), one of our workers and personal friends, was the first to bring the plight of his village and others in the area to our attention. While he and his family are not short, he could not stand by and watch others suffer but continually gives out of his own means.
When we heard about it, we quickly got on board and helped him and the local pastor draw up a plan to address the need. These are men who have a heart for everyone, regardless of tribe or creed and have proven themselves trustworthy.
Our plan has been to help two hundred or so families in the region, representing 600 children, some of whom are literally fainting in class from lack of nourishment.
We’ve been doing this for about six weeks, providing a bucket per family, enough for only a meal a day, hoping to up-the-ante and begin to also provide beans for protein. However, word has been getting out with people trvelling from further and further out in sheer desperation. This week one woman came 11 kms with a baby on her back, having to cross a river on the way, only to end up with nothing. 22 kms round trip – ultimately for nothing!
The problem this creates is that we are no longer able to provide a full bucket per family, but are scaling it down to try and make it go round.
We’re so grateful to be able to do this though – without the help we’ve been getting from our friends, nothing would have been provided, but we want to help as many as we can.
As word is spreading farther afield, the problem is getting worse so we need to modify our strategy.
We are now planning to set up a couple of other centers that will be distribution points in the outer regions, reducing the need for travel.
However, to do this we need to provide more food. To date we’ve been helped a great deal by personal friends in Canada, New Zealand and Australia. So for us to not only continue this pace for four more months, but to strategically broaden our focus to meet this temporary need, we have to garner support from a broader base.
We are working with amazing people. For example, Elisante turned up this morning diagnosed typhoid, not wanting to let down the needy. We had to order him home to his family (where his two kids have come down with malaria) and arranged to follow up on the urgent matters ourselves.
I’m approaching Cloverleaf for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, a couple of you asked me to let you know if there was a particular project you could help with. This is certainly one…
Secondly, on a broader level, I suspect that there are those in the group that are sitting on creative ideas, that might like to provide input or even hands-on involvement with short, medium or long term strategizing or support.
Through the friendships that were forged during my time with Cloverleaf; the kindness that was afforded me and the interest expressed in our work, I genuinely feel like a member-at-large, an ambassador of the club in this wonderful country.
I miss you all and look forward to reporting back to you face-to-face
when next in Vancouver."
"M. Chairman, M. Toastmaster, fellow TM’s & welcome guests…
It only feels like a couple of weeks since I was last with you. But how time has flown, and … frankly, so have we!
One week in Britain, 3 weeks in Australia, 2 months in South Africa and four months in our new home here in Arusha, Tanzania….
Truly we feel very much at home, thoroughly blessed to be beautifully situated at the foot of Mount Meru, towering a majestic 15,000ft above sea level and within an easy 60 kms of Africa’s highest peak, Mt Kilimanjaro.
Awe-inspiring as it may be, we’re not here for the view … to be honest, the Coastal mountains and the odd trip to the Rockies would have sufficed, were that our ‘thing’.
So, you may well ask, why are we here? and …what are we doing?
Firstly, we are here because we were given the opportunity to be involved in a multi-faceted mission that attempts to address, at least in part, the endemic problem of critical poverty in East Africa. It’s captured our hearts and broken them at the same time…
There is something radically wrong with the African picture. No continent on earth has more going for it in terms of natural resources and opportunities.
In terms of area and population – Africa takes up almost a quarter of the world’s entire land-mass (larger than China, India, Western Europe, Argentina, New Zealand and the continental USA combined), while only hosting 14% of its population, compared to 54% in the countries I’ve just mentioned. Plenty of room for growth.
In terms of natural resources, Africa is the richest continent in the world. African mines produce most of the world’s diamonds, half of the world’s gold, 85% of the world’s platinum and 90% of the world’s cobalt… not to mention vast resources of oil and gas, and much, much more!
In terms of agricultural potential, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo alone could feed the entire continent, yet, all these things considered, it boasts 17 of the 21 poorest countries in the world.
While the West could be accused of stockpiling human resources, we’ve decided to invest ourselves in an environment that might better benefit from what we bring. That is not to say that we think we have the answers… far from it. We are here to help find some solutions – to help the nationals explore and exercise their options. In most cases they don’t even know they have any.
The reasons for Africa’s plight are complex and unfortunately we don’t have time to examine them today. Suffice to say that cultural and religious paradigms, superstition and tribal factionalism (among other issues), have opened the door to wholesale exploitation from the West and corruption among the empowered.
What are we to do? As for my wife and I, we feel very fortunate to be involved in two organizations that has a holistic philosophy of mission.
While taking action in crisis situations, addressing short-term needs like food and medical, or advocating in cases of injustice, we also are actively involved in medium and long-term development.
Medium term strategies involve skill training like carpentry and metalwork, and sustainable agricultural techniques that produce significantly higher yield as well as being eco-friendly. Truly a win-win situation.
Our long-term work involves a teachers’ training college, majoring in the neglected areas of critical thinking and social development.
Critical thinking is essential for any democratic system to work. Typically people learn by rote – and believe what they’re told. Hence situations like Rwanda have occurred and are destined to reoccur until people can process issues for themselves. So the challenge is to invest in the coming generation, grass-roots education that will in time help deal with destructive issues from within.
We are committed to train leaders from the best that the West has to offer, doing so on African soil in the kind of environment that they will be working in. This makes it on-the-job training, with them working out issues as they go, much more effective than taking people overseas where they have to try and adapt what they learn to their own context.
In many these cases the taste of the West beguiles them to stay and their nation loses yet another potential leader.
Our vision is to see gifted men and women of integrity raised up to take their place in the halls of the judiciary, of politics and education.
If it works, we might even try doing this in Canada! (Optional ‘tasteless’ aside)
Now I want to address a short-term issue that we’re facing, and hope to enlist your help.
In our immediate vicinity we have encountered a serious food shortage due to a failure of last year’s crops from drought. Thankfully there’s been good rainfall this year, with a promising crop in September, so the shortage is short-term but we are experiencing firsthand the pain of lack; getting to know by name, people who are surviving on only one small bowl of maize per day.
Elisante (pronounced elee-a-santay), one of our workers and personal friends, was the first to bring the plight of his village and others in the area to our attention. While he and his family are not short, he could not stand by and watch others suffer but continually gives out of his own means.
When we heard about it, we quickly got on board and helped him and the local pastor draw up a plan to address the need. These are men who have a heart for everyone, regardless of tribe or creed and have proven themselves trustworthy.
Our plan has been to help two hundred or so families in the region, representing 600 children, some of whom are literally fainting in class from lack of nourishment.
We’ve been doing this for about six weeks, providing a bucket per family, enough for only a meal a day, hoping to up-the-ante and begin to also provide beans for protein. However, word has been getting out with people trvelling from further and further out in sheer desperation. This week one woman came 11 kms with a baby on her back, having to cross a river on the way, only to end up with nothing. 22 kms round trip – ultimately for nothing!
The problem this creates is that we are no longer able to provide a full bucket per family, but are scaling it down to try and make it go round.
We’re so grateful to be able to do this though – without the help we’ve been getting from our friends, nothing would have been provided, but we want to help as many as we can.
As word is spreading farther afield, the problem is getting worse so we need to modify our strategy.
We are now planning to set up a couple of other centers that will be distribution points in the outer regions, reducing the need for travel.
However, to do this we need to provide more food. To date we’ve been helped a great deal by personal friends in Canada, New Zealand and Australia. So for us to not only continue this pace for four more months, but to strategically broaden our focus to meet this temporary need, we have to garner support from a broader base.
We are working with amazing people. For example, Elisante turned up this morning diagnosed typhoid, not wanting to let down the needy. We had to order him home to his family (where his two kids have come down with malaria) and arranged to follow up on the urgent matters ourselves.
I’m approaching Cloverleaf for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, a couple of you asked me to let you know if there was a particular project you could help with. This is certainly one…
Secondly, on a broader level, I suspect that there are those in the group that are sitting on creative ideas, that might like to provide input or even hands-on involvement with short, medium or long term strategizing or support.
Through the friendships that were forged during my time with Cloverleaf; the kindness that was afforded me and the interest expressed in our work, I genuinely feel like a member-at-large, an ambassador of the club in this wonderful country.
I miss you all and look forward to reporting back to you face-to-face
when next in Vancouver."
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