Winds of Peace Foundation

Steve Sheppard | September 27, 2011

I finally was able to do something in Nicaragua that I have dreamed about ever since I first traveled there: I took a hike.

And this was no ordinary hike, to be sure. Our workshop on cooperatives was held at the foot of Peñas Blancas, a stunning range of white cliffs rising up from a deep forest floor. It’s also an eco-tourism site which is home to the cooperative GARBO and the association of forest guardians. There is a meeting room at the location, along with a dormitory, eating facility, environmental study building and a few small homes dotting a winding forest road. Some pretty amazing things are happening at this site, which just ten short years ago was devoid of any trees at all, the forests having been cleared for grazing land. Now it’s as dense as ever under the care and nurturing of a committed group of people who see this resource for the jewel that it is.

The three-day workshop itself focused on the topic of coffee: its production, commercialization, buying and selling, its technical advisors, second-tier associations, its funders, its fallacies and its future. This third of three workshops during 2011 brought together thirty-some participants, each representing their own interests and issues, but all with the desire to learn how they might collaborate for better success. We don’t know for certain that it was the first time for such a conference; we do know that it was a most unique gathering.

The workshop featured many presentations on coffee, along with some conversations that were simply philosophical. Parables helped to frame the issues and jump-start participation. Real-life stories punctuated the sessions every day. Even poetry found a niche for consideration. The facilitators, Rene Mendoza and Edgar Fernandez, understood that learning styles and preferences are as diverse as the audience. So I was not surprised to learn that at the end of the three days we were to take a hike through the woods, up to Rainbow Falls, where waters gushed forth from the upper levels of Peñas Blancas onto the forest floor below. In fact, for two days I was antsy for the chance!

Rene and Edgar decided that we would head up the trail in three groups, not really competing with each other but with ourselves, to make sure that every member of each group made the climb all the way to the falls. For some, especially the young or the physically fit, this would present no problem. But for some others in each group, the difficulties of age or sedentary habits or physical limitations would provide a challenge. The objectives were made very clear: get every member of each group to the top and down again, and along the way note the lessons that might be learned from a walk in the woods. At 6:30 A.M., the first group set off on their climb, with another group to commence every 15 minutes.

Each group had the benefit of a “guide,” one of the members of the forest rangers/GARBO. These young men not only knew the preserve and its inhabitants, but also understood what the forest says to us, what it means, and how we need to comprehend what it teaches. Jairo and Carlos served as our guides; by the end of our hike I regarded them as I might have considered one of the mammoth forest trees. Such was the manner in which they spoke of the woodland, cited its sacred nature for the Indigenous people, and even caressed the leaves and buds of some very unfamiliar plants. In each case, they taught us about the use of such leaves, the value of such buds, and why regenerating their existence was so important to us all. Very soon into our walk, the groups seemed to take on a quieter, more reverential demeanor as we became introduced to the host of forest life, and new ideas.

I cannot recount here all of the realities and legends encountered during our hours in the woods. But I did see where the rare puma often made its evening encampment (the cave to the left), the curative plants with the power to heal in ways that western medicine does not know, varieties of trees once thought to be extinct and now thriving under care. I entered the “sanctuary of the mammoth trees,” where visitors are respectfully asked to seek permission to enter this world with a respectful attitude for life there. This door to the forest evoked a sense of humility in each of us. I did not observe the forest elf after hearing about him, but I confess to looking over my shoulder during the rest of our climb in hopes of catching a glimpse of the elusive waif.

Despite all of the environmental teaching that was going on, I really did give a great deal of thought to organizational lessons that I might learn from the hike and the cooperative efforts of the teams making their way up the cliffs. And as obtuse as the assignment sounded when Rene first gave it, I found that the further into the heart of the forest I immersed, the clearer became the lessons.

Systems either work together in fully-integrated fashion or they create destructive- even fatal- imbalances. The woods provide some very clear examples of both cooperative co-existence and predatory destruction. With the resurrection of the forest, the trees which now dwarf the land also provide a convenient and calming canopy for the native plants growing beneath. Without the protective covering, the plants which are indigenous to the area cannot survive. And yet some of the trees which now inhabit the savannah once again, with tremendous capacity for rapid growth, find themselves wrapped by parasitic, invasive vines that can literally choke the life from these fast-growing marvels. Having the native trees return is a wondrous thing; whether they can survive choking vines that have been allowed to take root is a frustrating thing. Balance is everything in the forest.

The scope of diversity that now exists in the forest at Peñas Blancas is staggering. Some of what grows there has not even been identified by the rangers; they even speculate about flora and fauna that might be growing in their midst without being seen. Such is the density and breadth of the woods. But I was struck by the ability of these very diverse plants to be in balance in the woods, essentially being in harmony within the broader habitat. Living things that are very different from one another create a woodland tune in harmony with itself, as if understanding that such an integration is necessary for the good of the whole. I don’t know if plants think that way; I suspect that they simply act that way.

That the forest was non-existent a mere ten years ago after being cleared for grazing is unimaginable. How an entire forest can be reborn to full maturity in such a short time defies belief. But the resurgence is the result of conservationists with a long-term view of things like the environment: they are compelled to see the longer-range in light of what human beings have done to the earth over the past hundreds of years. That vision has allowed them to tackle the re-birth of the forest with patience, consistency. To view the recreation of the forest through a short-term lens would be as damaging as the short-term views of those who destroyed it a generation ago. Short-term might even feel good today, but it comes with a price tomorrow.

As the trail lengthened and the minutes gathered to an hour or more, the tightly-formed group that started out together on the trail had become spread out, due to thoughtfulness or perhaps fatigue. Our guide drifted ahead so as to be out of sight from the last member of our group; we became more of a line than a circle. But the separation did not last for long. Each of us seemed to have an instinctive feel for when the separation became too great and each of us took a turn at reforming the hikers into a group once more. The desire to be together, to reach the top together, to experience the summit of our climb as a unit far overshadowed any individual inclination to “be the first.” In some groups, older participants (who perhaps had not exerted so much hiking energy in decades) migrated to the falls by literally taking one hand and then another of their younger fellow hikers. This was the locus and the joy of the group.

This desire to reach the summit together provided testimony to another group dynamic, the speed with which individual members of a group can bond in the spirit of c0-creation. Some of these workshop participants had actually operated as adversaries, of sorts, toward one another. Self-interests fanned the embers of suspicion, geographic distances engendered social ones, and even the presence of North Americans in this Nicaraguan audience influenced its chemistry. Yet the innate desire for achieving something together, something larger than any individual might have been capable of achieving alone, emerged almost immediately during the very first workshop in January. It manifested itself as the participants demanded a continuation of the workshop into April. It crescendoed when the April participants pleaded for a follow-up in September. And it continued at the conclusion of our time two weeks ago with disparate groups planning alliances with one another, to carry forward the momentum achieved as fellow learners and hikers of the three workshops.

For me, the hike offered a rare opportunity to get some exercise while in Nicaragua, to stretch my legs and muscles and to remember why I revel in physical activity no matter where I might be. But perhaps the most important stretch was the one I experienced in my reflections on the trail. If we miss the lessons along the way, or think that we navigate alone, or that the best achievements are individual, or that we do not require the hand of fellow travelers while on our respective journeys, we have missed the entire point of the trip and the opportunity to share in the basking at Rainbow Falls.

 

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Steve Sheppard | August 20, 2011

Winds of Peace has funded a series of workshops this year, focused on the value chain for rural coffee growers in Nicaragua, including small scale producers, first and second tier cooperatives, technical support organizations, buyers and funders.  The third in this series of workshops- all attended by the same participants- will be held during the first week of September, and the planners and facilitators of the conference are busy with preparations. Even WPF has preparation to do, as we have been asked to present some history and context on WPF Founders Harold and Louise Nielsen, the company they founded (Foldcraft Co.) and the unique way in which it has been envisioned, how and why WPF was formed after the sale of Foldcraft to its employees through an ESOP, and whatever other historical information might be of value to the workshop participants.  It’s a privilege to be asked to participate in this way.

Rene Mendoza, who has been the primary organizer and facilitator of these workshops, also sent along some questions about the visions which Harold and Louise might have had for Foldcraft, Winds of Peace, the people of Nicaragua.  The questions are deeply philosophical and invite thoughtful answers, which Harold has agreed to provide.  But there is one in particular which caught my attention and which I share here.  Rene asks,

As the expression of the Chinese teacher goes: “Knowing that 1 and 1 is 2 is important, but more important is understanding the “and.”  But I am not able to understand what they [Harold and Louise] understood. What is the “and” that Harold, Louise… understood?  Is WPF part of that “and?”  What is really the “and” … that only a few get to understand it and make it a reality?

Getting to the “and.”  That’s what Rene is asking for, to understand what exactly that means for people like Harold and Louise, why so few of us seem to understand it or demonstrate it.  It’s as if the “and” has some ephemeral or illusive quality worthy of the chase.  I’m sure that Harold will have some simply-stated, deep-truth answer to the question as he frequently does.  But it has also prompted my own thinking.

My first thought is that “and” means in addition.   ”And” is the addition, the action, the including connector between two or more of anything: words, numbers, people, things, whatever.  There is something incorporating and encompassing in that simple word, something that embraces rather than excludes.  There is at least one world-view that suggests everything and everybody on this earth is here for a reason, a meaning toward the whole, that our own purpose here is to discern what that role is to be, how we fit within the entirety.  In that world-view, the “and” is as essential as life itself, since we cannot complete the whole without every element of its makeup.  ”And” is a together word which presumes that there is no reason to leave something out, to exclude, to leave behind, to forget.  I suspect that Harold and Louise intuitively felt the sense of “and” on that very first journey amidst poverty and deprivation.

“And” also invokes adding to, as in the very example Rene uses, “1 and 1 is two.”  It is an indicator of a plus, creating something more than where you started, building something bigger.  It seems an irony to me that we human beings, who are always on the lookout for ways to create and have more of everything- security, food, comforts, satisfactions, achievements, things- seem to want to do so by and for ourselves.  And when we do see the need for collaborative efforts, such initiatives are short-lived for the most part, broken apart at the fear of having given up too much or at the lure of achieving some other objective for our own benefit.  Especially here in the United States, we revere the myth of rugged individualism, the perceived strength of “going it alone.”  It makes for wonderful storytelling but an inferior strategy.  No one of us is as smart as all of us.  Missing the plus of inclusion is like trying to fell a tree with a nail file: it’s possible, perhaps, but it could be done a lot faster and better.  Harold Nielsen learned that reality by building a business that could only be successful utilizing the skills and energies of all of its members.  It led to employee ownership and a participative organization wherein people were provided with the opportunity to understand the “and,” from both inside and outside of the company.

“And” implies a consequence, too.  The Nielsens elected to take that fateful trip to Central America all those years ago, and they were transformed.  Life truly lived implies some degree of risk-taking, a coming out of the comfort zone for the sake of learning, seeing differently, understanding the complexities of this world in new ways.  We will never understand all of it, but we are called to know more of it than we do.  The only way to achieve that look is through the lives of others, to see their realities in light of our own.  It was true for the Nielsens as they ventured far away from the safe confines of rural MInnesota, for the members of Foldcraft who are asked to see business in a very different way, and for all of us who allow the idea of the “and” to lure us to new perspectives.  There are consequences to such experiences; for some, the risk is worth taking, the consequence positively transformative.  For others, the risk is too great and the “and” remains an elusive curiosity.

Winds of Peace Foundation represents the “and.”  It is the current evolutionary place in a long journey of seeking, self-discernment, self-effacement, discovery and response.  It isn’t a perfect partner for those with whom it works, nor does it purport to be the answer to the myriad difficulties faced by its Nicaraguan neighbors.  But it is a manifestation of the Nielsens, and of those who have been invited along for the journey, to regard their own lives in a posture of servanthood and connectedness with the world at-large.  It’s a counterintuitive, countercultural view of life that runs contrary to the way most of us think and live, and why, when we hear of it in someone else, we behold it with a deep, wistful longing for ourselves….

 

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Steve Sheppard | August 7, 2011

I’ve been extolling the value of the book by Paul Dix and Pam Fitzpatrick, Nicaragua: Surviving the Legacy of U.S. Policy and now it appears as though others are beginning to take notice, as well.  The following blurb was offered by Bill Moyers, one who would certainly be in a position to judge the merits of such a publication.  I said it before: this book is worthwhile reading for every student of history, or of U.S. policy past, present and future.

“What an impressive book! I was deeply touched to read it and to be carried back to that time and those cruel events of the war in Nicaragua. They would have disappeared into the amnesia hole of history except for efforts like yours. You have done the people who suffered and died a profound service.”

Not to mention the service to those U.S. citizens who care about our foreign policy positions….

 

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Steve Sheppard | July 30, 2011

I really like salmon.  I’m not speaking about a dinner entre, but an amazing creature with habits and behaviors that defy conventional thinking and even science, to a degree.  Their early development, migrations to the sea, transitions from fresh to salt water and back again, and that amazing journey which they make upstream- theirs is a life story that is as cosmic and mysterious as the heavens.  I love that story.

Part of that fascination and admiration perhaps stems from the perception that these creatures have chosen to defy logic, prudence, even gravitational physics, in accomplishing their objective.  But in order for them to survive as a species, they absolutely must follow their evolutionary directive to not live their lives as most other sea creatures, but as salmon.   I doubt that salmon ever have the time or inclination to be jealous of, say, tuna, who spend their entire lives in the ocean swimming with the other fishes of the sea.  But if they did, they might look longingly at a life that seems much easier, outwardly more secure, and that requires less individual effort and determination.  Of course, if they chose such a life, they would no longer be salmon.

I sometimes think about the life cycle of salmon when working with some of our Indigenous partners in Nicaragua.  That may sound strange, but there are comparisons to be made.  The Indigenous, as original inhabitants of the land, see themselves as different from other Nicaraguans, and with a special history.  They know that their lives are different and perhaps even more difficult than their non-Indigenous cousins due to the changes they have had to endure over centuries of evolution.  They have an almost irresistible attraction to the places where they were born.  They have had to endure enormous changes and transitions in their ways of life.  They are subject to predators.  And most of the time, they are required to swim upstream to achieve what is most important in their lives.  Such are the tides of mainstream life.

In fact, for all of the tradition and richness of Indigenous history, theirs is not an easy life.  They are surrounded on all sides by encroaching societies that would gobble them up with ravenous appetites.  Identifying and then navigating the return to the home tide pools requires uncommon persistence and a reverence for that home space which defies obstacles in their way.  They do it for the sake of future generations, even if it consumes them in the process.  They challenge the waves of modern governance, political patronage, in pursuit of traditions which would restore them to an earlier, less complicated culture, all the while trying to remain ahead of sharks who would devour them.

Working with the Indigenous of Nicaragua has been an experience filled with fascination, satisfaction, pride, disappointments, friendship and inspiration.  I cherish the opportunity to work with the descendants of a culture which achieved amazing civilizations long before the arrival of European explorers. Today, they desperately seek a return to the place of their  heritage, to the way of life in which all the members of a community are “belongers,” where shared leadership provides for protections and provisions for all,  born of a certainty that every member of a people has worth and value to the whole.  It is an idealistic and honorable desire to go there, but a journey that is filled with obstacles made up of rocks and tempting side-tributaries and the real issues of gravity to bring them down to earth.  They are bound to be distracted, blocked and even wounded along the way.  But inherent wisdom forged over generations continues to drive them back to their native streams, their ancestry, their future.  Winds of Peace can wait with patience, respect and and a sense of partnership for the journey to achieve its end.  As is the case with salmon, I love the story….

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Steve Sheppard | July 18, 2011

The weather has turned hot again in this part of the country, with predicted heat indexes to be over 100 degrees for most of the week.  Whenever the long winter months finally give way to heat, everything changes: moods, activities, habits, even expectations.  We like our winters in the Upper Midwest for the most part, but when summer finally breaks through, we are ecstatic.

Warmth generates an honesty that we miss in the wintertime.  People are outside both day and night, visible in their activities and even their shapes, as the bundled layers of clothing give way to minimalist drapery (which is sometimes good and sometimes not so good).  But it creates a freedom of feeling and movement regardless of the visual effect, and in a sense we feel as though maybe we can see people for who they are, without the subterfuge of hidden agendas.  We’re much more likely to see each other, walking, biking, running, just being.  There is a “coming out” that is the midsummer.  Backyard barbeques and community socials generate togetherness, a shared celebration of the return of warmth, and a closeness radiates among us as we jointly bask in the fervor of July and August.  Beaches, baseball, bare feet and fireflies light up a summer’s night as well as our own internal sense of bliss, no matter what the temperature extremes.  We become more mobile, and it seems as though we might smile and laugh louder and more frequently, though that could be simply because more people are out and about to hear it.  It’s as if we are somehow comforted at knowing our community is alive and well, that we can go about our daily work in the visual assurance that every one else is, too, and we just feel more like we’re together in this thing called life.  There is power in such belief that boosts our sense of well-being, even if in an obtuse way.  This week we will inevitably complain about the heat, just as we gripe about the cold in January.  But deep inside, we don’t mind it at all, because of its reassurances.  There is great solace to be found in warmth, and even the mere presence of one another.

The heat of a summer’s day is really more than 180 degrees opposite of winter’s cold.  The thermometer is but one measure.  In the winter the air is frigid and we normally don’t enjoy the daily presence of one another.  It’s more than the mercury that drops.  Spirits sag, as well, as we are hidden from one another in the confining clothes in which we surround ourselves.  Our immobility limits both our actions and interactions.  There’s even a medical condition that afflicts some during these dark and cold days, Seasonal Affective Disorder, that seems to embody at some level what is wrong with all of us who are cold.  We know the symptoms: slow responses, social withdrawal, unhappiness and irritability, loss of interest in activities and people.  It’s a list of symptoms that could be the mirror opposite of the positive phenomena described above, so it should be no surprise to learn the suggestions for treatment:  getting out, exercising and interacting can make the symptoms better. Keeping active socially, even if it involves some effort, has the ability to salve the symptoms.   It turns out that warmth is a pretty effective antidote for a lot of things.

I know that when I travel to Nicaragua I’ll be feeling the heat, no matter what time of year.  I marvel at Nicaraguans and their ability to live in the heat.  I know that warmth is part of their lifestyle and they embrace it as part of their heritage.  But I also know that they sometimes fear the frigid temperatures of the North, for cold can be a dangerous thing….

 

 

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Steve Sheppard | June 27, 2011

This book will impact readers on multiple fronts: it’s a beautiful yet heart-rending pictorial, featuring both the physical torment of the victims, but also the soaring spirits of innocents who have managed to survive, reconcile and forgive.  It’s an historical account of an undeclared war of our time, one about which many U.S. citizens know little.  It’s a compendium of beautifully-written stories of everyday people confronting the uninvited horrors of war.  And it’s an invitation for us to leave the comforts of our easy lives just long enough to meet some amazing neighbors to the south and know a bit of their lives.  There aren’t many books that can lay claim to so many gifts!

I am not prone to telling people how to think or what to do; life decisions are our own and that’s what we know as freedom.   But in this case, I enthusiastically encourage anyone reading this entry to access this book and come to know it.  You can find ordering information at www.NicaraguaPhotoTestimony.org.  It will touch your heart and mind and cause you to wonder and ask.  It’s what being a U.S. citizen, and a human being, is all about….

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Steve Sheppard | May 12, 2011

In past entries here I’ve alluded to the development of research on rural cooperatives in Nicaragua and the effort to help small-scale producers to better reap the rewards of their work.  Winds of Peace has commissioned a study on cooperativism in Nicaragua so as to better understand the history and context of why the coops function as they do, and whether there are opportunities to strengthen them beyond basic funding.  The study has been undertaken by researchers Rene Mendoza and Edgar Fernandez, two well-respected, Nicaraguan practitioners of organizational and rural development.  The final draft of their work is revealing some important perspectives that have already been useful in Winds of Peace development of its programming and funding.  In particular, the study led to the development of two, three-day workshops that I have also recounted here in earlier entries.

The full content of the study is now available for reference by anyone with an interest in a new perspective on the cooperatives.  On the Winds of Peace site, look to the left side of the Home Page for Rural Development, and beneath that tab you will see the link to the study.  You will find that the opportunity for the rural producers, buyers, technical assistance personnel and even lenders is greater than what is currently being realized; with a little collaborative effort that circumstance can be significantly improved.  Take a look at what’s happening!

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Steve Sheppard | May 10, 2011

One of the hoped-for outcomes in working with people who are very poor is that in some way they are able to restore their sense of self-worth, that the oppression of poverty can be lifted enough to enable hope and dignity to reassert themselves.  That’s partly what accompaniment brings.  It’s certainly been a cornerstone of the microlending phenomenon.

The architect of the micro finance concept, Muhammad Yunus, has preached to the world about the restoration of dignity and self-help for the impoverished.  He has preached it, he has innovated around it, he has performed it, has set an example for the rest of the world and eventually won a Nobel Peace Prize for it.  He founded one of the largest and most successful microlending banks in the world, Grameen Bank.  And now, he has paid the price that so many visionaries end up paying for their commitment to the poor.

Please read the editorial below, written by Sam Daly Harris, founder of the global Microcredit Summit Campaign.  It is a succinct, factual account of how greed, envy and lust for power have once again conspired against a champion of the poor.

Two Steps Backward for Innovation to End Poverty by Sam Daley-Harris

“The deed is done.  On May 5th the appellate division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court agreed that the Bangladesh Bank, the nation’s central bank, was justified in firing Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus from his post as Managing Director of Grameen Bank, the institution he founded more than three decades ago.  Prof. Yunus’ lead lawyer, Dr. Kamal Hossain, one of Bangladesh’s most distinguished attorneys and a drafter of the nation’s constitution, was scarcely able to hide his disgust at the Appellate Division order, when he said: “I [apparently] have to take admission to university again to newly learn the constitutional laws of the 21st century.”

The dismissal is not the lone action of one government institution but is part of a premeditated campaign that starts at the highest level with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.  Their reason for sacking Prof. Yunus?  He’s “too old.”  Never mind that the 70-year-old Yunus maintains a rigorous schedule or that the Finance Minister, another key player in the sacking, at 77 is somehow not “too old” for that post.  Their excuse would be laughable if it were not for the calamitous impact it portends.  What makes the decision to remove Prof. Yunus so disgraceful is not that he would be out of a job – any university in the world would welcome him with open arms as a visiting professor.  No, the atrocity here is the fact that the independence and integrity of one of the world’s premier poverty fighting institutions is now at grave risk.  Grameen Bank, an extraordinary institution with more than 8 million microcredit borrowers that took 35 years to build, could be destroyed in a matter of months by incompetent government action.

The government’s action cannot honestly be in response to accusations by a Danish documentary maker about an improper transfer of Norwegian aid funds more than a dozen years ago, because both the Norwegian government and Bangladesh’s own review committee have found that Grameen did nothing wrong.  It cannot be due to the documentary maker’s charge of excessive interest rates, because Microfinance Transparency and the government’s own review committee found Grameen has the lowest interest rates in the country.  Instead, most observers see this as an inexcusable political vendetta by the Prime Minister against Prof. Yunus, stemming from his short-lived attempt to start a political party in 2007.

Consider these groundbreaking innovations that Prof. Yunus’ poverty-fighting laboratory has brought to the world and what could be lost in the future from his unwarranted ouster:

• In 1976 he made loans of less than US$1 each to 42 desperately poor Bangladeshis to start or build tiny businesses – and the microcredit revolution was born.  It has made its way all around the world.  While others have seen microfinance as a way to make big money for investors, Prof. Yunus has never once diverted from his original intent to empower the poor.
• In 1997 Grameen Phone Ladies started bringing cell phone technology to remote villagers throughout Bangladesh-providing the dual benefit of creating jobs and increasing communications, which enhanced others’ work.
• Grameen Shakti, an energy firm, has installed more than a half-million solar home systems and sold more than a quarter-million improved cooking stoves.
• In a joint venture with Danone, the yogurt maker headquartered in France, Grameen Danone is bringing low-cost fortified yogurt to malnourished children throughout the country – and creating a business opportunity for the poor women who sell it.
• College scholarships and loans have gone to 180,000 students. Most remarkably, in almost all of the cases, these are the children of illiterate parents who have had the help of Grameen Bank in breaking the bonds of intergenerational illiteracy.

A government that so rashly and ruthlessly ousts this innovative and transformational leader cannot likely be trusted to continue his revolutionary work.

But the deed is done.  Here is a sample of the visionary voice that Bangladesh has likely lost in this despicable government act.  Reflecting on the 1997 Microcredit Summit Prof. Yunus wrote: “In teaching economics I learned about money, and now as head of a bank I lend money.  The success of our venture lies in how many crumpled bank bills our once starving members now have in their hands. But the microcredit movement, which is built around, and for, and with money, ironically, is at its heart, at its deepest root not about money at all.  It is about helping each person to achieve his or her fullest potential.  It is not about cash capital, it is about human capital.  Money is merely a tool that unlocks human dreams and helps even the poorest and most unfortunate people on this planet achieve dignity, respect, and meaning in their lives.”

(Sam Daley-Harris is Founder of the Microcredit Summit Campaign which seeks to reach 175 million poorest families with microloans www.microcreditsummit.org and of RESULTS which seeks to create the political will to end poverty www.results.org.)

In the words of Albert Einstein, “Great spirits have  always met violent opposition from mediocre minds.”  We will look forward to the next incarnation of Dr. Yunus with great anticipation. Compassion and genius are rarely bound by the foibles of little men….

 

 

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Steve Sheppard | April 17, 2011

I took a class this Spring.  It was called, “Big Questions, Big Ideas,” and it was taught by a college philosophy professor of mine, now retired.  Richard Ylvisaker is still an icon on the Luther College campus, however, due to the legacy of 35 years of teaching as well as the continuing keenness of his mind and manner.  The class included excursions into Plato, Dostoyevsky, Bertrand Russell, Martin Buber, Clarence Darrow and others as a sort of romp through some very big thoughts and thinkers, indeed.  Professor Ylvisaker still has the gift of provoking thought and guiding to insight; I enjoyed the class immensely for its content and encouragement to read some “big ideas.”  I even felt a little pride that I was able to read these famous thinkers and still understand a good deal of what they were trying to say!  What a great experience.

And then last week, I was back in Nicaragua.  And this time, in addition to the usual partner visits which we made, there was also significant time spent in pursuit of understanding the education dilemma that exists in Nicaragua today.  Winds of Peace has embarked on a new initiative, one that will focus on the need for education transformation and how we might play a role in helping to bring that about.  We met with teachers, activists, economists, university professors and administrators, grassroots educators and more.  In the process, we tried to immerse ourselves into the depths of a problem that is a threat to Nicaragua both current and future.  Simply stated, Nicaragua is in an education crisis.

Pick your statistic.  Only 20% of students finish secondary school, while only 45% even register for any amount of secondary school.  Only 40% of students “graduate” from primary schools, with a majority dropping out between grades one and three.   Among youth between ages of fifteen and twenty-four, almost 25% have less than four grades of school completed (the functional illiteracy rate).  There’s more, but I think you get the drift as well as the scope of the problem.

United Nations development statistics suggest that a country needs to invest no less than 7% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in order to escape the systemic conditions of poverty in any given country.  According to almost all available data, Nicaragua invests 3.8%, although the government statistics tout 10% as their number because they include private funds that are dedicated to education, a reporting strategy which defies common practice but makes the government’s efforts appear laudable.   But it’s a strategy that is short-sighted and dangerous, as the people’s abilities to function in the future grow less and less capable.

In a recent study of ninety-two schools, only four passed the test of reading at twenty words per minute, against an already-low standard of forty words per minute.  I thought about that result during the entire week as I tried to imagine myself in that predicament.  Inability to read.  What must that be like?

It certainly would have removed me from the “big ideas” classroom.  I could not know of Socrates, Dickens, Conan Doyle, Austen, Frost or even Peanuts.  I would not have learned to play guitar, studied law, crafted poems for my mom, written manuscripts or performed public speaking.  I might have been unable to adopt children, read to them at bedtime, or edit their papers in school. I could not read the news.  I would not be writing these blog entries.  In short, my entire life would have been so dramatically altered that an entirely different human being would exist.  And so it is with all of us.

There are some items that we choose not to read, like the license agreements we confront when accessing our computers to a download.  But choosing not to read is far different than being unable to read, and we are blessed to have the choice.

Reading is the throttle on the engine of education.  As Winds of Peace delves more deeply into the crisis that looms in Nicaragua, I know that reading will likely be at the top of the priority list of actions.  It’s how that society will strengthen itself, by having greater access to truth and deeper insight into reality.  In fact, it’s true within our society, as well.  We should probably all remember that the next time we turn on our TVs….

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Steve Sheppard | April 1, 2011

I’m headed for Nicaragua again, for a solid week of meetings with educators, producers, researchers, Indigenous people, campesinos, you name it.  The visits are always mixed in terms of activities and the range of people with whom we meet, but this week has a clear and overarching theme: education.

In the first half of the week, we’ll be meeting with educators across the spectrum in an effort to gain an understanding of how we might best become an asset in helping to address the education deficit in Nicaragua.  Like most places, Nicaragua’s key to its economic future rests in large part on the education of its youth.  Based upon the unique connections the Foundation has cultivated over the years, we think there may be a way to weave together some initiatives and some funding to make an impact in this crucial arena.

The second half of the week will include the second of two, three-day workshops for the coffee producers, cooperatives, supporters, funders and buyers in the north.  San Juan del Rio Coco is the site of this second meeting where the participants will complete joint strategic thinking about their interconnectedness and how they can best unite for mutual, long-term success.  It’s a unique setting and gathering, and the participants- and Winds of Peace (WPF) which is funding it- are excited about continuing the conversations.

The second half of the week will also include visits with two of the Indigenous communities supported by WPF.  We’ll be sharing views of organizational structure and transparency as these communities think about upcoming elections in their midst.

In one sense it could be said that WPF is becoming more active within the education arena, and that’s true.  But the real learning is what I am privileged to receive through the lives and experiences of the people I will meet.  And that is education of a lifetime, invaluable in its clarity and truth….

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