Winds of Peace Foundation

Steve Sheppard | March 27, 2010

I came across an interesting little book the other day, Light Over Kenya by Michael F. Lillie.  It’s a  beautiful photo essay about a trip that the author took in 2006 and subsequently repeated after his  marriage in 2009.   The photography is brilliant; the faces I met in the book will stay with me for a long time to come.  But what captured my attention, ironically, was a portion of the sparse text that accompanies these beautiful pictures.  I’m fairly certain that the photographer did not intend for his prose to overshadow his graphic work!

But there on page 20, he ponders the question, the right question to ask when confronting the kinds of conditions and issues that he faced during his journey.  It’s right next to a photo of a Kenyan woman,  Theresia.  She had recently been treated for skin cancer as well as HIV/AIDS.  As a result of her hospitalization, she could not pay her rent, the equivalent of four dollars.  Lillie makes an important observation: “I’ve spent more than that on coffee in one day.”  And then he poses the important observation, a question, actually, that we might all be asking: “I’m not sure that we in the west fully understand poverty or how it affects our fellow human beings.”

We don’t.  We oftentimes can’t.  Until we permit ourselves to come face-to-face in acquaintance with somebody real, an actual circumstance that we can see and touch and hear and smell, we’re too comfortably removed from the reality to understand it.  We can respond to calamities like earthquakes and hurricanes that briefly impose themselves upon our awareness through the news, but the millions of daily tragedies like Theresia’s are just too little and too pervasive for many of us to embrace.

There are people starving to death in places like sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Asia and Latin America.  (The drought of 2009 is crushing the rural poor in northern and central Nicaragua.)  This year six million children will die of starvation; more than 200 will have perished since you began to read this essay.  The assets of the world’s three richest people are more than the combined GNP of all the least developed countries on the planet!

Do we in the west really understand poverty or how it affects our fellow human beings?  I trust not, because if we truly understood it yet continued to allow its pervasiveness, it would render all of us something less than human….

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Steve Sheppard | March 22, 2010

I found myself looking very closely yesterday at one of my favorite graphics in the entire house.  It’s a framed poster that admonishes me to stick to my exercise regimens, even when it seems tough to do.  Maybe you’ve seen this depiction yourself.  The caption at the top reads, “The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.”  I recalled how many times I’ve run down roads just like the one pictured here, daunted by the stretch of road ahead, curious about what might have been just over the horizon, and ultimately energized by the realization that I had it within me to cover that ground if I so chose.  Running is a blessing to me in and of itself, but sometimes to be able to see the distances, all in one glance like in this shot, creates an additional boost of energy.  It’s like seeing a manifestation of the effort all in one forward-looking moment.  Or when looking at the picture, receiving a reminder of the excitement and satisfaction of journeys once taken.  If you’re a runner, a cross-country skier, a canoeist or a biker, you may know what I mean.  If not, you’ll just have to imagine it and enjoy the picture simply for its great perspective!

My reflection yesterday got me to thinking about many of our partners in NIcaragua who run their own races every day.  The road in front of them must seem endless, that for every stride forward there’s a wind or a wall to keep them back.  The poor encounter great distances and ups and downs in their journeys far beyond the leisure-time efforts of a middle-aged runner like me.  And they don’t really have the luxury of deciding whether or not they wish to continue on.  For them, it’s not effort and reward, it’s life and death.  It’s not whether they win the race but whether they and their families can survive.  It’s not about being the fastest, but about being one who can keep on running.

When I become tired from running, or discouraged about any element of life, it’s my role models in Nicaragua who can most immediately pick me up and set me straight again.  Values, priorities, realities and my most deep-seated beliefs are strengthened by people who many would regard as finishing last in their race.  And therein lies the lesson: it’s the running that counts….

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Steve Sheppard | March 14, 2010

If you read this site with any frequency, you know that one of the elements Winds of Peace Foundation feels strongly about is the accompaniment aspect of its work with the people of Nicaragua.  Funding, whether in the form of grants or loans, is an essential need to be met, of course.  But the process by which those resources are made available is critical to the success of those funds.  Part of our process includes personal accompaniment by staff in Nicaragua as well as periodic visits by U.S. staff.  Personal involvement is in many cases an element that is as important as the funds themselves, the realization that there are real live people behind the foundation veil who can come to understand the circumstances in which the people find themselves, and who will personally care about the injustices which those circumstances represent.

We’ve now embarked on two important research projects to bring us closer to such understanding and, hopefully, insights.  The first is an in-depth look at the context in which our Indigenous partners are navigating the social and economic waters of Nicaragua, their historical roots, their relationships with each other, the forms of marginalization they encounter, how they are integrating their past into their future.  More importantly, through discussions within the Indigenous communities themselves, we hope to discern what organizations like WPF might do differently (and better) in the meaningful development of these communities. 

The second project, one that I referenced here in my February 22 entry, focuses on the context of cooperativism in the country, what drives the process, who’s involved, what are the outcomes and, again, how members might be served more effectively by outside funders like WPF.  A focus on strategic planning by these groups is also proving to be a strongly-desired component of this effort.

The questions raised may seem like basic issues that a long-standing partner like WPF might have asked and answered many years ago.  But the times, they are a-changin.’  The organizations of today are not the same as they might have been 20 years ago.  The needs are different, in some cases.  Our own perspectives have changed, and our experiences have taught us lessons first-hand about things we know and, as importantly, things we don’t know.  And the answers to those things will come from the people we intend to serve, the experts. 

Watch for future updates on the progress of these important steps….

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Steve Sheppard | March 8, 2010

This weekend’s Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College had little to do with plumbing, but its content left me drained and pumped both!  Nobel laureate Martti Ahtisaari presented a thoughtful view of the peacemaking process on Friday evening, but his center-stage conversation with former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Bondevik was a tremendous dialogue between two giants from relatively small countries.  There is room for everyone at the peace table!

Despite the presence of many excellent speakers and topics, however, the exhaustion that I experienced over the weekend stemmed from two movie screenings.   These were films that educated, haunted and inspired the viewer, and I don’t know what else could be asked of a film.  It’s not in my nature to recommend films to my friends since we all experience art in very different ways.  But I cannot imagine any human being seeing these movies and not being moved. 

“Pray the Devil Back to Hell” is as intense a thriller as one can find.  It is the true account of  warring factions in Liberia in the early 2000′s who are confronted by an incredibly courageous group of peace-seeking women.  The women’s resolve and risk will leave you breathless.  (As an emotional punctuation to the Peace Prize Forum, the leader of this amazing group of women, Leymah Gbowee, was the final plenary speaker on Saturday afternoon.)  Everyone should see this film! 

“Ana’s Playground” is a short piece (20 minutes or so) which was filmed last November in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis.  It’s an allegorical film about the impact of war upon children and  will take you for a roller coaster ride of emotions from start to end.  Everyone should see this film!

Often we find it difficult to navigate the news and context of conflicts in the world because they are far-off, full of complexities and history which we cannot understand, and it’s just easier to not pay attention.  (Such were attitudes in the early days of the rise of Adolph Hitler.)  But in these two movies, we have the medium which modern societies seem to favor for their education, and two messages that will create indelible impressions about war and peace. 

The Academy Awards event just happened to be scheduled during the same weekend in which I saw two movies that were truly worthy of global recognition….

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Steve Sheppard | March 4, 2010

 

Spring is coming to northern Iowa these days and as the snow and ice recede from the roads my running becomes both easier and faster.  Delivery on the promise of Spring is always welcome, an occurrence that awakens the senses as hidden realities emerge from the covers of Winter’s blanket.  And much is revealed.

I ran on Monday in the warmest temperatures here in the past four months.  The day’s sunshine allowed me to shed several layers of clothing so that even I could create a  lightness in strides.  My mind wandered- one of the true benefits of running- instead of concentrating on sound footing and ice avoidance.   I reflected on the joy of running unfettered and noticed the landscapes surrounding me in ways that I had not done during the snowier, icier times.  I noticed those ephemeral “sun dogs“  flanking the sun, the rhythmic pattern of my steps. 

And three pennies.  I could see them arranged in a triangular pattern on the road, two of them shining rather brightly in the rising sun.  I wondered if they had simply fallen from a pocket into such a pattern or whether someone might have playfully arranged them for some purpose.  I slowed to verify their identity, and continued on.  I didn’t even consider stopping to pick them up.  Such is the plight of pennies these days, a sad commentary about a currency bearing the likeness of Abraham Lincoln, no less.

But I had not taken more than a dozen strides before I thought about those pennies.  At an earlier time in my life I would have experienced utter joy at discovering such a windfall.  Stumbling onto someone else’s great loss would have thrilled me.  I would have pocketed those coins as surely as the sun shining upon them.  For a little person with little income, three pennies is the start of a nickel, which is half of a dime.  And we all know that ten of those will get you a dollar!

I noted that my running pace slowed as I tried to remember at what stage of life I had ceased picking up pennies.  Oh, I know that circumstances most often dictate whether I will stoop to pick up a once-copper coin, but as often as not the effort does not seem worth it.  Did that mindset change once I landed my first job?  At some point my life fortunes changed enough to render pennies as unimportant.  And while some might regard such a transition as a positive sign of growing affluence, I felt disquieted about the recognition.  I’ve come to know many people who could not afford to ignore three pennies in the road; the three pennies might represent as much as 2% of their entire day’s income.  They are not children, nor are they individuals who have chosen a life of poverty.  In fact, they are some of the most deserving, well-grounded people I have ever met.  And so once again I found myself wondering about the fates that place each one of us on this world’s economic spectrum.

In my mind’s eye that spectrum runs from the poorest to the wealthiest of us, and we are all on it somewhere.  We’re quite familiar with the people who occupy the very top places on the continuum: names like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are well-known to most around the world.  We are far less familiar with some of those who inhabit the other end of that sequence, those for whom three pennies are not to be ignored.  And every time I find myself wondering what it might be like to be so fortunate as to reside near the top of this spread of wealth, I realize that there are others looking up that spiral to the place where I reside, wondering the same thing about me. 

Yet there exists another dimension of the continuum for me to remember.  Looking to the top of the wealth spectrum may be the wrong direction to look in speculating about my life.  I may be far better served looking to the other end and wondering what it might be like to reside there, what values and experiences exist there, realities of life which I may never know and which, therefore, limit me.

It’s difficult for me to say whether this incident and reflection will motivate me to pick up a penny from the ground the next time I see one; for better or worse it remains a trifle.  But I know with a strange certainty that spotting such a wayward coin will remind me of those who would treasure it.  In such consciousness, I fervently hope for a generous spirit and selfless gratitude. 

That’s just my own two cents’ worth….

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