Winds of Peace Foundation

Steve Sheppard | May 25, 2011

I watched the evening news a couple of nights ago and saw a story that excited me and broke my heart, all at the same time.  The story was one in a series about girls in the country of Kenya, and how their prospects in life were not very good.  It was a story like many you and I have seen over the years, all-too-frequent circumstances of poverty, abuse, no education, few opportunities and tremendous lost potential.  But this one struck me in a special way.

The story focused on a program called “Safe Spaces,”sponsored by the International relief agency CARE.  Amidst the daunting odds faced by these girls, one named Florence blurts out with conviction and confidence, “In every girl there is something big!”  Her words and voice were in stark contrast to the dark circumstances in which she was living; her belief in her own potential and in the gifts of every girl in her midst touched me deeply.  (Watch the video link above and see whether it reaches you in a similar way.)

The news story affirmed for me the new Louise Nielsen initiative that Winds of Peace has undertaken in Nicaragua to make an impact on education, and especially for girls.  As we explore the deficits, the needs, the limitations, the opportunities and the hope within the education movement in Nicaragua, the message is clear: without ample opportunity for kids to learn their way out of poverty, the road to a better life is nearly impossible.  The toll on Nicaraguan society is immense.  The drain on its economy is incalculable.  The threat to its future is daunting.  The tragedy of the children is heartbreaking.

In an age when children are denied a chance at education based upon gender, when we are seemingly frantic for answers to the crushing problems that face us, when the world’s conflicts are desperate for new voices and new solutions to ages-old issues, Florence’s voice is a  shout for recognition, for participation, to be part of the world’s answers instead of one of its problems.  I have found myself both cheered and haunted by her ever since.

How ironic to possess all the pieces to a beautiful puzzle and to throw out some because they are too small, or jagged, or too whatever…..

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Steve Sheppard | May 17, 2011

I receive all kinds of reports and updates from Nicaragua every week.  My colleague there, Mark Lester, does a phenomenal job of staying in touch with our partners, our consultants and the general assistance community so that those of us Foundation members in North America can keep up with the twists and turns of events.  And there are many!  But Mark’s frequent translations of partner progress serve as a consistent and accurate barometer of just how things are developing (or not) and how we might best respond to realities.

After serving Winds of Peace in Nicaragua for more than five years now, I’ve had enough reports, time and meetings to have developed relationships with many of our partners.  Even though my trips to Nicaragua are limited and relatively short in duration, Mark has made sure that the opportunity for relationship-building has occurred through frequency of visits and the content of our conversations.  It’s an important part of the Foundation’s methodology as well as my own “development.”  And in the process, I’ve met many organizations for whom I have developed a great deal of admiration and respect, and a lot of people that I just plain like.  It’s been one of the highlights of this work.

So I am not at all surprised that I have formed emotional attachments with some of these partners, feelings that I have some kind of personal stake in their lives, even though I suspect that they may not always sense it.  To be candid, I have my favorites.  There are some organizations and individuals who, for whatever reason, have resonated with me in ways that feel very personal, almost family-like.  I can’t help but pull for such people with the same intense concern that I feel for my own family members.  It’s an investment that I have no choice but to make; it comes from inside somewhere.  It’s a good feeling.  But it comes with a risk attached.

My fondness for many of our partners is born out of my profound respect for their persistence in the face of overwhelming odds, for their oftentimes humble and gentle spirits when there is so much to be outraged about, for their friendliness and hospitality when there are so many reasons to behave otherwise.  But I have sometimes found myself considering my Nicaraguan acquaintances generically, characterizing them in my own mind as “honorable, persevering martyrs,” victims of a global conspiracy to defraud them of their livelihoods, their rights, their dignity.  In certain ways I have elevated the Nicaraguan people to a status upon a pedestal, where their histories, sufferings and oppressions all come together to create a mythic nobility that is neither entirely accurate nor even fair.  For when I find myself thinking of our partners this way, I have set them up for certain failure.

The reality is that no one can live up to a glorified, generalized persona created by someone else.  Our partners are no closer to perfection than any of us.  To establish expectations of them that are based upon an exaggerated notion of their temperament and tendencies is as unfair and unreasonable as attributing no potential to them at all.   And those of us in the assistance business are as guilty of it as any.

About the time I become excited about a particular cooperative or association, something inevitably occurs that was not according to expectation or plan.  A leader might falter. Borrowers might default.  Performances may fall short of plans.  There could be all kinds of reasons offered as to why objectives were not met.  In the face of these realities, if I have conjured some vision of higher-than-reasonable expectations which do not come to pass, our partners will inevitably fall short, my own disappointments to follow, and the shortfall will be of my own making.  It’s a vicious cycle that I risk creating without the slightest intention or awareness of doing so, one more unfairness that we in the “developed world” foist upon the less lucky.

Our neighbors in Nicaragua and in other struggling communities of the world are not better or more deserving of our attention and assistance because they are pedestaled heroes.  They are something less than perfect, as are we all.  Their stumbles and false starts are not more disappointing, more frustrating nor any more condemning than our own.  They are human beings, mostly doing the best they can with what they have and what they know.  In that light, perhaps the best I can do is to share what I have and what I have come to know, striving to learn with others, to recognize and graciously accept the imperfections that we all carry with us every moment of our lives….

 

 

 

 

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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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