Soft heart and hard feet taking a new direction

 

Until now the main focus of my blogs has been in relation to the projects that I’ve had the joy of being involved with in various African countries. That work has been such an incredible part of my life journey, and I’ve had the privilege of working with many wonderful and inspirational people. I’ve witnessed amazing acts of faith, had my own attitudes challenged through the selflessness and generosity that I’ve seen lived out by others, and gained a new perspective on my theology as I’ve wrestled with issues that are part of day to day existence for large swathes of society.

As far as I know (and let’s face it, none of us really know what is round the corner in life) that side of my existence will continue, and I will carry on blogging about these experiences as and when they happen.

But, over the past year or so, my life has gained a new dimension, and as it is going to be such a large part of my thinking, it makes sense to introduce it into these blogs, in case any of you find it interesting to read more about.

This new dimension takes the form of a research PhD which I am doing through the University of Gloucestershire. It all came about a bit randomly during the first Covid lockdown – that time when we all found ourselves with time to stop and think and review life. Well, I did some of that, and one of the things that came from it was a re-entry to the academic world.

The research that I’m going to be doing is an exploration of what wellbeing means, and how it is understood and experienced, for women from marginalised communities who have a lived experience of conflict-affected trauma. It ties in with one of the CRED partners that I do work with, and with some of the communities that I have been deeply inspired and challenged by.

They are part of the reason why I went down the route of exploring if research is an option. I’ve been working with these wonderful folks for so long now, and learnt so much from them, as well as having the joy of delivering training to them on various things, including more recently my 360 Life programme of materials. But through out it all I’ve been aware of a cultural mismatch that lurks in the background, and have always had a subconscious desire to explore if there is a way to overcome it / smooth the path. My lockdown reflective time gave space for that subconscious to bubble to the surface and, combined with some random conversations that in retrospect were God-inspired and not really random at all, I got the courage and impetus to make enquiries.

Thankfully the University of Glos made the next steps very easy, and I felt very welcomed into the postgrad research fold, and as though I was supposed to be there. The bubbles of excitement were very real, and I knew that God was directing my steps and showing me how I can take the past years of experience and turn them into something that honours and gives voice to those who previously tend to be overlooked. God even gave me a supervisor whose father was a church leader, so she understands that side of my life, and of the lives of so many of those I will be working with out in the field – that felt like an additional little affirmation.

Looking back I can see many other ways in which God has been lining things up for me. This research is about justice, and giving voice to the voiceless, and that has been a passion of mine for all time. Right back to doing Christian Aid collecting with mum when I was little, and doing their annual sponsored walk – I’ve always been proactive in finding ways to speak up for the marginalised, to share their story, to challenge the dominant discourse and to advocate for ‘the other’.

This research is another step along that journey. At the heart of the data will be interviews with South Sudanese refugee women living in a refugee community in northern Uganda, and with displaced Acholi ladies living in an informal settlement in Kampala. Both groups of ladies are there because they fled conflict, both groups of ladies are rarely listened to, their views are rarely sought.

Wellbeing has been a thread that has been weaving through my life over the past years as well. Whether it is through my involvement with the UK charities Renew Wellbeing and JIGSAW Thornbury, both of whom address the pursuit of wellbeing in certain ways; or through seeing a number of people, young and not so young, struggle with a lack of wellbeing; or through my own journey of trying (not always successfully) to achieve wellbeing – I have been thinking about the concept more and more in recent years. It also features as a concept in the 360 Life training materials that I deliver, and it is one of the sustainable development goals, and as we all know, rarely a week goes by when it doesn’t feature in some shape or form on the radio or TV or other social media outlets.

But when one digs below the surface to find out what is meant by ‘wellbeing’, things become a little less clear. There are loads of descriptions, and quite a few definitions, leading to murky waters when it comes to working out what ‘achieving wellbeing’ looks like. But the concerning thing is that all of those descriptions and definitions tend to come from the global north. I wonder if anyone from Uganda was involved in determining what wellbeing is, and what it means to achieve it? Did anyone ask refugee women who are living in a refugee camp? Did anyone ask the ladies who fled for their lives from men with guns?

Through my research I will be asking some of those questions, and putting the voices of some of those ladies on the academic map. Yes it will only be in a very small way, but they will be silent no longer, they will be unheard no longer, and for me that is the most exciting aspect of embarking on this journey.

I’ll still need my hard feet as I travel out to Uganda to do the research, and I’ll still need my soft heart as I interview the ladies and hear their stories. All of that is to come, along with lots of thinking and pondering and reading and writing. But for now – well at least you have some background understanding of my research, what I am aiming to do, and why I am doing it.

Until the next time, sending love and prayers…

Talking ‘savings and loans’

 My final full day in Uganda included a return visit to Acholi Quarters, to spend some more time with the friends there who are so inspirational in their resilience, smile quota, community-focus and self-less and sharing attitude.

My visit started by spending a bit of time doing a video recording of the community through the eyes of some of the teenagers that we support and visiting the bits of the neighbourhood where they like to hang out. So we went to their homes, to the home of the lady who offers some home-schooling support (although she was out, so I didn’t get to meet her), to the football field where all the youngsters tend to gather now that the other sports area has been walled off by the owner, to the market area where they go when collecting food for an evening meal, and to the school that some of them go to – when schools are open. It was fun to walk round the areas with them and hear them chat about the spaces, and I’m pleased to say that I just about kept up with them, although I think they were going slower than usual, especially over some of the particularly lumpy and bumpy bits of ground!

The rest of the time was spent with some of the adults of the Lubanga Ber co-operative, which is the community group that we focus our support through. They had asked me to do some training with them on ‘developing a savings culture’ and ‘how to look after a business loan’ and so this was the two-pronged focus of our discussions.

In order to ensure that the training was relevant to them, I used a question-and-answer format whereby I asked the participants a question to lead into a discussion that was pertinent to their experiences and context. It worked well and it was good to see how much they all engaged in the process. Pretty much everyone joined in with some level of interaction, and there was a lot of sharing of ideas and perspectives. My role was definitely just to facilitate, to throw in some additional thoughts and perspectives, to probe a bit deeper to bring out more defined lines of thinking from them, and generally to lead the group forwards as they explored together how they might do a community savings scheme. 

Ultimately that was what the group were wanting to explore. They have already set up a community savings account and got the bare bones of a savings scheme in place. Miriam is chair, and Jessica and Florence are the other two signatories on the account. 

Members can bring money to the weekly meetings to deposit it. But the take up has been small, and the leaders of the group were keen to have some discussion to try and stimulate more of the members to get into the way of saving, by thinking about the benefits and not just the obstacles. There is no denying that it isn’t easy to save when earnings are so hard to come by, and none of them have reliable jobs or regular income. But it was interesting to hear some of the group urging others to ‘have courage and just put a few shillings in each time, so that slowly by slowly the amount being saved will grow’. 

I’m not sure when will be the next time I’m in Acholi Quarters. Covid continues to impact travel plans, and so everything is much more unpredictable than it was. But my prayer is that, as a result of the conversations that we had today, when I do return I will be greeted with stories of individuals who have managed to save small amounts and then use those savings to make positive changes in their lives.

‘PIF-ing’ launched in Uganda

Today, at a small village in rural Uganda, the PIF project was launched under the umbrella of John Njendahayo’s Nkuru-Nziza Foundation. John came up with the idea of PIF-ing during a period of slight ill-health earlier this year, when he was trying to stay positive and think of all the reasons to be grateful, rather than slip into feeling sorry for himself. The outcome was the ‘Pass It Forward’ whereby people are encouraged to pass forward kindness in the form of intentional actions, with no expectation of that kindness being reciprocated.

The PIF acts could be one-offs or ongoing; they could be related to professional skills or to another gifting that a person has; they could be in the local community or through the work environment – the more John mulled the concept over, the more ideas he got on how it could be put into practice, including in some key areas.

One of those key areas is environmental. In other words, doing intentional acts to make positive changes in the local environment, and encourage others to do the same. So, one person comes up with an idea for an action that benefits the local environment, and through carrying the action out, they Pass It Forward to others, who can then do the same. In so doing a chain of positive actions is started, that benefits the local environment, and as a result will benefit the local community as well.

Today’s launch of PIF was exactly that. A select group of local leaders gathered at the college to receive a simple presentation that I gave around being good stewards of God’s earth, the science behind carbon cycle, greenhouse gases and climate change (done in a very simple way, as I can’t go higher than very simple!), and ending with the question – what can be done to help protect the environment, right here in the local community.

The discussion that followed was enthusiastic, practical and pragmatic. And the outcome was the decision that tree planting needs to become a natural act of all people, and the leaders need to demonstrate this through doing their own tree planting. Education and sensitisation is also important, so that the community members understand the reasons for planting trees, and engage willing in the activity. Another discussion point was around encouraging switching to energy-efficient stoves, and investigating about how to make environmentally-friendly briquettes. In so doing the number of trees being cut down for fuel will be reduced, which, along with an increase in the number of trees being planted, will lead to greater tree cover generally. 

We didn’t touch on cars and fuel emissions, as most of the villagers don’t own a vehicle. And we didn’t touch on home insulation, or electricity providers, or other concepts that might get talked about in different communities, as home insulation isn’t a thing here, the homes don’t have central heating, and many don’t have electricity. We kept it relevant to the local context, and in so doing came up with actions that the leaders are going to take away and pass forward to their community members. It will require the leaders to make some small sacrifices to buy the trees, to take the time to do the educating, but through that they will pass forwards ideas and examples that others can follow. And in so doing, they will be passing forward positive actions to help improve the local environment and do their bit to reduce carbon emissions. 

 

On the grand scale of global carbon emissions, I guess it’s pretty tiny, but, as a certain supermarket likes to say, ‘every little helps!’

One final thought to leave you with – what Pass It Forward action can you take today that will bring positive change to someone else?