Donna Thomas had the winning bid on this beautiful piece of cloth from DR Congo.

Wherever we go in the world,
we will look for the persons in that area
who can become a role model for their world.
– from Del Anderson’s Dream for Spirit in Action, 2004

This past weekend we celebrated sixteen years of sharing Del’s dream with the world through Spirit in Action. The gathering of twenty-three people was a special time to celebrate our work, bid on handicrafts from SIA partners, and meet friends old and new. Thank you to all who attended and all those who donated time and items to make the day a success!

At the event I shared about the exciting work of the Manyamula Village Savings and Loans group (MAVISALO) in Malawi, which is working to expand their reach. In the process, they are developing into national model!

MAVISALO recently hosted a delegation team from the Malawian Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Community Development, and COMSIP. The team interacted with all the members, learning about the group’s operations, systems, and finances.

Canaan Gondwe, the local coordinator shares of the visit, “it was again superb for us.”

Like Boyd and I, the delegation met with group members that have received loans from MAVISALO. “The comment they left with us,” says Canaan, “was that our group is a success story! Our future seems very bright.”

Not only is Canaan Gondwe a role model, all MAVISALO members are models of people who care about others and share their expertise with others for the benefit of all. This is just one story showing the way we are still following Del’s dream for Spirit in Action.

Thank you again to all who joined us on Saturday and who contributed to help support further growth of MAVISALO.

Click here for more photos from our visit with MAVISALO members last summer visit.

SIA supporters from all over gathered to celebrate 16 years of compassionate service.

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A Day Without Dignity is a movement started last year as a counter-campaign to TOMs Shoes One Day Without Shoes event. The day is about honoring the dignity of each person and supporting aid projects that honor that dignity. This year’s focus is on local champions – those leading local projects to address local needs. At Spirit in Action, we know that local leaders are the heart of change and it is our role to support these already active leaders!

One champion I met last summer was Margaret Ikiara, of Community Initiatives for Rural Development (CIFORD Kenya). I was so inspired by the work she was doing in her community to support other women and people with HIV/AIDS and now SIA is proud to support this vibrant organization, doing good in their own community. I asked Margaret to tell us about their work in her own words:

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(L to R ) Tanya, Guardian, Margaret, and children in guardian's care

Encouraging and working with people affected by HIV/AIDS

In Kenya the HIV/AIDs was declared a national disaster. This is because we are all affected or infected. This pandemic has continued to impact on the lives of Kenyans both socially, psychologically and economically.

The people affected directly are the ones who suffer most. These are people living with HIV/AIDS, orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs) and the grandmothers caring for them. This is because the people who are dying of HIV are those who are in the productive age group. This has left the families and the whole country economically affected.

CIFORD Kenya is a community-based organisation working in Meru, in the north region of Kenya. CIFORD Kenya realised the challenges the people affected and infected by HIV/AIDS were facing in the society, including stigmatisation and discrimination. These people were left out in the community development agenda. This made most of the people lose hope and self-esteem.

Support and Working Groups

Margaret (center) talks with one of the support groups

With my leadership, CIFORD Kenya mobilised the people affected by HIV/AIDS into working groups. These were formed into: People Living with HIV/AIDS, and Guardians caring for the orphans. CIFORD did not have any resources to support the women. We brought them together and started training them the importance of self-reliance. We committed our time to capacity building where we encouraged the members to come together to mobilise their own resources.

CIFORD Kenya believes that the communities have the solution to their problem and understand best way to address them; all they need is encouragement support and some resources.

For the people living with HIV, we embarked on training them on positive living, nutrition and antiretroviral treatment (ART) adherence.  We also trained them on gardening for better nutrition and increased household income. This has made these people change their lifestyle and have self-esteem and then they become leaders in the campaign on positive living.

Some of the guardians at their weekly meeting.

Guardian Merry-Go-Round Loans

For guardians, (the elderly women who are caring for children), we are aware they have a burden of supplying basic needs for children and there was need to make the guardians come together and start “merry-go-round” and savings group. There is no other way they can help one another other than to bring their resources together. The women have been meeting every Monday at 3.00pm and they have been contributing 20 Kenyan Shillings (Ksh) ($0.25), which is collected and given to one member. The impact of this money is clearly seen in the sense of relief of these women feel when it is their turn to get the collected amount.

The women have been starting small businesses with the money from the group to enable them support the vulnerable children they have welcomed in their households. The guardians are also trained on agriculture skills and livestock-keeping to improve their food security. The surplus food is sold to supplement the family income.

Through a gift, CIFORD Kenya brought in USD $24, to use as principal for loaning among the women at a 10% interest rate. The money has been of great value and many guardians have used the small loan to start small businesses. Most of them have been buying bananas and avocadoes to sell in the local market. The profits are used to support the family. After one year the $24 has grown to $66 as the interest is building on the principal. Women take loan for a maximum of $6 and as little as $0.60!

Solutions from Within the Community

The local problems in Africa cannot be addressed from the top but from within the community. The beneficiaries have to address their own problems in their best way possible. This is the only way that brings positive and sustainable change.  Little resources can mean a lot with full participation of the people in the problem.

There is need for partners to appreciate the inputs of the community members in the intervention strategy, in order to enable a sustainable development.

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Visit CIFORD’s Facebook page for regular updates and more photos.

More posts about CIFORD: 

• CIFORD Kenya: Compassionate Community Action
• A Better Way to Grow Food

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Did you catch the hype and fury around the KONY 2012 video about Uganda last week? The video, by Invisible Children, Inc. told about the violence in Uganda in the recent past. However, many people in Uganda are presenting their own responses to the video.

“How do you tell the story of Africans?” asks Rosebell Kagumire, a Ugandan blogger, “because if you are showing me as voiceless, as hopeless… you shouldn’t be telling my story if you don’t believe that I also have the power to change what is going on.”

Godfrey shares the growth of SIA in his community.

How people and organizations present their work is as important as the work itself. Is the grant recipient downcast, child-like, and dirty? Or are they smiling, confident, encouraged?

Meeting all our Spirit in Action Small Business Fund Coordinators last summer in Kenya confirmed for me that THEY are the work of Spirit in Action. Our coordinators are not voiceless or hopeless – they are leaders working to make their communities better places to live.

Today I want to share some excerpts from my interview with Godfrey Matovu, SBF Coordinator in Uganda, about his work to uplift and empower his fellow community members. I hope that listening to him tell his story will also confirm for you that Godfrey, and all of our SIA partners, have the power to change their communities.

Godfrey Matovu:
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: “One time a local leader asked and I had to explain about Spirit in Action and what it is doing. I explained to him: SIA is bringing people together in Uganda.

Ugandans learning how to weave baskets

COMPASSIONATE WORK AT THE CROSSROADS: ”I organize and I train [people] and people know they are welcome to learn or to work. So these things come through Spirit in Action. One of the local leaders said, “this thing that you are sharing, is very good. Why don’t you start over there [at the crossroads] – they are drunkards.” So we are targeting the youth at the crossroads. I started teaching them how to start a business; the handicraft work [like weaving, pottery, and brickmaking]. I tell them “you can make this, you can make this.” We started to gain respect. So far we have trained thirteen people. I am planning more small workshops, for the school dropouts, and those who have lost their parents to come and to start doing this quality work. So that is why I give.

ON DEL ANDERSON, SIA FOUNDER: ”I tell people that Del Anderson came from a poor family. So he decided also to help the poor. I tell them and they understand.

HELPING THOSE WITH HIV/AIDS: ”There are people who are not involved in these programs who are suffering. So what do I do? I just care and counsel them, just give them advice when they are sick or suffering with AIDS. What do I do? I just counsel them; tell them how to handle the sick.

DEALING WITH PREJUDICE: ”Sometimes, most especially in Africa, when you are suffering from HIV/AIDS, some people they fear to touch you, they fear to be near you. So I go there and I am preaching the word of God. I again talk to them and the members who are around, tell them not to avoid him or her, just to get friendship with him.

Godfrey and Tanya in Kenya, August 2011

DEFINING CARE: ”I remember I went to one family and met with a man who was sick. He had skin that was [bad]. He was not doing much bathing or washing. So I started helping, that is what I call care.

GIVING THANKS: “So I have to thank you for this brotherhood of workers. It is not easy but I am doing very good. They are doing very good. We have the groups there [in Uganda] and we are doing good.”

Thank you, Godfrey, and all SIA partners, for serving God by empowering others! We are honored to support these committed change-agents.

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Today’s post is by Jerry Elmer, a long-time friend of Spirit in Action.*

Glory Tembo, who received a SIA grant in 2006, sells boiled fish in the Manyamula market (Malawi).

Most everyone has heard the old adage, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” It sounds very profound – until you realize that teaching someone to fish is relatively useless if he lives in the desert.Recently, I’ve been in a sort of desert, myself, advising an organization building a homeless shelter on the southern-most edge of Santa Clara County, which comprises most of California’s illustrious Silicon Valley. With county population about 1.8 million people, some seven thousand of them are homeless. For eight years I was one of them.

In his book, The Hole in Our Gospel, Richard Sterns, President, World Vision U.S., says, “What I have discovered in my travels to more than forty countries with World Vision is that almost all poverty is a result of lack of options. It is not that the poor are lazier, less intelligent, or unwilling to make efforts to change their condition. Rather, they are trapped by circumstances beyond their power to change.”

When I read this, I was sure he was talking about the homeless problem right here in California. I realized that World Vision and our budding homeless shelter were trying to help people address the same problem: lack of options.

But it appears Del Anderson figured that out a long time ago. And although I have never seen it stated in so many words, he founded Spirit in Action to increase people’s access to a range of self-help options. He realized that by creating options for people – giving them choices – you give them the opportunity to make their own way in their own environment.

Del started out sending people seeds to grow vegetables and fruit, which they could use to feed their own families or sell for profit (Remember Oral Roberts’ seed-faith? Here it is in action!). Then Spirit in Action began giving small business grants so people could choose their own businesses and path to prosperity. Here in Silicon Valley, our shelter will include a job training center in cooperation with local businesses, as many of the homeless have no marketable job skills.

James said, “Faith without works is dead” (James 2: 18-26). So along with World Vision, Spirit in Action and our homeless shelter work to the same task. And the options we create – they’re in the works. I have faith. How about you?

*Editor’s Note (2/22/12): This post originally included a link to a book written by Jerry Elmer. The author has now taken this book off the market because of a problem with the publisher. He does not want people to buy this book.

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Matthews (MAVISALO's Secretary) giving us one of his big smiles.

“COMSIP…” called out Matthews, holding his hand in the air. “…Chop!” responded the fifty people gathered in the meeting room, as they brought down their hands in a chopping motion. The group is the Manyamula Village Savings and Loans organization, or MAVISALO, which Boyd and I visited last summer. And COMSIP is a Malawian government program designed to reduce (chop!) poverty by promoting a culture of saving. After the cheer, a feeling of enthusiasm remained in the room as the group settled down to start the meeting.

I held this exuberance in my mind as I read Canaan Gondwe’s most recent report on MAVISALO’s progress. MAVISALO, which already works to encourage savings among members and provide local loans at reasonable rates, is growing rapidly. They recently welcomed 80 new members for a total of 130 members!

Capacity Building and Training

In addition to the initial “seed money” from Spirit in Action, MAVISALO also was awarded an $800 grant from COMSIP (Community Savings and Investment Promotion) for training in financial literacy management and business management. Some of the topics covered at the recent training for MAVISALO members were:

COMSIP training for MAVISALO members

• Savings mobilization
• Credit management
• Monitoring of financial operations
• Business idea generation
• Business planning, records, and evaluation
• Market research and marketing
• Product costing
• Planning for profit

“These trainings have impacted on the members positively,” wrote Canaan in his report, “in that members will operate their small enterprises with skill and positive attitude.” Many of these topics are also covered in the Small Business Fund program training and so MAVISALO members who are not involved with SBF also have a chance to learn these skills. Also, everyone who has received some training in the past can review, refresh, and evaluate their current business models. The MAVISALO Executive Team is working to certify the group as an official COMSIP Cooperative, which will open up even more opportunities for leadership building, business training, and community grants.

All this is part of creating a stable, prosperous, rural economy in Manyamula Village through locally led education and entrepreneurship. Canaan closed his report with a few words of encouragement, echoing that hopefulness of the group “chopping” together, “All is well as we work together to alleviate the suffering of many poor households.”

**Click on photos for a full-sized version.

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