Will at Work

William, our dedicated Construction for Change volunteer, is documenting the enormous progress being made in Cura... Please check out his blog for photos and updates!

"Taking Root"

Last weekend, I treated myself to a San Francisco get-away, reconnecting with friends from my Southern California childhood and even bonding, briefly in a crosswalk near Chinatown, with other tourists -- a lesbian couple in matching "Washington is for gay lovers" t-shirts -- from the state I’ve called home for the last 20 years.

My friends and I took in the city mostly on foot, walking out from our certified “green” hotel, but the efficient public transportation gave us respite from the rain, when we were finally too soggy to walk another step, and got us back to the airport inexpensively when it was time to go our separate ways.

On my last night, I turned on the television to keep me company while I packed… I paused at a FOX News interview with Rush Limbaugh, but I couldn’t stomach that for long. I prefer to take in my right wing politics through the print media; television personalizes the issues for me and provokes me to bark futile retorts at the talking head on the screen.

I welcomed instead, the Independent Lens documentary I stumbled across next: a film focusing on one of my heroines, Wangari Maathai. As Africa’s first female Nobel Prize recipient and the founder of Kenya’s Green Belt movement, this powerful woman’s story far better matched my mood.

The essential details of Professor Maathai’s life were already familiar to me, of course. Her autobiography, Unbowed, kept me company on a flight to Nairobi two years ago, and I have recommended it to many people since.

Because the children’s home I work for in Kenya is in a Kikuyu (Maathai’s ethnic group) community, I worked with author Donna Jo Napoli, too, to donate copies of Mama Miti (her book based on Maathai’s Green Belt work) to the local library so children there can see themselves in the accomplishments of their collective grandmother.

But hearing and seeing this wise woman speak was a different experience all together – her accomplishments stretch beyond her tribe, beyond her nationality and beyond her gender.

The Nobel committee recognized her insight, influence and impact in 2004, and toward the beginning of her acceptance lecture, she said:

" I am especially mindful of women and the girl child. I hope it will encourage them to raise their voices and take more space for leadership. I know the honour also gives a deep sense of pride to our men, both old and young. As a mother, I appreciate the inspiration this brings to the youth and urge them to use it to pursue their dreams.

Although this prize comes to me, it acknowledges the work of countless individuals and groups across the globe. They work quietly and often without recognition to protect the environment, promote democracy, defend human rights and ensure equality between women and men. By so doing, they plant seeds of peace."

I recognize many of my priorities in the work she did:

--the value of relationships, especially among women, in bringing about social change;

--the emphasis on social justice, civil rights, and holding politicians accountable to the people they serve;

--the admonition that we must all be stewards of our environment if we want our children to inherit a world that can sustain them, too.

The daily work we do as parents builds on these values, even when we don't consciously make a political stand about it. My friends Kim and Jennifer, during our re-connection this weekend in San Francisco, impressed me with the thoughtfulness of their respective motherhood, and the models they provide for their children. Having the privilege of knowing their daughters, who are in the same stages of adolescence that we once saw each other through, only intensifies my conviction that women will continue to shape the world in unique and powerful ways.

I hope that the world our daughters help construct will continue to "plant the seeds of peace" -- from San Francisco to Nairobi and back. I hope they'll build on the values of environmental protection and civil rights, and that they, too, will blow right past Rush's talking head and settle on Professor Maathai's wisdom, instead.

Teens Helping Teens

Check out what high schoolers in Texas are doing to help the kids in Cura!

Best of luck for a great fundraiser!

-H

Casting my Lot

I keep seeing the conversation swirl about KONY 2012 and the public disintegration of its founder, and I can't help but be torn in my response.

Some thinkers I respect a great deal have come out strongly against nearly everything the Invisible Children organization has set out to do, while some of my most relentlessly committed social-activist friends keep cheering them on, as if bolstering every one of us who is involved -- perhaps loosely, perhaps wrong-headedly, perhaps ethno-centrically, but always idealistically -- in work for a better world.

Not for the first time since I got involved with Cura Orphanage, I wonder whether critics like those who chastise and even mock IC's efforts would say similar things about my work, were it more bold, more public. Instead of toiling away in my home office, sending missives off to the other side of the world via email before the paid work of my day begins, had I been creating a media campaign to bring awareness to the little corner of the world Cura village occupies, maybe I'd be the target of these criticisms, too.

Of course, I hope not.

There are marked differences between my work and the kind that critics disdainfully refer to as a type of ugly colonialism. But the differences are nuanced. The similarities between my work and theirs are easier to detect and compare.

I, too, work in Africa, inspired by visits there in my early adulthood.

I, too, had a white, privileged background, tucked away in a Southern California suburb.

I, too, capitalize now on the resources of my friends and acquaintances, asking them to join the cause that is so close to my heart.

But I can't let the potential for these comparisons to slow my work or, worse, allow fear of criticism cause me to choose complacent middle-class suburban life rather than risk a smackdown for the impertinence of trying to make a difference in lives a world away.

Indeed, had Cura Village not had advocates on this side of the globe, its leaders wouldn't have, only a week ago, presided over their own groundbreaking ceremony to launch construction of the community's first secondary school! Seeing this project come to fruition inspired teachers, clergy, politicians, farmers, entrepreneurs and parents alike -- but it wouldn't have happened without the resources and energy generated by a jarringly distant source.

Two years ago, it was a Hollywood premier for Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice that raised the funds to build this dream, and work since then has been led by Creative Visions Foundation folks like me, as well as leaders of other non-profits like One Kid, One World and Construction for Change. Many of us come from outside Kenya, but our resources have been integrated with the efforts in Cura's local community -- with those who do the daily development work of raising children and otherwise providing stewardship for their future success.

Can we all at least give the IC true-believers credit for attempting an even bolder version of this work and for risking the smackdown? Can we hope that something new and interesting is bound to come of what they've done?

It seems to me that they were moved by the same things that inspire all workers for social change; they know that, as Victoria Safford notes, "once you have glimpsed the world as it might be, as it ought to be, as it's going to be . . ., it is impossible to live anymore compliant and complacent in the world as it is" ("The Small Work in the Great Work").

They might also recognize themselves, as I do, in this verse from Adrienne Rich:

I have to cast my lot with those

who age after age, perversely,

with no extraordinary power,

reconstitute the world.

("Natural Resources")

Beyond Imagination

I think I can imagine how exciting the groundbreaking for Cura's secondary school might have been for the community, but Moses tells me that, whatever I was thinking, it was much, much better than that.

This, from his recent email:

Oh! How I wish you were all here! It was such a colourful, historical and remarkable occasion, marked with wonderful songs presented by Rotary Cura Home and Cura Primary School Children -- as well as a very captivating poem by Rotary Cura Home children which almost moved those present to shed tears of joy and happiness.

This was followed by speeches from stakeholders. The significance of this project and the transformation of Educational opportunities in this area is beyond imagination.

Preparations for the Big Day

Lest anyone believe that tomorrow's groundbreaking for Cura's secondary school is anything less than a dream come true, note the plans below for the opening ceremony.

PROGRAMME

GROUND BREAKING CEREMONY OF CURA SECONDARY SCHOOL ON 15^th March 2012

Master of Ceremony – Mr. Stephen Ngethe

2.00pm Guests arrival

2.30pm Opening prayers: Rev. Edwin Kinyanjui

Welcome and Introduction Mr. Kenneth Kuria

ENTERTAINMENTS By: -

Music Co-ordinator –

q Mrs. A. Hinga

q Mrs. Grace Kabetu

a) Cura Primary School

b) Rotary Cura Home Poem

c) Cura Primary School

d) Rotary Cura Home

SPEECHES:

1) Rev. Edwin Kinyanjui

2) Mrs. Lucy Mwathi and invite area A.E.O Mr. Kariuki

3) Mr. Moses Kamau

4) Mrs. Judith Owur (Okow)

5) Councilor Walter Ndambo

6) Mr. B. G. Mbugua -Area Chief

7) Mr. Mbuthia Kihanya Ass. Chief

8) Mr. William Fort Construction for Change

9) Mrs. Evelyn Mungai Rotary Cura Home -Director

Groundbreaking Ceremony conducted by Mrs. Mungai

Vote of Thanks : Mrs. Lucy Mwathi Cura Primary School H/T.

I'll be there in spirit for the whole thing.

-H

Filmmaker Ty has arrived!

Joining William in Cura these days is volunteer Ty, who is there to capture video of life in Cura. He'll concentrate on documenting the initial construction of the secondary school -- groundbreaking is scheduled for Thursday! -- but will gather other footage to edit when he gets home. We hope this will result in some short film segments to use at fundraising events and to tell the story of the great work happening on the ground.

Welcome to Cura, Ty, and many thanks for donating your time and talent!

-H

PS-- Follow Ty's blog here at: http://tystrickler.blogspot.com/