IT IS NOT HARD TO SEE THE ATTRACTION OF JOHNSON CITY, Tennessee, USA, especially in what Americans call “the fall”. The bright, optimistic, energetic city nestles between the tree-covered Appalachian mountains, boldly displaying the full panoply of rich autumn colours. The air is clean, rivers full and the bears, like the people, have a spirit of enquiry, sometimes venturing from their safe haven to investigate the riches beyond.
I am writing this blog from Dulles International Airport, Washington DC, en route for London after a few days as the guest of the Public Health College of East Tennessee State University (ETSU), in Johnson City. And for me, it was an experience far richer that the glorious scenery. I was there to cement friendships with the Dean, Randy Wykoff, Tim Baylor, who does an incredible job in placing students in locations including Munsieville, as part of their studies towards, bachelors, masters or doctoral qualifications, and students like Megan Quinn and Twanda Wadlinton, who have worked with us in the past and become true friends. I was also in town to deliver a public lecture as part of their “Leading Voices in Public Health” series, entitled “The End of Disempowerment and Dependency: Rethinking the Path for Africa’s AIDS Orphans”.
Why do we sometimes limit ourselves to the expected, though, when life blesses us with so many unexpected treasures, too! I fully expected a rewarding experience with the ETSU friends who have already demonstrated their commitment to The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville. What I had not expected was the many new doors of opportunity that opened up with many other parts of the university community.
Meetings with leading charitable foundations in the area; question and answer sessions with students in the Health Administration department; a meeting of minds with the Director of the University’s groundbreaking Graduate Program in Storytelling, to learn more about the evidence of the effectiveness of storytelling in the care of people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa; discussions about how we can work with students and faculty to develop targeted garden solutions for South Africa that can be developed so that shack-dwellers can grow specific crops to enhance the health of pregnant women, or under-fives; creative exploration into how to enlist the university’s best brains in the quest for a way to turn the garbage problem of Munsieville (and similar locations) into a resource-enriching opportunity .... it was a rare opportunity to be with a community of people who personify the truism about many Americans that they are people who will strive to discover a 100 ways to make something work, as opposed to a 100 reasons why it won’t!
But (and I am conscious is the irony of using the “B” word in the context of such thrusting optimism!!), such opportunity also presents its challenges. Martin Lafontaine, a good friend and previous volunteer in Munsieville (courtesy of his employers, GlaxoSmithKline), has constantly encouraged me with his belief that The Thoughtful Path would almost inevitably arrive at a “tipping point” – a place where we will no longer feel like we are pushing boulder up a hill, when it will have its own forward momentum. This visit to Johnson City is yet more evidence that if we have not yet reached the tipping point, at least on an operational level we are pretty close. The new and existing ETSU opportunities stack up alongside the invitations and requests coming into our UK offices almost daily, from people and organisations who “get” The Thoughtful Path concept, realise its huge potential for changing the landscape of orphan care in Africa and want to “be the change”. The downside, however, is that the financial and resource tipping point is lagging behind, so the whole management structure supporting the work in Munsieville is creaking at the seams.
I promised that my blog would be an honest, “warts and all” account of the process of creating a new paradigm for the care of Africa’s orphans and other vulnerable children, so hear you have it – on the one side, an avalanche of encouragement from those who can see that what we are doing holds the prospect of providing effective new models that challenge the bankrupt “status quo” of international charitable and governmental programming and replacing it with something that energises destitute local communities to provide transformational change that results in their most vulnerable children having the opportunity to grow into healthy, productive adults. And then on the flip side of the coin, real frustration that lack of human and financial resources mean that we are unable to seize some of the opportunities presented to us.
I am utterly convinced that The Thoughtful Path is the right path. I also believe that we will win and that the financial tipping point will be reached when partners and investors will see that the tiny amount needed to bring this venture to reality is just a drop in the ocean of the massive and sustained returns that such investment will generate. But for now, the struggle remains; the struggle that is akin to that of the leader of a string quartet who sees a percussion section being added, then woodwind, then brass and so on until, unexpectedly, he finds himself conducting a full orchestra, and then two, and then three orchestras .... all trying to play the same symphony.
All I can say is – we urgently need more brass!
I am writing this blog from Dulles International Airport, Washington DC, en route for London after a few days as the guest of the Public Health College of East Tennessee State University (ETSU), in Johnson City. And for me, it was an experience far richer that the glorious scenery. I was there to cement friendships with the Dean, Randy Wykoff, Tim Baylor, who does an incredible job in placing students in locations including Munsieville, as part of their studies towards, bachelors, masters or doctoral qualifications, and students like Megan Quinn and Twanda Wadlinton, who have worked with us in the past and become true friends. I was also in town to deliver a public lecture as part of their “Leading Voices in Public Health” series, entitled “The End of Disempowerment and Dependency: Rethinking the Path for Africa’s AIDS Orphans”.
Why do we sometimes limit ourselves to the expected, though, when life blesses us with so many unexpected treasures, too! I fully expected a rewarding experience with the ETSU friends who have already demonstrated their commitment to The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville. What I had not expected was the many new doors of opportunity that opened up with many other parts of the university community.
Meetings with leading charitable foundations in the area; question and answer sessions with students in the Health Administration department; a meeting of minds with the Director of the University’s groundbreaking Graduate Program in Storytelling, to learn more about the evidence of the effectiveness of storytelling in the care of people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa; discussions about how we can work with students and faculty to develop targeted garden solutions for South Africa that can be developed so that shack-dwellers can grow specific crops to enhance the health of pregnant women, or under-fives; creative exploration into how to enlist the university’s best brains in the quest for a way to turn the garbage problem of Munsieville (and similar locations) into a resource-enriching opportunity .... it was a rare opportunity to be with a community of people who personify the truism about many Americans that they are people who will strive to discover a 100 ways to make something work, as opposed to a 100 reasons why it won’t!
But (and I am conscious is the irony of using the “B” word in the context of such thrusting optimism!!), such opportunity also presents its challenges. Martin Lafontaine, a good friend and previous volunteer in Munsieville (courtesy of his employers, GlaxoSmithKline), has constantly encouraged me with his belief that The Thoughtful Path would almost inevitably arrive at a “tipping point” – a place where we will no longer feel like we are pushing boulder up a hill, when it will have its own forward momentum. This visit to Johnson City is yet more evidence that if we have not yet reached the tipping point, at least on an operational level we are pretty close. The new and existing ETSU opportunities stack up alongside the invitations and requests coming into our UK offices almost daily, from people and organisations who “get” The Thoughtful Path concept, realise its huge potential for changing the landscape of orphan care in Africa and want to “be the change”. The downside, however, is that the financial and resource tipping point is lagging behind, so the whole management structure supporting the work in Munsieville is creaking at the seams.
I promised that my blog would be an honest, “warts and all” account of the process of creating a new paradigm for the care of Africa’s orphans and other vulnerable children, so hear you have it – on the one side, an avalanche of encouragement from those who can see that what we are doing holds the prospect of providing effective new models that challenge the bankrupt “status quo” of international charitable and governmental programming and replacing it with something that energises destitute local communities to provide transformational change that results in their most vulnerable children having the opportunity to grow into healthy, productive adults. And then on the flip side of the coin, real frustration that lack of human and financial resources mean that we are unable to seize some of the opportunities presented to us.
I am utterly convinced that The Thoughtful Path is the right path. I also believe that we will win and that the financial tipping point will be reached when partners and investors will see that the tiny amount needed to bring this venture to reality is just a drop in the ocean of the massive and sustained returns that such investment will generate. But for now, the struggle remains; the struggle that is akin to that of the leader of a string quartet who sees a percussion section being added, then woodwind, then brass and so on until, unexpectedly, he finds himself conducting a full orchestra, and then two, and then three orchestras .... all trying to play the same symphony.
All I can say is – we urgently need more brass!
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