Hope

Spending time with Meetu

How do I help people help themselves? How can I actually be effective rather than deepening a mindset of dependency? How do I give people HOPE?

Hope Enterprise, the Koshe Project, All 4 Christ, Women at Risk... the list of organizations seems endless. The many service opportunities here are keeping me busy, and between serving enjira (the local food) at Hope Enterprise and playing games with the girls at the Koshe Project, spare time is spent with friends: drinking cups of sweet coffee with Meetu, playing soccer with Hermela, discussing politics with Adonai... It's a blessing getting to spend time really investing in relationships and getting to work with some of the volunteer organizations...

But the more I hear stories of locals, the more I question what seems to be a mindset of dependency. It seems like there are a million and six organizations helping people to get food, to get education... but how can we stop the problems at the root? The issues are so complex that it's dizzying trying to consider what might be a solution.

Yet there is hope. Organizations like one I visited yesterday, called Women at Risk, helps empower women to help themselves. It gives former prostitutes education a means of providing for themselves through learning how to weave. For the next month, I'll be spending some time working with Women at Risk and attempting to learn more about the issues particularly surrounding women's rights. Because the question gnaws at me: How do I give hope?