COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION - reflections from AFRICA

How many Africans does it take to change a community? And no, this is not a joke. In fact I might go as far as asking, how many Africans does it take to change a nation? If you were to ask Nelson Mandela you might hear him say “one”. But then on reflection he might just as well turn around and say “all of us”. And he would be right on both occasions.

Community transformation is possible, and it has to start somewhere, but ultimately it is about the grass roots fabric of a society actually turning around, so that the whole community is impacted by the change
Over the past 9 – 10 years I have had the privilege of travelling throughout a number of what we might call developing nations (or third world countries). I have met some of the most beautiful people you could ever meet, and have also seen some of the most wrenching scenes that would make even the hardest of hearts crumble.
Once in Lusaka, (the capital of Zambia) I visited the humble home of a young man and his family as they lived at the back of one of the Local Councillors (government officials) houses. This man and his wife where employed by the councillor to clean his luxury house and tend their finely manicured garden. For their 14 hour days, they would receive the princely sum of $2US (equivalent) per week between them. Not even enough to buy mille meal to feed their five boys. Their home was a lean-to made of rusted tin and cardboard, and each of the boys had clothes which looked like they had been ripped to shreds by a lion. As we sat to share a cup of Fanta (Lord knows how they managed to get hold of a bottle of Fanta) we heard a story that has now become all too familiar. In a world where there does not seem to be a social conscience at all, it is a dog eat dog existence, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

In 2006 I spent 3 weeks in the Mathare Slum of Nairobi Kenya. One morning after a mob had run riot the night before ravaging one of the slum districts with axes and machetes, I saw a young man lying dead in a stream on the side of the road, already in a stage of riga mortis. I was on my way to visit a man who was dying from some kind of tumour that was growing out of his back, and had just spent the morning with a group of orphan school children in their tiny little school room in the back of a local tin shed church. You get to the place where no matter where you look there is a need, and you know you have only so much resource, only so much time, and your heart will only hold out for so long before it breaks completely.
And then you are reminded of the story of a boy found tossing starfish back into the ocean after a violent storm had washed thousands of them up on the beach. A passer by stopped to say, “Boy you’re wasting your time, there are far too many. You can’t possibly make a difference here”. Picking up another starfish and tossing it back into the ocean the young boy responded by saying “made a difference to that one”.
And so we press on. In the hope that somewhere in the midst of all this there is an answer, that may bring some kind of change big enough to make a difference.
Well in the midst of so much hardship and trouble, there are plenty of good news stories. Like the illiterate preacher in Uganda who decided to buy 6 sow piglets. He gave each of these piglets away to 6 orphans (not necessarily children) with the view to having each one give away a piglet from the first litter each pig bore. On last count I heard that there are now more than 300 orphans who own a sow pig that can provide a small income and some food to eat.

I have another friend in Uganda who has found that if you train an orphan in a life skill (sewing, wood turning, metal fabrication) you can turn their whole life around. He works in a bank and has been using half of what he earns to establish a small church and workshop where he can train people in these basic Life changing skills.
I met a man in Zambia who has a similar role in his community; however he and his wife help young girls who have been used as prostitutes, and rehabilitate them back to some kind of normal life including teaching them a life skill.
Everywhere I go I meet people who are making a difference where they are, with what they have.
But is it enough?
I have a train of thought that has been developing on this matter for some time, which relates to how a community can actually change.
As a Christian I have some very firm beliefs, and at the core of what I believe is the basic premise that there is a Creator God who loves the whole world and wants the very best for all of his creation. Many do not hold to that belief. However, what even the most avid of sceptics would agree on is that somehow in the midst of this mess we call the world there are some basic laws of the universe which seem to be constant under most circumstances.
For example: The law of gravity... ‘What goes up must come down.’
And then there is one of my favourites: The law of sowing and reaping... ‘You reap what you sow’
If we believe then that these and many more ‘laws of the universe’ are somehow irrefutable then it makes sense to work within the parameters of these laws to find the answers to our dilemma.
When it comes to African communities then, it would stand to reason that any society that has a culture of ‘live for yourself’, and ‘take whatever you can when you can’, will have had extreme repercussions from decades of this kind of neglect.
Take into consideration that whole generations of parents have been wiped out in certain communities through the aids epidemic (now rendering one in four infected throughout many parts of Africa), and the onslaught of war and famine. And you have a recipe for certain disaster. This is what we are seeing in many African nations where the average wage is now less than $500 US (equivalent) per annum.
OK, so what solution?

Without wanting to over complicate this matter I have purposefully simplified my theory to help the process of its outworking.
If we take the law of sowing and reaping and unpack it a little, we find a basic premise of life.
A farmer has a hand full of seed. He can (a.) Make some food to eat, so he can feed himself for this season. (b.) Sow his seed so that he has a crop to feed himself for the next season. (c.) Make enough food for this season and the sow the rest so that he has food next season.
If a man has time, talent, and a little treasure, he can (a.) Use it all for himself (b.) Give it all away. (c.) Use some for himself and give the rest back to society so that the next generation has a share of his wealth.
You reap what you sow.
If you sow sparingly you will reap sparingly.
If you give nothing back then the next generation will suffer.

The 3T’s of Transformation
One of God’s most basic laws (the Law of the Tithe) is based on this greater law of sowing and reaping. Give back a tenth of what you get. It’s not a tax, as it has always been a choice that we get to make, however there is more than enough evidence to say that God thinks we will be better off if we do. He even says, ‘test me in this and see if I will not open the flood gates of heaven.’
So to help transform a Community I have formulated these simple thoughts based around this law.
Giving back into our communities a portion of our TIME, our TALENT, and TREASURE will be the basis of a wider transformation that could ultimately change a nation.
If a generation can be taught to sow back into the generation that follows then society will change. Take some Time to teach your Talent, and give something of what you have (Treasure) back into society.
What I have noticed is that when people are taught to value each other, (another of God’s Laws – Love your neighbour as you love yourself) and the next generation sees this in actions as they grow up, then they develop a new culture with a different mentality.

So if a man gives away a pig, because someone gave him a pig, or a lady teaches another young lady how to sew because someone taught her to sew, or someone who knows how to read and write takes some time to teach a few others these same skills, and if people learn to respect the land as well as the people who share it, and community starts to change as a result, then why can’t a nation change.
In the midst of all that there are Big Brother neighbours like us in the west who have TIME, TALENT and TREASURE, and if we were to do our bit, not just give stuff away, but actually get on the ground and teach in these developing nations what we know, then we will have helped make a difference, even if it is only with one community.
At least it will have made a difference to that one.
So how many Africans does it take to change a nation?
‘One... at a time’