One of the hardest issues we confront has to do not with poor nutrition, lack of education or ill health. The hardest issue is dealing with people who have a dependency mindset.
For much of the past 20 years, Uganda has received a huge amount of foreign assistance – in some years it made up almost half of the total government expenditure in the country. I don’t believe aid in itself is bad, but often times the way aid is delivered can create a climate of learned dependency.
BeadforLife’s core philosophy is to help people do it themselves. For this reason, we often operate more like a business than a charity, expecting the women we work with to contribute what they can. We distribute items like mosquito nets and de-worming tablets by trading them for beads rather than just handing them out for free. And our program runs for only 18 months so women learn they can’t make beads forever, and must open a business or find a job in the local economy so that they are not dependent on BeadforLife for their livelihood.
With this in mind, we have recently confronted a challenge in the very language we use with the members. Each group of 60 women has traditionally had what we refer to as a group coordinator, but what the women tend to call their “mama.” This is not uncommon in a culture where elders receive great respect, and people who help you (“big people”) often take on something of a provider role. Nonetheless, we felt uncomfortable when the analogy is extended by the women themselves. Graduating women would tell us they could not graduate because “you can’t abandon a baby who has just learned to crawl but can’t walk.”
For some time we have been brainstorming other options. Would “sister” work and did they take on a mentoring role in Uganda? The maternal aunt is very important and called “Senga” but her role has to do with advising the women on marriage which didn’t seem the best fit.
Finally our brilliant membership coordinator, Irene Namaganda, came up with the right answer. When she introduced herself to our brand new group, she said simply, “I’m Coachi Irene.” Coach (with an added “I” because this language prefers words that end in a vowel) is a perfect description of our role – helping to support, mentor and provide feedback, but not responsible for feeding or changing diapers!
Tags: Africa, Beaders, BeadforLife, Empowering Women, paper jewelry, poverty, Poverty Eradication, sustainability, Uganda, Women Making A Difference