One of the great things about being based here in South Korea is the opportunity I have to engage in speaking events. In the last couple of months I've talked at the Amnesty International G48 group (Facebook link here), the Seoul Global Study Group (Facebook link here), and be the keynote speaker at the Model United Nations conference at Indianhead International School.
The message at all three events were similar. They told of my time in trenches during 2009 and the successes and failures of Meaningful Volunteer during that time. I also talked about how hard it can be to actually do "good".
Take Grassroots Uganda as an example. Grassroots Uganda is a collective of approximately 100 women making paper based jewelry. The products are sold all around the world and through the Meaningful Shop. On the one hand, Grassroots Uganda has been a huge success. A whopping $US40,000 was raised in 2009 and we are hoping for more in 2010. So many Ugandan women have been empowered by this project. Alasia Nandudu's - one of our beaders - has had great success and has built a house with her Grassroots Uganda money. Check out her story here.
Even within the success of Grassroots Uganda there have been some serious problems. Take the case of Flavia Anyang. Flavia Anyang is another one of our beaders. She was brutally attacked by her husband with a machete. The reasons for the attack were multiple, but Flavia's success within Grassroots Uganda was a contributing factor. You can check out more about Flavia's story here. The good news for Flavia is that she is well on the road to recovery thanks to some generous donations through individuals and Meaningful Volunteer. Here is a recent picture of Flavia and her wounds (be warned, it is a little gruesome).
I also talked about the successes we have made with many of our projects. Project Lifecycle was given extra attention and the success we've had with it. To date, approximately 15 villages have had the product rolled out and dozens of healthcare workers have been trained in its use. One of the keys things with Project Lifecycle is that we didn't do anything clever! We merely followed the best practices as set out by the Institute of Reproductive Health* (the creators of the product based out of Georgetown University in Washington DC).
One important factor that I emphasized at the talks was the importance of looking after oneself when you're in the field. This is something I am very bad at. There are the obvious things - like my recent brush with death at the hands of malaria, but also the mental side of things. All up in 2009, I think I took 2 days off for R and R. The rest of the time was getting stuff done in the Philippines and Uganda. As a previous sufferer of clinical depression, this is not a recipe for good health!
It is so hard to have good mental health and take care of yourself, especially in places like Buyaya where you're surrounded by so much misery and there is so much that you can see that needs to be done. As we all know, a broken activist is not really an activist, but just another problem. Hopefully the budding young activists can learn from my mistakes.
At the two of the three events, money was donated to the Malaria Operation mosquito net fund. The Model United Nations conference had a t-shirt fundraiser where a whooping $US1,000 was donated to the fund!
2011 will see me head back into Africa. One thing that I'll no doubt miss from Korea is the amazing opportunities I get to speak to groups of amazing people.
* Meaningful Volunteer gets a mention on the IRH homepage!
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