Last fall, my book club read There Is No Me Without You, Melissa Fay Greene's story of the beginning of the AIDS pandemic in Africa, and of the ensuing orphan crisis. It had the kind of impact on me that Mountains Beyond Mountains did a few years ago. Anything I thought I knew about Africa, AIDS, and orphans was challenged by Greene's account of one woman trying to do her part in the midst of a tragedy that will leave a continent reeling for decades or more. When I read it, I experienced a sense of shame: I had misunderstood what was happening there, to my fellow humans. I also felt disbelief that so many parents could die, and so many children be left alone in our world of advanced medicine, new technology, and relative wealth.
While reading "Without You," I kept hearing Bono's words, from the video in this post: "Where you live should not determine whether you live." That's when the status of children everywhere went onto the list of HumanKind topics.
Just as I was nearing the end of the book, I serendipitously met Braden Coolidge. Without much attention, Braden has worked for the past two years on behalf of a school for orphans in Zimbabwe. He met up with them in a happy accident recorded in this lump-in-the-throat read at ZimBlog, entries #1 and #2 (take the time, it's worth it). To sum up, Braden one day turned down a road less traveled in Zimbabwe, met Mr. and Mrs. Maulana, saw the school they founded, and met some of the 1,600 orphans there -- who were all enrolled at once. Sixteen hundred! After that, Braden says, "I couldn't turn my back and go home to America to my electric blanket and pantry full of food."
Well said.
Braden set to work enlisting local artists he knew, and using his travel blog (the ZimBlog) and e-mails to ask friends and associates back in the States and elsewhere to support the school. He created a board and an organization, Sahwira.org, and thus formed a U.S.-based community that now supports a community in Zimbabwe. The Sahwira home page says: "Enriching lives, building communities." They're not just talking about the orphans.
If you ever have a minute to sit with Braden, you'll get a look at his iPod filled with pictures (two of which you see here) of Maulana School. But if you get a longer conversation, as I was lucky enough to have, you'll hear about what really lights him up: bringing people together to access the phenomenon of giving.
"People are stoked," he says, meaning the friends who became board members, the teachers who became partners, the Mudzimu artists who became key supporters, and the community that has become the backbone of the Sahwira Fund. Browsing the Sahwira news gives you a look at what Braden considers his big vision: being a catalyst that moves other people to create giving communities of their own.
He is most excited about the school projects (currently there are three schools in Ohio and Colorado that sponsor the Maulana School).
"Every teacher has a passion to give something of value to their students, to provide guidance and support to be the best people they can be. Here is this incredible opportunity," he says to me, and then he gets very excited, the words start tumbling out, and I can't write them down fast enough. But the words I caught were: geography, communicating, social activism, helping, and connecting.
Sahwira is raising money to support the fabulous work that Braden, the community he helped form, and the Maulanas are doing for the orphans. There are more ways to carry on this work, too, if you're interested: You can take this article to your book club, e-mail it to a teacher, or share the web site with your local school as a way to illustrate what community service can really mean: the connecting of two communities, each in service of the other.
There's something beautiful about the name Sahwira: It means "a life-long friend, assuming far-reaching responsibilities, similar to those of a godparent." The story of Braden and the Sahwira community remind me of my favorite words from the ancient Indian philospher and "bodhisattva" Shantideva:
May I be a protector to those without protection,
A leader for those who journey,
And a boat, a bridge, a passage
For those desiring the further shore.
May the pain of every living creature
Be completely cleared away.
May I be the doctor and the medicine
And may I be the nurse
For all sick beings in the world
Until everyone is healed.
This is what we get excited about, this possibility that all the Bradens and the Sahwiras in the world will tip the balance, until we can't tell who is helping whom, and the pains can "be completely cleared away." Over the next few weeks, we'll be telling more stories of people and organizations who have taken on the seemingly impossible task of raising 16 million and more orphans, living the possibility that humans can evolve into a species that cares for its own.
Stumble It!
Gosh, I've just read one article, and immediately I come to the conclusion that you are right: Good news can inspire people to believe that it is possible. I'll also admit that it is humbling to hear about those who can look at a tragedy and make the choice, yes, I will do it, I'll help. thanks to for your hints for things that we can all do. Sometimes the desire to do something, anything is there, but creativity fails to produce the what to do!
Great to meet you,
Chris
Posted by: Chris Coppola | January 10, 2008 at 04:11 PM
"...tip the balance..."
Yes, that's what we should all be participating in.
Thaht's why Food for Orphans is dedicated to its mission:
To supply at least one nutritious meal per day to as many orphans as possible.
What can you do to help? Start here: http://www.FoodforOrphans.org
Posted by: Gary VanDyke | January 09, 2008 at 10:55 AM