In years past, things were much better for the people of Vila José in the southern region of São Tomé.  The European Union had sponsored a development project that had planted large sections of land in a kind of palm tree that produces palm oil.  The project had been very successful and had brought roads, employment, housing and a school to the community.  Ten years ago the project ended and the palm oil industry was turned over to the government.  The roads fell into disrepair, machinery failed and was not fixed, aging palm trees were not replaced with new stock, the incomes of the people dropped dramatically and the school lost most of it’s funding. 

When ADRA first started working in this part of the Island it had concentrated its efforts on helping the people create food and income through a goat project. But as they worked in the community they noticed the neglected school and the many truant children scampering through the palm groves.  It was soon discovered that the school had one of the lowest passing rates in the country. The new ADRA director, Emanuel da Costa decided that something had to be done about the school.  He sat down with the community leaders and discussed different ways that might bring improvement to the school. “We need books, desks, better classrooms, and qualified teachers”, the elders said.  All important elements for school!  “If we made these kinds of investments in the school, how could we be sure that the children would come”?  Emanuel asked.  “If there was daily lunch provided for all who attend, they would come”, was the reply. 

Emanuel got busy looking for partners that could help the school.  ADRA Portugal was the first to sign on.  Individuals throughout Portugal had expressed an interest in getting involved with some kind of "sponsor a child" program.  But, as this kind of program can be very costly to run and often singles out only one or two individuals in a community, while the rest of the kids go hungry, many NGO’s are moving away from programs like this.  Emanuel proposed that the people of Portugal pool their funds together and use the one fund to revitalize the school.  It was agreed.  The Canadian embassy in São Tomé was the next to sign on.  They built a library room and kitchen.  ADRA Canada joined in and bought much needed books for the library.  Dilapidated classrooms have been rehabilitated.  Furniture has been bought, paint has been applied, teachers hired, and a school lunch program established.  Working together with all of the partners, the little school in Vila José has been transformed!

It was a real pleasure for me to visit this school.  In honor of my visit, they had all worn tee-shirts, reserved for special occasions.  The message on the shirts proudly declared that they were “ADRA Kids!”  It was easy to see that they loved their “new” school.  They read for me, sang for me and danced for me.  No longer was their school holding the record for having the lowest passing rate in the country.  It was now one of the highest!

What a difference a small investment can make.

As we drove back to the capital I looked out the window at the many little villages that we passed.  What were their schools like?  How many more children are there out there scampering through the jungle, that could benefit by becoming “ADRA kids”? 

 

How wonderful it would be if every school across our nation could partner with a school like the one in Vila José, and bring the same new vitality to schools throughout the impoverished world!  If you think that the students of your school would be interested in a project like this, please be in touch with ADRA.

Some of us may wish that we would have put a whole lot of money in Google stock when they first went public last year, or taken a ride on the Apple wave over the last 16 months.   But, the hot investment tip that I have discovered, and would like to share with you, actually pays much better dividends then either Google or Apple.  In my work as a photographer and video producer for ADRA, I have seen it work many times over the last 16 years.  Make a small investment in people and watch it change their lives!  Watch them become self reliant, confident, and productive. Watch them break free from a life of hopelessness, apathy and despondency. 

One of the reasons why people are trapped in extreme poverty is because they simply have not had the opportunities, education, or training that they need to break free.  Trapped in a deep pit of poverty, they need a little boost to get them to the first step on the stairway of self-reliance.  Once on that first step, it is amazing to see how fast people are able to ascend!    

ADRA is all about giving people this first boost out of the pit.  Some call it “empowerment”, some call it “capacity building”, but it simply means making a small investment in people—investments of time, information, skills, tools, expertise, and capitol. It involves finding people where they are, assessing their situation, evaluating their capabilities, discussing viable solutions, planning a strategy,  and working together with people and communities to bring about changes through creating opportunities and strengthening personal abilities. 

The ADRA team here in São Tomé (for those wondering what to do with the accents, São Tomé is pronounced like this:  São rhymes with “now” and Tomé  is like “toe” and “may”) is doing all it can to build capacity and make investments in people.  Often the first step is to find communities and villages where people are hungry for change, where people are looking up at that “stairway”, wishing that they could be on it. 

Visiting villages, talking with village leaders,  doing surveys with the women of that community, ADRA was able to identify about 50 communities where they could make some good investments.  The program from ADRA Canada was primarily designed to strengthen agricultural abilities.  If you can teach small farmers how they can double or triple the yields from their small plots of land, if you can introduce fruit trees or other income generating crops that can grow along with or even compliment the vegetable gardens, you can easily get people on to that first step of the “stairway”.

Women’s associations are established in each community.  These Community Based Organizations or “CBOs”, create an environment of co-operation, encouragement and strength.  It also gives ADRA a forum to easily and efficiently teach other things important to escaping poverty.  Health education, HIV/AIDS awareness, sanitation issues, malaria prevention, women’s rights, and income generating opportunities can all be easily integrated into the instruction.

Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting the community of Salidade, a small village of about fifty families, clinging to life on the steep mountain slopes of an ancient volcano.  In Portuguese, Salidade has a meaning of sadness and nostalgic melancholy.  While this may have one been an appropriate name for the village in years past, I saw a lot of smiles and a keen sense of hope and confidence in the future during my visit.  We met in a small community center that ADRA had built for the women’s association.  Most of the time it is used as a kindergarten for the very young of the village, but when the ADRA team stops by it is quickly transformed into a center for adult education. Today the people were learning agricultural techniques from an ADRA  technician using a manual that had been prepared by the ADRA office.  For an hour they sat, drinking in the information before it was opened up for question and answer.  Then to close up the session, new tools were distributed to the group, and we were off for more instruction out in the fields.  

After saying our farewells,  we made our way back to town, but not before stopping at a coffee plantation where ADRA had established two other women’s associations with the plantation workers.  As I filmed the income generating program that ADRA had helped establish in these communities, the women broke out in spontaneous dancing and singing as a way to show their appreciation for all that ADRA had done for their communities. 

Once again it was evident that a small investment had paid huge dividends in the lives of people, not only in the security of the people who had been helped but in the hearts of those who had made the investment.  Here in São Tomé  many families in fifty communities have been boosted out of the pit and are on those first few steps of freedom!   

 

Moving horizontally across Africa is apparently difficult and expensive!  As a result, in planning this trip to Africa with my travel agent, we found that it was much cheaper to go back to Europe before traveling on to my next destination.   So, instead of a short hop across the continent, my plane out of Tanzania headed north and took me back to Amsterdam, then on to Lisbon, Portugal, where I caught the once-a-week flight into the Island nation Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe.  These two islands, volcanic in origin,  lie almost directly on the equator,  about 300 kilometers off the west cost of Africa.  I had been told that they make up the smallest country in Africa, but a guide book that I have before me states that it is the second largest country, with “The Seychelles”, holding the distinction of being the smallest. 

The population of approximately 180,000 people, share a nation that is about 1000 square kilometers in size.  Wherever you go, you are almost always close to the sea.  People make a living primarily from the ocean and from agriculture in the rich volcanic soils.  Throughout its history, São Tomé has been known for its production of cocoa beans, from which chocolate is made.  Today, cocoa still stands at about 60% of total exports.

Originally a colony of Portugal, the islands gained their independence in 1975.  For the first 15 years it experimented with a form of one-party communism, but gave that up for a new constitution and a multi-party democratic government in 1990.  While still discovering its identity and place in the world, the nation is looking toward new hope in the industries of tourism and oil production.

“So, what”, you may ask, “is ADRA doing working in a beautiful, tropical island paradise, that has been called, ‘the pearl of the equator’, where the primary product is chocolate?  It seems like this would be the last place that would need ADRA’s help”! 

Unfortunately, tropical beauty and chocolate trees do not necessarily translate into health, wealth and prosperity! Partly because the world price for cocoa beans has dropped, almost to the cost of production, the average annual income in São Tomé and Príncipe is 360 dollars!  (Who sets the prices for the commodities grown by poor people?  I sometimes wonder what would happen if we were to pluck these people from their plush offices and make them work on a cocoa, coffee or tea plantation for five years making a dollar a day.  What would they set the prices at when we let them back?)   Of course when the average wage of a country is one dollar a day, you know that most of the population make much less then that, which puts them in the category of “extreme poverty”.  These are the people that ADRA helps. 

Over the next week I hope to see much of the island and witness for myself exactly what ADRA is doing to help these people break free from their prison of poverty.   “Stay tuned”.