https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=Z7ss_ewPjAg
So when we arrived in Congo, we were asked to work with artisans to help them mostly to export. As we got to know the artisans, we realized that a lot of the poverty that they were facing, although it had been caused in the past by a lot of political instability, war and all these things, it had become a way of thinking, like a prison for their mind, where it became very difficult for them to see other possibilities outside of what they’ve known and outside of what they’ve lived. And so we saw that the first step to helping them move forward in their lives wasn’t to teach them skills, teach them business skills or teach them how to do accounting or design or all those things, but was really to help them break those bonds that were in their thinking. And so to do that, we created a program that became what’s called LEAP, Life Evaluation and Adjustment Program. LEAP generally focuses largely on producer groups and producer individuals. So you’ll find artisans who have their own businesses or who carve or work for others, or fair trade groups, for example, like Mombolulu, that are working with workshops and with people who have been marginalized. LEAP training came at such an opportune time when we actually needed training that was going to cause a paradigm shift in the minds of the workers and in the minds of the managers. When we did the evaluation at the end of the year, we saw what it did. The workers have also improved. They are thinking of what else can I do outside Mombolulu. In Maasai culture, the Maasai women are not allowed to own things. They don’t own land, they don’t own cattle. And so we were sitting with a group of ladies, Namayana, who is like an association of women, and we’re sitting in their office and doing the training with them. And as Mike was trying to explore their world, they said, no, no, no, we can’t own things, you know, and they felt so limited in that. So Mike just, you know, calmly asked them, he said, well, where are we right now? And they said, well, this is Namayana’s office, this is Namayana’s land. They said, well, who is Namayana? And then you saw this spark in their eyes when they realized we are Namayana and this is our land. And from that, it created a change in their thinking. All of a sudden, all these possibilities opened in front of them. And then Namayana began to look as a group at how they can now buy land together, buy cattle together, so that despite the political difficulties they have, they’ll be able to own land and own cattle. So it’s one small example of how LEAP can change the way people think and give them a new vision for what is possible for them. It was like a wake-up. You know, there are so many things that we know, but we also need to be reminded sometimes. And when we went to the training, it was a three-day training, and we learned a lot of things. The key to the success of LEAP is to find someone, to find a trainer that has that spark. In Kenya, we met with Mike Muchilwa, who himself is an artisan. He’s worked with paper. He’s worked with furniture. He’s done several things. He’s also very, very intelligent, and his intelligence is grounded. So he’s able to interact with the poorest of the poor, with people who are illiterate, with people who have had no education. In Africa, with so much pressure, so much financial pressure, so much stress, and with the collapse of the extended family system, and with diseases like AIDS coming in, a lot of people have forgotten the ways when they really used to enjoy what this continent was like, and are drifting through life. And once in a while, when you have a program like LEAP that gets them to stop and begin to dream, reflect, yeah, and begin to break some of the limitations and challenge some of the ideas they have about themselves, then they begin to grow again. When I came here to LEAP… He’s very visible in the community, but he was an alcoholic. Every day you would see him completely drunk. And it was sad because he had this source of revenue, but he was never able to make, to turn that revenue into a different life for himself and for his family. Through the LEAP trainings, he decided to stop drinking, and he really did. I barely believed it. And people around barely believed it. They said, no, no, no, it’s not true. But then we saw this change, talking to someone, seeing that clarity of thought, and now managing his mind more responsibly, and seeing that he has vision for the future, and vision for his children, vision for his family. I mean, it’s something that is so exciting. It’s difficult to describe. LEAP, technically, is about getting people to fulfill their dreams, because we live in a continent, Africa, that is so dynamic and has so many resources. There’s so much poverty around, and you see so many opportunities pass people by. LEAP is actually getting people to discover themselves again, to learn to dream, get the dreams that they had forgotten when they were young, when they were 8, 10 years old, and believe that they can be whatever they want to be. In poverty, often people see themselves as being passive, as being completely subject to their environment. And if you can just help someone to see that, no, they are active participants in their lives, and they are active agents in their environment, that they have the power to change things around them, then you have the beginning of something. And slowly now they start to see the potential for what they can do to make their lives better. LEAP