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From Riots to Empowerment in Africa: Appreciative Planning and Action in a Liberian Refugee Camp
From Riots to Empowerment in Africa: Appreciative Planning and Action in a Liberian Refugee Camp
Those who have heard about how Appreciative Planning and Action played a powerful role in empowerment and income generation among poor women in Nepal will be interested in a recent story from Guinea, West Africa. My wife, Marcia, is taking WORTH, the new incarnation of the Nepal program, to half a dozen African countries. She shared the following story about the AI/APA-based training-of-trainer program she and her colleague, Erica Tubbs, from Pact ran for Liberian refugee women, under sponsorship of the American Refugee Committee. At its core, this is a story about stories - about the power of tapping the positive experiences within each of us to empower ourselves and others for positive change. These lessons from Africa now are returning to [lit, US where We are putting them to work to bring about similar results with US businesses and organizations.
Setting the Scene
Marcia and Erica arrived in the ARC refugee camp to find a huge handout of blankets in process -- thousands of people were milling around an enormous shelter and Marcia and Erica were invited in to see how the distribution was organized. Suddenly and inexplicably the\- found themselves in the middle of a riot and had to flee. It turns out that a clever member of the crowd, seeing them come in, took the opportunity of their arrival to spread a rumor, "The white women just told us that every single person gets a blanket, not the one blanket for every four people that we're being given." Of course, neither Marcia nor Erica had said a single word... but, nevertheless, pandemonium ensued.
The next day, with some trepidation, they started their training using the WORTH model. This model is built around the principle that 'Dependency is not empowering.' This is the antithesis of the basic 'dependency/ handout' framework of virtually all refugee programs anywhere in the world. In WORTH here are no handouts, no free materials, no subsidized interest - and certainly no blankets! WORTH starts with women telling their own stories of times when they felt joyful, successful, empowered in their lives, translating these shared stories into a positive dream of the future for their children and grandchildren, and putting these into action through collective action and personal commitments.
Putting APA to Work in the Refugee Camp
By the workshop's fourth day, the participant/trainers were to go out and run a trial orientation program with target groups of women in the camps. They understood the WORTH/APA concept, but they really didn't think it would ever fly. "Women are used to getting something from us. We have always been giving them food, blankets, shelter.... Now we want them to share success stories, dream, and design their own self-help literacy saving, and micro-enterprise program without a thing from us? Not a thing? Impossible!"
But into the camps they went, anyway - heavy-hearted, skeptical to say the least. As Marcia said, watching them head into the camps, "They went stooped over, like lambs to the slaughter, visibly anxious and ready for trouble (and fresh from the riots a few days before about how many blankets people would get!) "This approach may never fly... Discovery and Dreams... '' The women may not want any part of it."
A few hours later Marcia heard the participants returning and waited for the other shoe to drop... Suddenly the room was full of laughing, smiling, joyous trainers. "It worked! It worked! The women loved it! They started sharing success stories and couldn't stop.. and we shared our stories about WORTH.... Then came the dreams... and, Oh! W ^ 'hat dreams! Women are stepping forward to be literacy volunteers.... They can't wait to start the program!" And apparently they never asked for a single thing.., except for the opportunity to be part of the program and to share it with others. Marcia then asked the 'A-Valuation' y question: "How could your introduction have been 'even better?" The answer: "The only thing that would have been better is if we had had a video camera to record the women dancing and singing in celebration at the end of our orientations.... We wish you could have seen them!"
What's next for APA?
Now businesses and organizations in the US, through APA-based training programs modeled on this and other African and Asian experience, are learning these lessons. Participants from around the world at Southern New Hampshire University's Community Economic Development Program, the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore School of Business and Economics/Executive MBA program, and the Salvation Army World Service office in Washington, DC, have recently been telling their own stories and drumming and dancing to celebrate success. The Salvation Army wants to take WORTH, using the APA framework, to 120 million women in 109 countries - while forward-looking corporations are contemplating how to put these methods to work to increase their productivity and competitiveness in the global economy. It doesn't get much better than this!
See accompanying article: "Moving Mountains: Appreciative Planning and Action mid Women's Empowerment in Nepal," AI Practitioner, August 2004.
