The Power of Community 2 (Thank you, Besease!)

Fourteen single mothers will begin learning the seamstress trade next week (written November, 2014). When Maxwell and I began visiting these women in March of 2013, we were eager, but we lacked vision. We couldn't tell the women exactly what we had to offer. Concretely, at the time, we had nothing. Not a name, not a mission statement, and certainly not money.

We let the program be shaped by what we heard from the women. Enliven Mama Africa was born of scheming and compiling what we'd heard, what we dreamed of, and what was feasible. That early stage was made possible by the ideas and insight of my dear friends Nans, Lydia, and Mavis. Those conversations compelled me to rethink my entire future.

Because Enliven Mama Africa was created mostly inside a large volunteer house in West Kumasi by a few Ghanaians and three teenage obrunis, I was sometimes afraid that it was too far removed from Besease to be real to the community's needs. We spent so much more time in the office than in the field that I was concerned it was becoming our personal idea.

This feeling was intensified by comments I heard back here in Colorado. Some of the comments were just rude ("Why would you go exert your privilege?" "What are you, an imperialist?"), but others made me think, such as: "How do you know that this is the right project for these women?" "How do you know it's what they really want?"

As Besease prepared to get the women involved in learning trades, community members stepped up and offered to make desks and chairs for the women. The community offered an empty building for the women to learn. Enliven Mama Africa is a project the community of Besease is excited about. This compounds my excitement, because I know there are people throughout rural Ghana interested in the cause of single mother employment.