Odede's Women

Tuesday was our Women's Group............presentation of 130 Bags of Maize Seeds and 130 Bags of Bean Seeds donated to the women from B1G1 (Buy 1 Give 1).This organisation gave funds to "Feed A Family" so I decided rather give each family money, I bought seeds for them to plant.......but they were not given freely, each family once they have their first harvest must return 2kg of Maize Flour and 2kg of Beans to the Child Rescue Centre..............Tuesday was an interesting day as issues had been raised throughout the women. The previous week we distributed seeds to 20 familes. This was all I thought I had so I suggested to the Executive Members to choose the most needy. This ofcourse was done and distributed accordingly...............however over the next week there were many many stories throughout the village about favouritism etc with the distribution of the seeds so this week we all decided to allow the women to choose who gets the 130 seeds..............so this was announced to the women that they got to choose who received them, they were told to go outside and form groups and each group to decide................well as you could imagine, it was mahem....... none of them were prepared to stand back and allow anyone else to recieve them...........so I spoke to the Secretary who told me there were only 120 women present..........yes your'e right, none had to choose and everyone received seeds..................but it didn't stop there. We went inside and I proceeded to express my concern about the gossip, told them a "TALL POPPY SYNDROME' story and talked about THEIR selection of the Executive Committee.............how their judgement must be trusted etc......anyway a very good lesson was learnt by all as they discovered when given the opportunity to make a decision collectively, it was impossible as one of the comments from a woman was that they need someone to tell them what to do...........

Unfortunately I had to show a side of me that they said they didn't like to see. .....a beautiful old mumma stood up and said that she was very concerned that I was so upset and wanted me to go back to the way I was and have always been...............I confronted them  with what is so distructive in the village and that is jealousy.......hence the Tall Poppy story............it is such a dangerous thing so I was honest and open with them and explained just what it can do and already has been doing to their community....................I took a big risk as Africans don't confront issues, they just pretend it isn't there...........but at the end of the day women came and hugged me and thanked me so I breathed a sigh of relief.

Seed collection for 120 women/familes

What I have said before and will say again that the peole of Odede are not only isolated but insulated from the world, their world...............I truly believe that we can make a difference to these people's lives by exposing them to new ideas, empowering them by showing them that they have  choices, encouraging them with their choices, walking alongside of them and NEVER GIVING THEM A HAND OUT........

This is half of the group. We meet and sit on a dirty dusty floor of the Child Rescue Centre and they never complain.........

As each day I live here I am humbled by these wonderful people........sometimes that saying "Ignorance is Bliss " crosses my mind and I think why not just leave these people to live the lives they have..............but I only have to see someone scooping water from a mud hole by the roadside after it has rained, knowing it is for drinking, wondering how on earth am I going to get a HIV victim to hospital considering he can't support his own weight to sit up and there is no vehicle and I decide to keep going and don't give up on these people...............together we will achieve what ever it takes to improve the lives of these people.

So all I can say is "What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope"

Cheers, Marilyn