Hello {{first_name}},
A great joy in my life is when CPM alums share with me the things they are doing that, in some small way, make this world a little more kind. A little more generous. A little more joyous and humane.
Philippe Scheiman, a CPM alum based in Israel, works for an organization called TOP (Technology of Peace). One of their partner organizations in Kenya is KWEN which does yeoman work in helping women generate income and become more self-confident.
Elisabeth Sperling, who was my teaching assistant in many CPM classes, is on the Advisory board of TOP and I will let her tell her story.
“I was on TOP’s advisory board and asked how I could help, so Philippe answered that KWEN needs a video. So that’s how I came to make this piece.
I approached my friend John Sears to do the camera and editing work in exchange for an adventure in Kenya, and to my delight, he said yes. So, we went together in August to do the filming. I organized and funded it, conducted the interviews, helped set up the shots, helped direct the edit, etc. so my role is producer / co-director.
Regarding the woman who spoke about violence in the area—yes, that was the Shunem group, of which the KWEN organizers are particularly proud. The whole group of women had been mired in a life of extreme poverty and debasement. They were living by a river, drunk all the time, with men who were drunk all the time, not able to dress themselves properly or take care of basic needs.
The one who told that story is called Caroline—she also had been living in extreme poverty previously, in town, but found God (via Christianity), started going to Church, and was able to lift her family to a better standard of living. Then she reached out to the group of women who were brewers and invited them into the Church. So that was really their first step, which we don’t mention in the video. I think it helped them stop drinking but they needed additional help into a new way of life—and that is where table-banking came in.
Caroline introduced them to table banking and to KWEN, and their lives completely turned around. They started small businesses, were able to send their kids to school. Anyone who tells us the story also mentions how they look totally different now—clean, well dressed, healthy.
The woman making the porridge, who tells about needing to escape the police, has a beautiful spot on a hill with a big view, a house with her son’s house right behind—to me, it seemed idyllic. I’m sure there are still a lot of hardships in her life, but I felt like her spot, with her family and community around her, was enviable. It reminds me of how you always mention that people don’t need money to be happy.
They have SO little money. The woman with the grass roof, Vivian, works for two dollars a day, pulling weeds. Just a twenty-dollar loan is enough to tip the balance for these women into a whole new trajectory.
(Another aspect that the film doesn’t mention is that she was a victim of Female Genital Mutilation and was married off at age 12. The father of her six children seems to be not present or contributing at all.)”
Watch the 8-minute video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlnqA8rhrtg
See the genuine joy in Caroline’s face!
By the standards of most people who will read this blog, the women live hard-scrabble lives.
Yet, I wonder, how many of us experience such cheer in our lives?
Something to ponder!
Peace!
