Development is trying to find better ways for people to relate to each other and the environment we share, and then figuring out strategies for how we get there. Complex and challenging – I love it. I work at many different scales that this year have included:- a mental health system of Western Afghanistan, response to climate change at global and local scales, a district level integrated development programme in Cambodia, Community mental health in India…but where is God in it all?
A couple of weeks ago I had my answer. A team I work with was trying to help village women save money, run a shared bank account and use the money for their family needs. It’s going well except they are all illiterate and the banking is really hard. At one meeting one of the women was distracted looking after her severely disabled girl, but it turned out tiny Manisha with her shrivelled legs reads and writes well (her amazing parents committed to getting her to school all these years). We suggested she be their secretary – the women agreed and Manisha beamed.
Now Manisha does their banking, and is already asking us to take her to the government to advocate for disability services. We (the NGO) are paying her a stipend. Fantastic. A girl and her family feel valued, they get a little income, the group gets a secretary, the community (hopefully) learns to see people as differently abled not disabled…I reckon I saw God smiling in this story, learned to see God is in all the levels of my work, as concerned with the close and personal, in little stories of change and hope like this as the global level stuff. Kinda a revelation for me about what the lost sheep story means.
Jeph