"Achieving
dreams is never simple, one needs to give up other things to make a dream comes
true"
"追夢永遠不是一件輕而易舉的事情，人們常常需要放棄一些東西才能夠夢想成真"
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Peter was my couchsurfing host in Moshi,
Tanzania. He was very new in Couchsurfing and had only 1 reference on his
profile. He mentioned that he is running a NGO which works with the village
children. In Tanzania, there are a lot of NGOs bringing in foreign volunteers
to help in different projects but at the same time charging a questionable high
cost. However, the only reference on Peter’s profile described it was a very
meaningful experience to work at the NGO and so I decided to stay with him and find
out more about the project.
Dream,
should not only be in the Mind
When Peter was a child, he had so many
dreams. He wanted to be a priest, a doctor, a teacher, etc. When he was in secondary
school, he made up his mind he wanted to be a priest so that he could go around
and preach with people. However, an incident he encountered during his high
school period changed his dream again.
During a long holiday in his high school
period, Peter had a chance to do volunteer work with the Student Association. They
got donations from parents and use them to buy gifts to the children in need. They
went to the poor villages a few times and met some very poor children and
distributed the gifts. Peter was surprised how worse the poverty situation the
children were living in. When he went back to his village, he realized similar
problem also existed in his village. There was no NGO in his village doing any
intervention to the community either. From that time on, Peter decided to work
in his own community in the future and help the children in need.
The
Beginning is always the Hardest Part
It would not be a simple thing to do,
for sure. Peter knew he needed to gain knowledge in the University first, and
to register the project. He got very good grades in high school and was
selected by the government to go to a good University in Dar, the capital of
Tanzania, to study Political Science. However, Peter knew it wasn’t his
ambition and he wanted to study something that would take him to achieve his
dream in the future. He told his mom and brother his thought and got their
understanding and support.
Peter applied a 3 year degree program
“Community Economic Development” in Moshi University at the end. He learnt
about research, management, writing proposals, etc. While he was still doing
his degree, he decided to start his project. He wrote the constitution and
registered his project in district level. He started to look for an office and was
accepted by a private school to temporary use their extra classroom to locate
an office and to conduct programs.
Achieving dreams is never simple, one
needs to give up other things to make a dream comes true. All his schoolmates
looked for employment after graduation. He, however, decided to take risk and
spend 2 years to build the foundation of the NGO, as a volunteer. His friends
got employed and received income to take care of their families. He decided he
won’t do so until he achieved his dream of helping the children in his village.
He named his NGO Kilimanjaro Children Empowering Foundation (KICEF), aiming to
help the children and community in need.
At first Peter asked his friends to help
in his NGO but they were not so supportive as they also had to earn an income
before promising anything. He then approached some teachers, some aunties and
even his mom who already have their own income source so that they can volunteer
and give support to the project. Finally there are 7 founding members and 5 board
members in the whole team.
Path,
was created by People
The first project Peter started with was
called “Childpreneurship”, a word combined from “Children” and “Entrepreneurship”.
He wanted to look for children in need but were at least 8 years old, and got
recommendation by the primary school teachers and village leaders for over 100
children. However, Peter decided to start with little and slowly according to
his time and resources. He chose 10 children who lived very near to his home as
he can only visit them by foot or bike.
The project aimed to help the children
to run income projects at home for extra food and school supplies. They teach
them how to grow vegetables, keep chicken and sell eggs. He suggests they use
one hour everyday after school, not more than that because they should maintain
their regular attendance in school while working for the project. They also
teach the children how to use water effectively, how to save money, do
marketing with neighbors and to invite neighbors to come and buy their
vegetables and eggs.
This year January Peter started his second
project “Quality Life for Children”, aiming to take in children who are
seriously in need of support, like homeless orphans who have no parents and get
no support from relatives, to reside in their children centre and to receive
education. Now he has taken in 2 children but is only borrowing the hostel from
the school. He needs to find a fix location for hostel, and to get more resources
like food, clothes, schools and medical items.
He hosted the first gathering for the
children and their families from both projects last Saturday, and to
congratulate those who just graduated from Primary School this year to show
that even orphans can succeed in school if they work hard.
Dream,
is supported by Bread
The 2 years will be up at the end of
this year after Peter’s graduation from University. All the while he was only
doing small jobs to support his own expenses, like teaching part time, doing
gardening at home and selling vegetables. Since last month he has started to
send out job applications regarding community jobs. Of course if he has capital
he would prefer to run a business so that he will have the freedom to continue
supervising his projects. However, it is easier to find an employment than to
do a business.
In the
middle of Difficulty, lies Opportunity
KICEF is now 2 years old, but still there
are a lot of things to be done to become sustainable in the long run. First it
needs a permanent address to locate the office and hostel for the Children Centre.
Peter just got a land from the village government and he will now need to write
a proposal to get donations and sponsorship of resources to build the buildings.
He will also need to get more people to work in the team. There is still a long
way to go till everything becomes true.
One idea Peter has is to sell solar run
radios in his NGO to the villagers. He has a radio ran by solar energy at home,
a gift his mother received by the school she worked at. Peter never saw where
they are sold on the street. However, it was made in China and may be I could
help to find out where they are sold in China. Many people from his village
have no power access at home and no access to news as a result. Batteries run
radios need to buy disposable batteries which are expensive and cause pollution
as well. If KICEF could get a sponsorship of the solar run radios, he could
sell them to the villagers. The villagers can get access to the news and
information and get empowered, at the same time, he can get an income to
sustain his NGO projects. It is a win win situation.
Another difficulty KICEF faces is
failing to get volunteers and visitors due to the long distance from Moshi town.
His village Kahe is 22km away from town and needs at least 1 hour minibus ride.
There is a well-known agent in Moshi which connects foreign volunteers and
local NGOs. He tried asking for help before but the agent refused to put his
NGO on their list because the village is too far away and the transportation
fee of volunteers would be very expensive. Now Peter hopes Couchsurfing can
bring in individual volunteers to help in his projects instead. However, Peter
believes one good thing of getting individual volunteers instead is the
volunteers do not need to pay the high cost the agent is charging and could use
the money directly to buy resources for the community. His first couchsurfing
guests were 3 girls from Germany and they helped to purchase materials like
mattress, food, clothes, shoes, books to the children in need.
Think
about the Source when Drinking Water
Peter shared his favorite moral with me.
When a village always suffered with hunger, the villagers still gave out
everything they had to a youngster to go far to look for more food for the
village. If the youngster stayed in town by himself and didn’t go back to the village,
it is called betrayal. It is a metaphor for the opportunity of receiving
education. After finishing education, someone should go back to the community
he grew up and use his knowledge there, not to stay in town and let the
community suffers.
Peter gave me a pair of earrings as the
present for exchange. He found this pair of earrings lying around in his files.
He asked around but couldn’t find the owner. Peter believe the earrings are a
good memory to remind oneself to pursue dreams as they don’t expire and can be kept
very long. If the next interviewee is a girl, she can just keep them and wear them
directly. If he is a guy, he can give them to his girlfriend or wife to
strengthen the relationship when achieving the dream together.
Peter是我在坦桑尼亞Moshi鎮的沙發主人，不久前他才剛在借宿網站注冊，因此簡介內只有一位友人留言，他又提及自己正在營運一間非營利機構，為村落兒童服務。在坦桑尼亞，到處都有人開辦非營利機構安排外國義工到坦桑尼亞做義工服務，卻同時收取一筆高昂的行政費用。不過，Peter
簡介內的唯一留言卻提到那是一次難能可貴的經歷，於是我也決定要了解一下他的機構。
夢 不應只是想
跟很多小孩子一樣，Peter小時候已經有很多夢想，他想過當牧師、醫生、老師。當他唸中學時，發覺自己當牧師的興趣最大，又可以到處去傳道，但高中時候的一次經歷卻再次改變他的想法。
唸高中的時候，Peter有機會跟學生組織做義工服務，他們用家長的捐款來買禮物送給窮困村落有需要的小孩子。Peter對於農村貧困的情況感到很驚訝，當回到自己成長的村落後，卻發覺那裏原來也有類似的情況，同樣沒有任何社褔機構做介入工作，那個時候開始，Peter下定決心將來要在自己的社區工作，幫助有需要的小孩子。
萬事起頭難
Peter清楚知道，這個夢想並不是一件簡單的事情，他首先要上大學學習所需的知識，然後注冊他想營運的項目。由於高中成績優秀，Peter被政府挑選到首都唸大學主修政治科學，不過心裏卻知道那不是他要走的方向，他希望能修讀一些能幫助實踐理想的科目。跟媽媽和哥哥分享了自己的想法後，同樣得到他們的明白和支持。
最後，Peter在Moshi大學主修一個「社區經濟發展」的三年本科課程，學習做硏究、管理、寫計劃書。還在唸大學的時候，Peter決定正式開始他的項目，他寫好約章後在區內注冊機構，又找到一家私校願意借出課室予他當臨時辦公室和舉辦活動之用。
追夢永遠不是一件輕而易舉的事情，人們常常需要放棄一些東西才能夠夢想成真。大學同學畢業後都積極找工作，Peter卻決定要花兩年時間以義工身分去建立和穩固他營運機構的基礎。友人都找到工作有收入照顧家庭，他卻決定要先幫助村內小孩子，最後機構訂名為Kilimanjaro
Children Empowering Foundation (KICEF)，以幫助社區內有需要的小孩子為目標。
起初Peter叫身邊友人幫忙支持他的機構但他們卻沒有很熱心，因為很多人其實也需要先賺取收入才能答應幫忙其他事情。於是他嘗試接觸一些老師、阿姨，甚至他的媽媽，他們都有正職有收入可以以義工身分幫忙支援他的機構。最後Peter成功找到七名創辦成員和五名董事成員。
路 是人行出來的
機構第一個發展的項目叫 Childpreneurship，是「小孩」和「企業」兩個英文字合併而成的。Peter希望接觸八歲以上有需要的小孩子，於是叫小學老師和村內領袖幫忙推薦，最終收到過百名學生的資料。不過，Peter決定貴精不貴多，根據自己的時間和資源，他挑選了十名住在他家附近的小孩，因為他只可以以走路或騎自行車的方式去探訪他們。
這個項目是希望幫助小孩子在家中營運有收入的項目，以便可以購置額外的食物和文具。他們教小孩子怎樣種菜、養雞和賣雞蛋，又建議小孩每天放學後只用一個小時去管理這些項目，因為學生最終還是應該以上學讀書為上。他們也教小孩子怎樣珍惜水源、怎樣省錢，和怎樣邀請鄰居到自己家中買菜和雞蛋等。
今年一月Peter開始了第二個項目「小孩子的優質生活」，旨在收容嚴重需要支援，像沒有父母和沒有親屬照顧的小孩子到兒童中心住宿和接受教育。現在中心收容了兩位小孩，但由於暫時機構只是借用私校的宿舍，Peter需要尋找一個固定地點成立中心，以及獲取食物、衣服、文具和醫療用品等資源贊助。
上週六機構舉辦了一個大食會讓兩個項目的小孩和親友參與，也為數個剛小學畢業的小孩慶祝，證明就算是家境清貧的孤兒只要努力也可以在學業上獲取成功的。
追夢 還是需要麵包
今年底Peter已經大學畢業兩個年頭，意味他給自己的限期即將屆滿。兩年來Peter都是做兼職為生而已，像做助教、在家種菜和賣菜。上月起他開始發出有關社區工作的求職信，Peter笑說，若果有資金的話他當然希望能夠做生意，然後可以繼續自由自在地督導他的項目，不過，找工作永遠都是比做生意容易的。
是危 還是機
KICEF今年成立兩週年，但要持續發展的話仍然有很多進步空間。首先機構需要一個自己的辦公室和宿舍，村政府給了他們一塊土地，現在Peter需要寫計劃書找捐款和資源贊助興建大樓，另外他需要更多熱心人士加入他的團隊，KICEF前面還有很漫長的路要走。
Peter跟我分享了他的一個想法，是在機構銷售太陽能收音機給村民。他家中有一台太陽能收音機，是他媽媽在工作的學校收到的禮物，但他卻從來沒有在街上看過這類收音機銷售。由於那是中國製造的收音機，Peter想也許我可以幫忙找到它的廠商。很多村民家中沒有電力供應於是也無法接觸新聞資訊，電池運作的收音機需要購買費用高昂的電池，之後也會造成污染問題。若果機構可以找到廠商贊助太陽能收音機，可以賣給村民增加他們獲取新聞資訊的機會，同時也可以增加機構的收入營運項目，將會是一件雙贏的事情。
機構另一個困境是缺乏義工和訪客，由於距離市區太遠，離最近的小鎮也有22公里，需要足足一個小時的小巴車程才能抵達。在Moshi市區有一間著名的義工中介公司連繫外國義工到本地社福機構，Peter嘗試跟他們合作卻遭到拒絕，原因是他的機構太偏僻，若果安排義工到訪的話交通費用會非常高昂。現在他希望透過借宿網站接觸個別有興趣的義工到機構參觀或幫忙，其實，個別義工不需要經中介公司介紹還可以省卻一筆高昂的行政費用，義工更可以把金錢直接花在有需要的村民身上以購買各種資源和用品。Peter第一批借宿客人是三位來自德國的女生，她們抵埗後看見村民的需要便主動幫忙購置床舖用品、食物、衣服、鞋子、書本給有需要的家庭和小孩。
飲水 要思源
Peter跟我分享他的座右銘，當一條村莊時常鬧饑荒，村民仍然願意奉獻僅有的食糧讓年青人上路到其他地方幫忙找尋糧食回村落。若果年青人到達市區後卻不再返回農村，那就是忘本。這好比接受教育的機會，當完成高等教育後，人們應該回到自己成長的社區服務，用自己的知識幫助社區進步，不是獨自留在市區讓鄉村村民繼續活在困難之中。
Peter送給我一對耳環作交換禮物，他是在自己的文件堆中發現這對無人認領的耳環的。耳環不會到期，可以保存很久，很適合作為提醒自己去追夢的紀念品。若果下一位受訪者是女生，她可以自己佩帶；若果是男生，他應該把耳環送給女朋友或太太，然後一起追夢，更有助鞏固大家的關係。
