Back to Zim...

I'm heading back to Zimbabwe to visit our partners in Zimbabwe and South Africa (14 April). I'm particularly excited to be accompanied by Adam Delp from The 1010 Project and Greg Althoff from blkmnt studio. All of us share an office here in Denver, CO and are exploring professional collaborations, hence, this trip! I'm confident that the collaboration between our three organizations will bring greater empowerment to our Zimbabwean friends, which of course is the motivation for everything we do at the Elias Fund.

Check out the first video blog here and keep checking back for more updates. I pray hope and opportunity are abundant...

Update from Kadoma

Our partners in Kadoma, Zimbabwe sent this update today. It’s quite telling to the reality of the situation on the ground:

Zim is slowly and painfully trying to be a normal place again. Chldren are attending school in a multi-currency environment. Our dollar cannot trade anymore because its virtually bond paper now and none are willing to accept it. Yet, prices of goods are starting to go down. People in some companies, especially those offering essential services, have yet to adjust their thinking and pricing system so that they are in tandem to the actual costs which are competitive regionally. We are still hopeful that we will pull through as a nation. -Kennedy and Sylvester (Youth Education Training)

Rarely has good news come from Zimbabwe these past couple of years, but the recent unity government (GNU) is starting to show signs that good news is on the rise. The GNU has begun stabilizing Zimbabwe’s economic train wreck through wholesale dollarization. This means that the Zim dollar is no longer in circulation. The Zim economy is now based on US currency. As Kennedy and Sylvester mentioned above, prices are starting to go down. This is due to the currency switch, which will hopefully decrease Zim’s hyper-inflation. Goods are starting to populate store shelves again. Bakeries are beginning to sell bread again. Common services are beginning to operate again. This is good news!

Yet for as much hope as we can take in this good news, the situation still remains disturbingly fragile. Too much infrastructure has been damaged, too many businesses have gone under, too much trust has been lost for Zimbabwe’s economy to turn around in a timely fashion. It will be a long, hard struggle back to normalcy.

But of course, this is why the Elias Fund continues its work. A development organization remains partnered with its friends before, during and after crisis situations. Along with our friends Kennedy an Sylvester of YET, we are still hopeful Zim will pull through as a nation!

Poverty and Bonos

Bono, Bradjolina and dozens of other celebrities have turned worldwide poverty into pop culture's theatre-house. Decked out in diamond-studded Rolexes and overpriced Pradas, these superstars portray issues of infant mortality, HIV/AIDS and all other facets of adverse poverty as if Shakespeare himself penned their monologues.

Is this vanity, or productive publicity for issues of utmost importance? Is current culture being adequately empowered to properly address issues of poverty, or just being mindlessly led towards ignorance?

I tend to believe any publicity is good publicity. The Bonos of our culture have brought world poverty to the forefront of public discussion. 'Malnutrition', 'HIV/AIDS', 'Darfur', most anyone will have some sort of recollection of these labels. Knowledge is the foundation for action.

Yet, I fear we are too comfortable and self-focused to fully grasp to gravity of the situation. We don't understand the level of our affluence. So when Bono tells us about Africa's poverty we might feel sad, donate a couple bucks, maybe even volunteer at a fundraiser, but at the end of the day we are utterly removed from the suffering of those world's poor.

Something is missing from our approach to poverty. I believe it's relationships. We have no relational context for our understanding of poverty. Thus, with no personal connection to impoverished communities we never fully empathize or fully act to end the suffering. Of course not everyone can go to these impoverished communities.

Bring Africa to America. Let the Bradjolinas and One.orgs lead us to the personality of poverty. Connect us to the faces, the sounds, the friendships. People to people, regardless of economic standing or celebrity status.