Moving stories on issues
·
Showing a moving video or reading convincingly an excerpt from an emotional article to
a member of Congress is more important than just sharing information. The goal is to
tap into their humanity and create a deeply memorable moment. But people shy away
from being vulnerable, especially with those in positions of power. However, a
willingness to be vulnerable is essential to having breakthroughs, engaging others, building
powerful relationships, and, ultimately, success. What follows are some examples of such stories.
Story 1
The New York Times
October 29, 2006
Africa's World of Forced Labor, in a 6-Year-Old's Eyes
By SHARON LAFRANIERE
Just before 5 a.m., with the sky still dark over Lake Volta, Mark Kwadwo was rousted from his spot
on the damp dirt floor. It was time for work.
Shivering in the predawn chill, he helped paddle a canoe a mile out from shore. For five more hours, as
his coworkers yanked up a fishing net, inch by inch, Mark bailed water to keep the canoe from swamping.
He last ate the day before. His broken wooden paddle was so heavy he could barely lift it. But he raptly
followed each command from Kwadwo Takyi, the powerfully built 31-year-old in the back of the
canoe who freely deals out beatings.
''I don't like it here,'' he whispered, out of Mr. Takyi's earshot.
Mark Kwadwo is 6 years old. About 30 pounds, dressed in a pair of blue and red underpants and a Little
Mermaid T-shirt, he looks more like an oversized toddler than a boat hand. He is too little to understand
why he has wound up in this fishing village, a two-day trek from his home.
But the three older boys who work with him know why. Like Mark, they are indentured servants, leased
by their parents to Mr. Takyi for as little as $20 a year....[end quote]
**
That is as much as I am going to read. I am crystal clear -- crystal clear that microcredit targeted to the
very poor (those living below $1 a day) and well run, can allow families to take care of themselves and
their children. Eighteen years ago I asked Muhammad Yunus, ‘what’s the first thing a woman
does with the proceeds from her loan’ expecting him to say, ‘she puts her children in school, or feeds
her family better, or fixes the roof so it doesn’t rain in anymore.’ What the Nobel Peace Prize winner said
was, “Usually, the first thing she does, is bring her children home. She couldn’t afford to feed them so she
had sent them off, as young as 5 or 6 years old, to work for other families in exchange for barely a handful
of rice.” But with microcredit, she can bring them home.
**
Story 2
In March I was on the road starting and revisiting RESULTS Groups. I stayed with a friend one night in
Seattle and asked if I could borrow a copy of a book he had titled Race Against Time. It is a compilation
of five lectures by Steven Lewis who was Kofi Annan’s Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa. I remember
being on my flight to Los Angeles and reading sections of the book and just sobbing and then getting to the
place I was staying in LA and sobbing when reading it a second time and then reading it over the phone to
my wife the next morning and crying again. Sometimes when I read it fast enough it doesn’t affect me as much.
There are four sections I would read if we had the time but I’ll just summarize the first three and read the
fourth.
In the first section Lewis tells about little girls in Rwanda whose father has died and whose mother is so ill that
they can only go to school on the days they don’t have to care for her. Lewis then tells of grandmothers who have to
care for their grandchildren because their own children and their spouses have all succumbed to AIDS. And then he
gets to the final two stories which center around sibling headed households where there are no parents and no
grandparents or other relatives caring for the children.
Lewis says that in Swaziland it is expected that up to 15 percent of the population will be orphans by 2010.
At one policy meeting with government officials, the labor minister “suddenly jumps to his feet, impatient and
agitated. Forget about this policy stuff,” he said, his voice rising, “Don’t you understand we’re a nation of orphans?
That we have hundreds of child headed households in Swaziland, where the age of the child heading the household is eight?”
I have to tell you, my own daughter Sophie is eight and my son Micah is 11 so that statement and this next story
are not abstract for me. Here is the story I wanted to read to you.
In this fourth story Lewis tells how he and Graça Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, are taken to a sibling-headed
household in Uganda.
[Quote] “There were five children in all,”Lewis recounted, “three girls 14, 12, and 10 and two boys 11 and 8.
We entered the modest hut with our backs to the wall, Graçawith her arm around the three girls on her right and
I with my arm around the two boys on my left. Graça then told all the hangers on to leave—all the media, all the
UN staff—except for one community worker and one translator.”
“I had no idea what was coming,” Lewis continued.
“Graça turned to the two older girls, and in a most gentle, reassuring voice asked, ‘Have you started to menstruate yet?’
The two girls, clearly startled, replied in those shy, barely audible whispered voices so characteristic of African children,
‘Yes.’ Then Graça began to ask a series of questions. ‘Do you know what it means? Have you talked with anyone about it? Do
you talk to the villagers about it – your teachers, your fellow students? Does anyone bring you any pads?’
“The atmosphere was intense, the little girls, now fully embraced in Graça’s arms, seemed to have suspended breathing,
and I suddenly understood that I was witnessed to the first act of ‘mothering’ that these girls had ever received about one
of the most transfiguring experiences of a young girl’s life….”
“I’ve told this story a number of times because the experience had a profound impact on me,” Lewis continued. “At the
moment that Graça asked her questions, I thought to myself, ‘that’s what’s happening right across the continent. The
transfer of love and knowledge and values and experience from one generation to the next is gone, and with it goes the
confidence and security and sense of place which children normally take for granted. Children already traumatized
by the death of their parents are left reeling as they confront the void in the aftermath.
“As we were leaving I asked the oldest sister, ‘Who puts you to bed at night?’
‘I put everyone to bed she replied.’
“’But bedtime can be pretty scary,’ I offered. ‘The nights are dark. The dreams can be upsetting. Don’t any
of the neighbors come in to help?’
“‘No,’ she said matter-of-factly. ‘I put them to bed myself. I’m the mother.’” [end of quote]
***
As I said, I really don’t want our conversation this evening to be abstract when it
comes to what poverty is and ending poverty.
RESULTS has been one of the leading advocates on behalf of the Global Fund to Fights AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
The Global Fund has supported:
· 3.2 million orphans to be provided with medical services, education, and community
care
· 2 million people to receive HIV/AIDS antiretroviral treatment;
· 62 million HIV counseling and testing sessions;
It is important to get involved in efforts to assist individuals, but the policy work lobbying for things like the Global Fund are
critical.
Showing a moving video or reading convincingly an excerpt from an emotional article to
a member of Congress is more important than just sharing information. The goal is to
tap into their humanity and create a deeply memorable moment. But people shy away
from being vulnerable, especially with those in positions of power. However, a
willingness to be vulnerable is essential to having breakthroughs, engaging others, building
powerful relationships, and, ultimately, success. What follows are some examples of such stories.
Story 1
The New York Times
October 29, 2006
Africa's World of Forced Labor, in a 6-Year-Old's Eyes
By SHARON LAFRANIERE
Just before 5 a.m., with the sky still dark over Lake Volta, Mark Kwadwo was rousted from his spot
on the damp dirt floor. It was time for work.
Shivering in the predawn chill, he helped paddle a canoe a mile out from shore. For five more hours, as
his coworkers yanked up a fishing net, inch by inch, Mark bailed water to keep the canoe from swamping.
He last ate the day before. His broken wooden paddle was so heavy he could barely lift it. But he raptly
followed each command from Kwadwo Takyi, the powerfully built 31-year-old in the back of the
canoe who freely deals out beatings.
''I don't like it here,'' he whispered, out of Mr. Takyi's earshot.
Mark Kwadwo is 6 years old. About 30 pounds, dressed in a pair of blue and red underpants and a Little
Mermaid T-shirt, he looks more like an oversized toddler than a boat hand. He is too little to understand
why he has wound up in this fishing village, a two-day trek from his home.
But the three older boys who work with him know why. Like Mark, they are indentured servants, leased
by their parents to Mr. Takyi for as little as $20 a year....[end quote]
**
That is as much as I am going to read. I am crystal clear -- crystal clear that microcredit targeted to the
very poor (those living below $1 a day) and well run, can allow families to take care of themselves and
their children. Eighteen years ago I asked Muhammad Yunus, ‘what’s the first thing a woman
does with the proceeds from her loan’ expecting him to say, ‘she puts her children in school, or feeds
her family better, or fixes the roof so it doesn’t rain in anymore.’ What the Nobel Peace Prize winner said
was, “Usually, the first thing she does, is bring her children home. She couldn’t afford to feed them so she
had sent them off, as young as 5 or 6 years old, to work for other families in exchange for barely a handful
of rice.” But with microcredit, she can bring them home.
**
Story 2
In March I was on the road starting and revisiting RESULTS Groups. I stayed with a friend one night in
Seattle and asked if I could borrow a copy of a book he had titled Race Against Time. It is a compilation
of five lectures by Steven Lewis who was Kofi Annan’s Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa. I remember
being on my flight to Los Angeles and reading sections of the book and just sobbing and then getting to the
place I was staying in LA and sobbing when reading it a second time and then reading it over the phone to
my wife the next morning and crying again. Sometimes when I read it fast enough it doesn’t affect me as much.
There are four sections I would read if we had the time but I’ll just summarize the first three and read the
fourth.
In the first section Lewis tells about little girls in Rwanda whose father has died and whose mother is so ill that
they can only go to school on the days they don’t have to care for her. Lewis then tells of grandmothers who have to
care for their grandchildren because their own children and their spouses have all succumbed to AIDS. And then he
gets to the final two stories which center around sibling headed households where there are no parents and no
grandparents or other relatives caring for the children.
Lewis says that in Swaziland it is expected that up to 15 percent of the population will be orphans by 2010.
At one policy meeting with government officials, the labor minister “suddenly jumps to his feet, impatient and
agitated. Forget about this policy stuff,” he said, his voice rising, “Don’t you understand we’re a nation of orphans?
That we have hundreds of child headed households in Swaziland, where the age of the child heading the household is eight?”
I have to tell you, my own daughter Sophie is eight and my son Micah is 11 so that statement and this next story
are not abstract for me. Here is the story I wanted to read to you.
In this fourth story Lewis tells how he and Graça Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, are taken to a sibling-headed
household in Uganda.
[Quote] “There were five children in all,”Lewis recounted, “three girls 14, 12, and 10 and two boys 11 and 8.
We entered the modest hut with our backs to the wall, Graçawith her arm around the three girls on her right and
I with my arm around the two boys on my left. Graça then told all the hangers on to leave—all the media, all the
UN staff—except for one community worker and one translator.”
“I had no idea what was coming,” Lewis continued.
“Graça turned to the two older girls, and in a most gentle, reassuring voice asked, ‘Have you started to menstruate yet?’
The two girls, clearly startled, replied in those shy, barely audible whispered voices so characteristic of African children,
‘Yes.’ Then Graça began to ask a series of questions. ‘Do you know what it means? Have you talked with anyone about it? Do
you talk to the villagers about it – your teachers, your fellow students? Does anyone bring you any pads?’
“The atmosphere was intense, the little girls, now fully embraced in Graça’s arms, seemed to have suspended breathing,
and I suddenly understood that I was witnessed to the first act of ‘mothering’ that these girls had ever received about one
of the most transfiguring experiences of a young girl’s life….”
“I’ve told this story a number of times because the experience had a profound impact on me,” Lewis continued. “At the
moment that Graça asked her questions, I thought to myself, ‘that’s what’s happening right across the continent. The
transfer of love and knowledge and values and experience from one generation to the next is gone, and with it goes the
confidence and security and sense of place which children normally take for granted. Children already traumatized
by the death of their parents are left reeling as they confront the void in the aftermath.
“As we were leaving I asked the oldest sister, ‘Who puts you to bed at night?’
‘I put everyone to bed she replied.’
“’But bedtime can be pretty scary,’ I offered. ‘The nights are dark. The dreams can be upsetting. Don’t any
of the neighbors come in to help?’
“‘No,’ she said matter-of-factly. ‘I put them to bed myself. I’m the mother.’” [end of quote]
***
As I said, I really don’t want our conversation this evening to be abstract when it
comes to what poverty is and ending poverty.
RESULTS has been one of the leading advocates on behalf of the Global Fund to Fights AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
The Global Fund has supported:
· 3.2 million orphans to be provided with medical services, education, and community
care
· 2 million people to receive HIV/AIDS antiretroviral treatment;
· 62 million HIV counseling and testing sessions;
It is important to get involved in efforts to assist individuals, but the policy work lobbying for things like the Global Fund are
critical.
