Click here to listen.

“In this interview, Gavin Hollet talks about what inspires him and how he finds working with senior executives. Gain insight into the value of seeing the world through different lenses and how we, as individuals and companies, play a role in the world and are a part of it at the same time – a more holistic perspective than the one inherited from industrial times.”

Click here to listen.

About 2 weeks ago, we received an email from Tonie, whom Duncan and I met in Kampala back in April.

Tonie started a small orphanage for street children in Kampala after he had grown up on the streets himself. He has also created a small band out of the boys who he has helped get off the streets, and they perform to raise money for the orphanage (and, Dunc and I were lucky enough to see them in action).

The band plays at the end of the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_zNhVB_LbA

Tonie emailed us to ask for help. Two of the boys were very sick in the hospital and they had no way to pay for the hospital bills that were coming.
“…Davis lost his senses on Thursday, last week, and he was admitted to Mengo Hospital. And, on Friday, he was put on oxygen. Right now, he can not talk — he is still unconscious. Doctors are trying to do whatever they can. We are so worried about him. Bryan was also admitted to Mengo Hospital, yesterday. He has malaria, cough flu, and pain inside the body…”

We found out the bill was going to be about $220 USD. So, Dunc, Chelsea (a friend of OA), and I sent out a few emails to our close friends asking for small donations of between $5 and $20. In less than 3 days, we raised almost $400 dollars from donations of $30 or less from people who don’t have a lot of money.

Had to share this as it is such a great example of the “Power of Plenty” (what our friends at Givemeaning.com advocate and facilitate) and how anyone, if they want, can make a huge difference with very little effort. But more than that, this exemplifies the increase in power that a group of people has over individuals in being able to make a difference.

Lesson: Get some people together and actually make a difference.

Gavin

Check out the latest post on Kieran Magzul’s blog for his OA-supported initiative in Guatemala:

http://projectguatemala.tumblr.com/

Stay tuned for details of a fundraising evening at The Belfry on November 23rd.

We have decided to remove all shipping costs for a limited time.

You can now buy any item on the OA Shop as if you were buying it from your local Sunday market.

OA will foot the bill for the shipping to anywhere in North America. Within about a week it will arrive on your doorstep. Remember, all proceeds from the sale of these shirts are donated to OA and its projects.

Take advantage of this offer soon, because the shirts are going like hotcakes! Thanks very much and enjoy,

Andrew B. & The OA Team.

Click here to enter the store.

The last Rebero Camp story is from OA Volunteer, Ian Mathieson:

After spending a week coaching and playing soccer with the children of the Ribero Orphan Centre, I noticed that they had a different perspective on a few things. I noticed that the children have a very different outlook on life and the opportunities that it presents, compared to the views that any regular Canadian/Western child has. It may be because they have fewer opportunities, or it may just be the way people in Rwanda are, but, either way, the difference was obvious.

Every day at the camp, there were 10 Litres of water and 2 big ball bags to be carried along the 2km dirt path on the way to the field where the camp was held.

The 5 OAers, including myself and 2 other coaches, started off on Day 1 from the Orphan Centre carrying the water and equipment. After about thirty seconds after leaving the Centre, the water and equipment was kindly wrenched from our hands from the luckiest boys of the bunch — or at least that’s how they saw it. All the way down the 2km path to the field, the boys argued and fought over who was going to carry the equipment.

For the next 6 days, this is how the morning began once we arrived at the Centre. After seeing this, I thought about how much children of the West could learn from these boys’ actions — allowing them to appreciate the simple pleasures that these boys so obviously do.

—

Thanks, Ian.

I should also remind everyone that Ian was known by the kids in the camp, and in the surrounding communities, as ‘Ihene’ (’goat’ in Kinyarwanda). We would drive through parts of the area, and without fail (if Ian was in the car), we would hear shouts from the bushes and streets of “Ihene” — he made quite the impression on the kids of the community.

Also, I wanted to thank this opportunity and give a sincere thanks to volunteers Ian and Lindsay for their contributions to the project…wouldn’t have been the same without them!

Next posts will fill you in on the equipment and field.

G

Here’s the link.

Gav’s latest update from Rwanda. Poor internet is causing the long delays — our apologies.

—
July 17 to July 18

When Duncan and I came to Rwanda in April, we really had no idea what to expect and, more importantly, what or how OA was going to contribute positively in the future. All we had was our drive and our intention to absorb and to learn as much as possible, so that OA’s future focus and effectiveness in Rwanda would be streamlined.

We met a lot of people doing different things – all of them incredible, inspiring, and helpful. One of these people is Willa Shalit.

Willa co-founded Fair Winds Trading, which is an amazing company that exports handmade goods from Rwanda into the US and, in the process, employs and empowers disadvantaged women – some of which are HIV/AIDS positive.

Willa introduced us to Emmanuel and Leonce of the Rebero Orphan Center (see previous post), in April, and discussed with us a very interesting camp that was to happen later in July. The camp was described as a one-of-a-kind program for orphaned girls by providing them with strong and positive female role models. This sounded amazing to us, but then we were asked if we wanted to be a part of it!

Since the pilot project was going to be for the girls of the Rebero Center, the boys needed to have something constructive to do during that week – especially as it was to be during their holidays. So, with that in mind, a proposal was given to us to put on an OA-worthy, week-long soccer camp for the boys – but it had to happen in 6 weeks from then.

So, with that in mind, we decided that if we were going to go all the way to Rwanda and back (a year ahead of schedule), then we had to do more than just the camp. We decided to add 2 major tasks to that list: 1) the re-construction of 1 Eco-friendly field, and 2) the distribution of at leas 250 balls to local community/school soccer programs in need.

The young women’s empowerment camp was to be run by a newly created foundation from New York City, called Hope Shines. After 6 weeks of frantic emails and phone calls between Duncan and I and April Rielger, founder of Hope Shines (we didn’t actually book our flights until 2 weeks before the camp started), we finally met in Kigali, at the Mille Collines (Hotel Rwanda for some of you), to discuss how the camps was going to run each day.

April Riegler is an amazing young woman from NYC, who started Hope Shines after an eye-opening trip to Rwanda in the summer of 07. She also has helped establish a very good partnership between Macy’s and Fair Winds Trading, furthering the amazing work that Fair Winds is doing. April had put together a volunteer team of 4 young women from all over the US to help her execute the pilot program.

It was great to finally connect in person, and it became clear that all of the hard work from the previous months to pull this off was going to lead to an amazing camp for some 88 children who don’t have much – nothing compared to kids in Canada and the US.

The night of the 18th, Willa was generous enough to host a dinner at the Serena Hotel, in Kigali, for all of the volunteers who were about to take part in a 7-day camp for the children of the Rebero Orphan Center. We met the other 4 volunteers with Hope Shines: Deana, Kim, Hailey, and Miranda.

Camp started the next day at 9am. Still a few kinks to work out – especially the field that we were going to use for the camp.

Pics to come soon!

Until then,

Gav

With the Rwandan-quality internet, post will be hit-and-miss in their arrival times.

For now, here are a few photos:

First, a goat at the Rebero Orphan Center.

Then, 2 pics from a manufacturing plant of handmade, FairTrade, baskets that employs women affected by HIV-AIDS.

Our apologies for the long delay between the entries and the posts: The internet is extremely poor and so we are doing what we can…

Photos will follow on an even longer delay, as well.
—–

July 14 to July 16

Phase 1 of OA’s project in Rwanda started on the 14th of July, in Kigali, Rwanda. The project team consists of 3 OA Directors, Gavin Hollett, Duncan Penn and Andrew Pike and 2 OA volunteers, Lindsay Henwood and Ian Mathieson.

Our objectives for this phase are 3-fold:

1. Re-construct at least 1 Eco-friendly and sustainable community soccer field

2. Run a successful weeklong soccer camp for the 88 children of the Rebero Orphan Center in Kigali

3. Provide resource support, predominantly in the form of soccer balls, to at least 5 local programs using soccer as a tool to teach higher-level messages; such as HIV-AIDS awareness, gender equality and reconciliation.

The first few days have been used, in part, as an adjustment period to our new home for the next little bit and also for Duncan and I to reconnect with our local partners.

In April, Duncan and I were here for 3 weeks on a needs assessment trip to figure out how OA should focus its energy and resources here, in Rwanda. We determined that the best option would be to cover the three areas of action listed above for our pilot project and to subsequently, (post phase 1) assess how to continue to make things happen in the future.

We have reconnected with Emmanuel and Leonce of the Rebero Orphan Center to discuss, among many things, the logistics of the upcoming weeklong camp.

We linked up with Louis Ntitsimburwa, a Rwandan who lived in Canada for over 15 years, to follow-up on the progress regarding our options for field re-construction.

And, we also met up with Donatien and Victor, of Esperance, to figure out how best to support their community outreach soccer programs that teach important messages to young people all over the country.

This is Ian, Lindsay, and Andrew’s first time in Rwanda, and they have been blown away by their experiences so far (more of this to come in future blog posts). During the first few days, they have spent their time visiting major Genocide memorial sites and learning some of the basics of the local language – Kinyarwanda. Some important sayings they have picked up are: “waramutse” = goodmorning; “na chi bazo” = no problem; and “ihene” = goat (also Ian’s local nickname).

The first few days have been well spent, and we are excited to continue to tell you all more about the happenings over here. Tomorrow’s post will introduce to you a group of people from the US who we are working together with on the week-long camp, and we will also give you a situation report (sitrep) on our activities (including a pick-up game that we were invited to join).

Until then…

Gavin and the OA Team in Rwanda