7/8/2019 0 Comments FearlessPICO encourages an attitude of ‘you’re going to do this by yourself, and for yourself, and the gains are yours.’ - Callixte, Nyange co-op advisor Our jaws dropped as the van rounded the corner to the Nyange cooperative’s plot of land. It was Friday, June 28, when Nick, Kiki, and I arrived for our second meeting with the group. A handful of the cooperative members were gardening with plows on the edge of the property. Swinging the wooden sticks over their heads and then pounding them back down, they worked the land up into round piles of earth to plant vegetables in. Across from them, where the edge of the land cascades into the valley, four helmets disappeared into a huge dirt hole that men were shoveling out for the toilets. When the cooperative members told us the previous week that they were going to break ground on their toilets before our next visit, I’ll admit that I was doubtful. Sure, that’s easy to say in the moment, but is it practical? Standing there under the mid-morning sun, I truly couldn’t believe how much the land had changed in just a week’s time. Any doubt I had previously harbored now cowered away in defeat. It was during that second visit that I truly witnessed Nyange’s unwavering determination. In an interview that the co-op’s president Mediatrice did with last year’s fellows, she described herself after joining PICO as “fearless”. What I saw being done by the cooperative that morning truly was fearless. They needn’t fear because they know that they have the power and capability within themselves to take action and make change. If they want to see the toilets come to reality, then they know they better start digging. PICO unlocked this fearlessness within them. They know that they can do this for themselves, and if they keep at it, the gains are theirs. Over the past three weeks, we have gotten to know the Nyange cooperative as the driven, ambitious, and humorous group that they are. With each consecutive visit, they continue to display their dedicated work ethic and go-getter attitude.
Callixte keeps pages and pages of well-organized daily records documenting every detail of the co-op’s operations. After seeing his notebook, we gave the group homework to go through their records and total up their revenue from the previous year. When we came back the following week, they had done ten times what we asked of them. Sitting in a circle outside their workshop, Callixte listed off their units produced, their total revenues, their operating costs, their final profit, and more. Scribbling each number down in my notebook, I couldn’t help but smile. Their dedication is inspiring. Their passion is infectious. Later that day as we were preparing to leave, they asked us to give them more homework to prepare for our next visit. Nick and I smiled for a startled moment and then began flipping through our notes and arranging their next task. Just when I thought they couldn’t surprise me anymore, they did it again. They are fearless.
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AuthorEmily Fagundes | Marketing Student & Global Social Benefit Fellow at Santa Clara University Archives
November 2019
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