2007 Bridge Builders Conference:

A Grassroots Agenda for Change

Jianghua Chen

China

Male

Through his grassroots community school, which is probably one of the only of its kind in contemporary China addressed at community education, Jianghua Chen is providing a platform that brings together disparate cohorts to deal with problems and pressures in a reflective and peaceful manner. School activities—including a community newspaper and mock court—regenerate public life, community debate, learning and action. Chen is also a bridge builder between urban resources and the village. He invites lawyers and agricultural experts from the nearby city to give workshops on topics ranging from new planting techniques to relevant legal protections for farmers. This brings in outside information and perspectives that the villagers wouldn’t otherwise have access to because urban institutions rarely consider the needs of rural areas and are isolated from up-to-date knowledge of legal or central governmental policy. Chen also built bridges among student volunteers and between these young activists and rural communities. Jianghua Chen’s school is novel and visionary in the landscape of rural development work. The grassroots community-building work Chen is piloting is unique and holds much promise for becoming a model for sustainable rural development.

Mary Gitagno

Tanzania

Female

Mary Gitagno has demonstrated a powerful commitment to improving the life condition for women in her community. She has bravely challenged the practice of female genital mutilation in communities in Tanzania where such an issue is a taboo few would dare addressing. Mary is the sort of activist and grassroots level community leader who must build bridges between men and women, different constituencies, and most of all women’s groups themselves to effect change in her historically patriarchal society.

Mary Demberere/“Mrs. Kondo”

Zimbabwe

Female

The Mt. Darwin District of Zimbabwe community was transformed when Mrs. Kondo started training women on how to grow more diversified crops and add value through processing. She took a leading role in conducting demonstrations on how to use the processing technologies. She also trained women in business management skills. Women were taught how to keep records, make profit and saving. Through her education campaign, more than 1000 sunflower processing machines and 500 peanut butter mills were purchased by people in her community. In a community affected by HIV/AIDS (30% of the population is infected), highly nutritious food is critical to the survival of people living with the disease. Women who did not have any source of income before can now afford to pay school fees for their children and improve their housing. They are empowered economically and have a say in their homes and community as a whole. Through this project, the community decided to form a marketing association and form a village bank through their savings. Mrs. Kondo was selected to lead the association. With assistance from donors, the village bank is in full operation. The bank provides loans to its members for the purchase of inputs and agricultural related equipment such as tractors or more advanced processing technologies. The membership of the association rose from 10 to 2000 through the leadership of Mrs. Kondo. Under the leadership of Mrs. Kondo, Mt. Darwin became a shining example for Zimbabwe and the region as a whole, and the banking association is now a model for similar national projects.

Nyima Jarju

The Gambia

Female

Nyima has devoted her adult life to the improvement of women’s rights and economic self-sufficiency in her region of The Gambia, a country where women are significantly under-represented in education, government, and business and only 32.8% of women can read and write. Nyima is the female representative from the Kombo Central District at the Western Division Council in The Gambia. As part of her work in this capacity, Nyima organized the regional effort to march in the capital of Gambia to raise awareness in the government for women’s issues. The march represented one of the largest efforts ever to organize Gambian women to advocate for equality and opportunity for females. In her village, Penyem, Nyima is the only female representative on the Village Development Committee, the group of village leaders that makes decisions about development projects in the village. In this capacity, she regularly organizes women’s skills development programs in the village, teaching women marketable skills, such as tie-dye, sewing, soap and lotion-making, and generally serves as a spokesperson for the village women’s issues and concerns. In addition to her extensive work to further women’s rights, Nyima is a teacher in the elementary school in Penyem and a program assistant for the Christian Children’s Fund.

Igor Kostic

Serbia

Male

Igor started an NGO called Toplicka Initiative during the 90s, when Milosevic was still president of Serbia and Serbia was isolated from the world. Toplicka Initiative’s mission was at that point to revitalize civil society in Serbia, becoming part of the movement that was later responsible for toppling Milosevic. In the years after Milosevic, Toplicka Initiative was renamed “Initiatives,” and Igor and his team continued to foster civil society in Southern Serbia. The area where Igor and his team work is usually very nationalist and rural, and Initiatives is the only NGO in the region willing to work on cross-boundary cooperation issues with Kosovo. Other topics that are only addressed by Initiatives include gender, homosexuality and domestic violence. Currently, Igor, through Initiatives, works on government capacity-building and economic development issues as well. Igor is a Bridge Builder because he has been able to work across national and ethnic boundaries. By working with both Serbian and Albanian populations, he has helped encourage tolerance and cooperation. By addressing difficult issues such as gender, homosexuality and domestic violence, he has helped codify the rights of marginalized communities in Southern Serbia.

Besjan Pesha

Albania

Male

Besjan Pesha runs the Department of Direct Action at one of the most recognized and powerful NGO/social movements in Albania. The MJAFT! (Enough!) Movement in Albania is a highly effective organization that has recognized the everyday problems Albanians face—the lack of water and electricity, poor roads, taxes, the quality of schools, for example—and has sought to make the country’s political leaders accountable before a questioning public that demands improvements in their quality of life. Besi deals with recruitment and coordination of MJAFT membership as well as the organization of protests, implementation of projects and coordination of MJAFT Civic Clubs throughout Albania. He believes that a good democracy, proper governance and a prosperous society can be built only if constructive civic demand and participation is achieved. Thus, his mission, along with several other colleagues, is to increase active citizenship, strengthen the sense of community, promote responsible governance and improve the image of Albania in the world. Given the existing weaknesses within Albanian civil society—weaknesses common to every country in transition—citizens and NGOs have remained rather marginalized, except on very specific and narrow issues. The activist spirit of MJAFT! seeks to change this situation and make a lasting contribution to Albania’s democratic development. MJAFT! has fostered an environment in Albania where civic protest, accountability of elected officials, and volunteer engagement in community affairs is becoming the norm rather than an exception.

Rosario Andrada de Quispe

Argentina

Female

In 1995 Rosario and 8 other women founded the association Warmi Sayajsunqo, which means “persistent women”. The objective of the association was to help develop the possibility of living in the Puna region with dignity and according to the Kolla culture. They founded the Kolla Bank, managed and maintained by more than 70 indigenous communities. The Bank has become an example of efficiency and transparency, and currently serves more than 3000 associated families which use the bank’s microloans to fund their initiatives and microenterprises.

Sudha Vargese

India

Female

A nun, lawyer, and social activist from Kerala, Sister Sudha Varghese has been working with India’s most marginalized communities for the past 20 years. Her desire to serve the neediest drove her to come to the least developed state, Bihar. While living with the Mushar people, one of the most marginalized social groups in all of India, Sudha entered into their life of struggle for livelihood and for dignity. Sudha found an organization, Nari Gunjan (NG), providing girls with elementary education, vocational trainings, and health education. NG works with women in the communities by establishing self-help groups, discussing social/gender issues and encouraging their political participation. Nari Gunjan has now spread to 50 villages, and Sister Sudha bicycles up to 30 km per day to visit the various NG sites. By integrating different stakeholders including local and state government, NGOs, and community organizations, NG has established a powerful education program for poor Dalit girls. Through the its program, girls who once had to overcome numerous hurdles to just simply read and write their names, now become Nari Gunjan teachers and influential members in their community. Sister Sudha has been called the “Mother Teresa” of Bihar.

Yohani Petero Kayinamura

Rwanda

Male

Yohani has dedicated his career to bringing healing and growth to his homeland in both the short and the long term. He put his family’s resources into a home – and eventually vocational school – for orphans of the Rwandan genocide. While he studies for a chemistry PhD in the U.S. (with the long-term goal of developing pharmaceuticals for and in Rwanda and other developing countries) he also manages the NGO he founded (Umuryango or “family”) to run the children’s homes in Rwanda. In his work for Rwanda, Yohani has brought together communities in the United States and Rwanda, and involved academics, ambassadors, artists, students, governors, subsistence farmers and wealthy American suburbanites in his vision. He is also the president of the Rwandan International Network Association (RINA – http://rinaonline.org) which organizes Rwandans living in the diaspora and builds bridges between communities abroad. Yohani has an amazing ability to communicate with people of every ethnic or socio-economic background, equally comfortable with street children and diplomats.