This post was adapted from a talk Craig Spinks gave at the African Road Gala in 2016.
I want to tell you the story of how I fell in love with African Road. But it’ll help if you first hear a bit of my backstory.
I’m a videographer. I started making videos at around age ten, got my first and only job at fifteen, and started my own business at nineteen. During my twenties, my business specialized in work for nonprofit organizations. We produced TV commercials, video curriculum, and made countless promotional videos for charitable organizations both domestically and internationally.
Craig at work in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
As I honed my craft, the projects and clients got bigger. It was fun to work with larger budgets, but I found myself increasingly frustrated. As a videographer, I got a unique opportunity to see behind the scenes and, in my experience, there was often a disconnect between what organizations said they did and what that actually looked like in real life. Now, don’t get me wrong…I don’t think every nonprofit organization is like this, nor do I even think what my clients were doing was necessarily wrong. Meaningful work is also often complex and messy and simplifying things is a necessary part of marketing. But, I did wish that these organizations would be a bit more transparent — or at least find models that worked better.
But I didn’t need to wrestle with those questions for too long because in 2008, right as the recession was setting in, my wife and I moved to Colorado. Nonprofits were hit hard, and my business suffered as a result. Over the next several years I steered my business away from nonprofits and redirected toward passionate small businesses…the commonality being the passion these clients bring to the table.
Craig filming with Elimika Women’s Cooperative.
Fast forward to 2012. I received a call from Kelly Bean, AR Executive Director, inviting me to produce a video for African Road. Given my history with nonprofits, I was pretty reluctant, but two things pushed me toward saying yes: First, Kelly and I had crossed paths several times and I respected her and really liked what she said African Road was all about. Secondly, I love international travel, hadn’t traveled recently, and never to Africa — so it’s was a good opportunity to scratch that itch.
I’ve now traveled with African Road three times, and in the process, my view of African Road has dramatically shifted. Let me tell you how.
The first trip I went from being a skeptic to admiring African Road’s mission. African Road has a strong emphasis on relationship. This means being respectful of culture and the work already being done. This first trip was when I really wrapped my head around how African Road is different than other models. They weren’t going in and building something new with an attitude of “we have all the answers.” The African Road team arrive as guests with an attitude of humility.
Craig and Steven holding hands — a customary gesture of friendship in Rwanda — at the Togetherness Cooperative.
On my second trip, I came to believe that this mission was actually happening. It isn’t just another marketing campaign. I can even identify the moment when that happened — my plane landed in Kigali, Rwanda, and Kelly wasn’t able to pick me up. Instead, I was met by two friends from my previous trip: Steven and Emma. They each hugged me — I was with friends. This is such a small thing, but symbolic of something larger that kept happening that trip. I was experiencing a bit of African Road’s long-term investment in relationships. Kelly had known Steven for about seven years at this point and I was starting to realize that Steven and Emma were becoming long-term friends of my own. These aren’t projects…these are friendships…ones that even I can participate in at a grassroots level! That’s most evident when I’m there, but Steven and I also periodically exchange messages on Facebook, etc.
My most recent trip, in January, 2016, really sealed the deal. By this point I’d already seen change happen first hand between my first and second trips, but remember, I’m cynical, so it takes a lot for me to fully buy in. On my third trip I continued to see actual, tangible change. Some of that was with things you might expect, like I saw living conditions improve at the Togetherness Youth Cooperative. But more exciting for me was seeing the Togetherness Youth and others owning their dreams. Again, African Road isn’t a program or project — that would be charity. African Road’s goal is empowerment — so seeing our friends in East Africa owning their dreams and innovating is super exciting.
I wish each of you could go on a learning trip to experience this yourself (or if you’re super-cynical like me, it might take three trips). Let me say this, from one cynic to another, or perhaps if you’re on the fence about African Road — African Road is the real deal. And I want to encourage you and thank you for supporting in whatever capacity you can — because that’s another super-cool thing about African Road — it’s entirely possible to not only make a difference with very little, but to also build meaningful relationships along the way, which is equally important. So I invite you — come join me on this adventure.
Clockwise from top left: Craig Spinks, AR photographer Katie Garner, and friend of African Road Emmanuel Rutagonya.