Hope Together
Hope Together is an African Road relational initiative, to support and encourage community, and learn from the wisdom and experience of the East African Changemakers, at this time of international uncertainty.
African Road Changemakers are sending words of encouragement and hope our way. These messages come from practiced resilience, wisdom gained through hard-earned experience and are offered as perspective and gifts to all of us, even as East Africa grapples with the impact of the global pandemic.
It is our longstanding belief that everyone has something important to bring, and this is an opportunity for us to learn from our friends in East Africa and from one another as we connect even more deeply.
There are a number of ways you can engage to receive and give:
Hope from East Africa
Words, Wisdom and Perspective
from East African Changemakers.
“I believe that every crisis creates an opportunity And this is the opportunity for us to keep our Hope Alive! This is an opportunity to build and deepen new kinds of Community. The power of individuals working collectively to create solutions and ignite hope will carry us through this time of pandemic. It requires a deeper community mindset all over the world”
African Road Changemaker, David Clemy sent this encouraging video message for you and all the African Road community, grounded in his leadership experience in rural Uganda.
David leads and facilitates a unique process called VICOBA Plus which sparks innovation and builds strong community. People learn to see what they have available to them, individually and when they come together. Groups form community savings funds and create lasting relationships and hope in challenging and sometimes impossible circumstances.
“You are loved and you are needed”
A message of encouragement and hope from New Hope for Girls, Tanzania.
Consoler and Eliya Wilbert in Tanzania provide a home and family for 44 girls and young women who have gone through or face vulnerable experience, with real risks of abusive indentured servitude, extreme poverty and child marriage for girls as young as eight. In response, Changemakers Consoler and Eliya Wilbert, have created a family of welcome. They are supporting and encouraging young women to grow up strong, healthy and independent. They are nurturing and empowering the next generation of women in Tanzania, who will be better able to name and promote their own rights, and the rights of others.
Changemaker Consoler has overcome her own experience of childhood trauma and tragedy and now is committed to create a better future for other young women. Consoler is also committed to addressing the systematic issues that underlie the risk girls can face. Consoler works to educate law enforcement officers, change national policy and address cultural practices for a better future for all.
Sewing Hope
Together
Join in making PPE masks from beautiful African bitenge fabric.
Feel the love from East Africa!
Get your kit at no cost today by emailing: hopetogether@africanroad.org with ‘PPE mask kit’ in the subject line. Please indicate how many masks you wish to sew.
The kit includes bitenge cotton fabric, sewing instructions, African Road iron-on labels, and African Road info cards. Share them with people who are particularly exposed to the virus, your family and send them to your friends. Get creative and spread African Road stories and hope as you share masks.
Then post your masks and stories on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, tag African Road (africanroad.org) and tell us about your experience of spreading love from African Road and East Africa.
All of us, Together!
Kelly Bean and Portia Manjengwa on Zoom with Changemakers Consoler and Eliya Wilbert
Coffee with the Changemakers
2020 brought a unique opportunity for the African Road community to connect in different and new ways, one of them being ‘Coffee with the Changemakers.’ These two virtual events happened on June 13th and December 12th of 2020, and brought encouragement to many. For those who missed the events, or want to enjoy them all again, you can watch the recording below:
Investing in Hope
We have established an emergency fund to be used strategically to walk with our East African partners, as they seek to meet many complex needs.
The work of African Road is partnership for sustainability and lasting impact, rather than ongoing charity or aid. At the same time work and partnerships are deeply relational.
This means that when an unexpected crisis arises, we come together to do what we can to resource our Changemaker partners, for the sake of the future.
We know that you, the African Road community will be concerned about the welfare of your friends and partners, the Changemakers and their communities in East Africa. The African Road (suitably socially distanced) team are in close contact with each of the Changemakers, listening to their needs and working hard to support them in any and every way that we can. More information will be shared as we go forward and, in the meantime, contributions can be made by clicking on the button below.