Stay connected to the news, our team and our young people through these stories and regular updates on Facebook, Instagram and the GSGC blog.
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Groundbreaking Mentors Resource Centre |
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It’s new, and it’s one-of-a-kind: Mentors Resource Centre is up and running. |
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Months of work by GSGC’s Mentors and our international team of volunteers and supporters has resulted in something unique in the development world: a digital library of proven techniques, good ideas and shared values written by Africans, for Africans.
The Mentors Resource Centre is a reference platform, a training tool and a repository of inspiration that will help ensure best practices are used in GSGC-sponsored clubs. We are proud to have helped shepherd this unprecedented project through to fruition, working with the creative, determined and visionary Mentors you support.
Use of the Mentors Resource Centre is reserved for Mentors. Still, you can read more about the project in our latest blog post. Thank you for helping make it possible. |
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Youth, Mentors Wow Development Specialist |
When development and tourism specialist Christabelle Peech (below, left) recently went to assess conditions in two of Zimbabwe’s most popular destinations, she stopped in to meet GSGC Mentors and club members. She was “blown away” and went home with new hope for the future of her country. |
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Read about Peech’s meetings with GSGC-sponsored clubs in Dete, Victoria Falls and Monde Village. Her fresh perspective will reaffirm your decision to support Global Sojourns Giving Circle.
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“I’m excited to tell you our girls passed (exams) with flying colors. The ones at St. Mary’s have the highest grades in school, and the ones at St. Peter’s have passed very well. We’ve got girls who have university quality results. I’m so excited.
“And I had one of the girls tell me how happy she was to be part of the club, and that it’s because of me and Gloria that she is where she is. I felt so emotional because sometime we don’t feel like we’re seeing results, but to see a girl who was into drugs and had turned her life upside down to all of a sudden just change and be the best she could be of herself was so amazing. I’m so proud of her.
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It’s touching to be a Mentor. I didn’t know it would feel like this.” ~ Mentor Racheal Musonda Ng’andu, Believe Club, Livingstone, Zambia
“We have continued working with the girls in helping them improve their self-esteem and literacy levels through English reading and writing activities.
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“We recently recruited a total of 35 Grade 5 girls in our clubs who will stay in the program for three years.
“As we aim to impact the girls positively through various activities as well as monitor their progress, we look forward to seeing the girls exhibit the expected change and become inspirational figures to others in the communities where they live!!” ~ Mentor Prisca Sakala, Yosefe and Matula Girls Clubs, South Luangwa, Mfuwe, Zambia
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We’re Doing It Differently
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Supporter Paul Ventura of Vancouver, Washington was struck by the similarities between GSGC’s model and arguments made in “Doing Development Differently,” an article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s spring edition. He knows that at GSGC, we’ve been doing it differently for years.
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Author Leni Wild, a research fellow in the Politics and Governance Program at the London-based think tank Overseas Development Institute, has worked in Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, Sierra Leon, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan and China.
"Tackling complex issues such as inequality, extreme poverty, and conflict must be grounded in a more realistic understanding of how change happens,” Wild writes. “History teaches us that when big breakthroughs occur in these areas, they are usually domestically driven, cumulative, untidy, and unpredictable.”
Human systems, she says, are people, relationships, organizations and institutions, and long-term change requires shifts in behavior. “Processes of discovery are needed to figure out exactly what will work in a particular setting, country, or region."
Wild seems to have been channeling GSGC when she wrote that:
- Aid needs to become much more flexible, adaptive and oriented toward learning.
- Dealing with complex problems and processes of change requires adapting and assessing and a strong feedback loop.
- Change is best ushered in by the people who are close to the problem and who have the greatest stake in its solution.
What affirmation for GSGC.
Wild frequently provides policy advice to a range of bilateral and multilateral agencies, including the UK Department for International Development and the World Bank.
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“It was the first time I felt respected by boys in my life, the first time I’ve felt like boys really listened to what I had to say. I now believe that there are good boys out there.” ~ 11th-grade girl, during a session on healthy relationships, Project Luangwa, Mfuwe, Zambia |
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