Bridges of Hope Newsletter

Q. Can you describe how 2008 and early 2009 have been like for Bridges of Hope? Were you able to achieve your strategic goals and objectives?

A. 2008 was a great year for Bridges of Hope, both in terms of income and in achieving our strategic goals of achieving poverty relief and community empowerment in some of the poorest nations on earth. We were able to develop relationships with new people and acquire new business partners, which are corporate and individual partners. There was a fit with these partners because their purposes align with ours. Bridges of Hope doesn't impose. We always ask people how we can serve each other and meet our goals. In particular, we are now working with two new partners: The Friends of South Omo and Blessing the Children International. We also achieved our goals of organizing and executing short term trips to Africa, which involved about 30 people, who offered their skills and talents to the indigenous leadership there.
Has Bridges of Hope achieved all of our goals we set out in 2008? No. Has poverty been eradicated? No. But, we have achieved our mission. We surprised ourselves in what we did. We did not eradicate poverty, but we moved closer to the heart of our mission, in terms of training up and building indigenous leaders to help themselves.

Q. There are plans in the works to extend the offices of Bridges of Hope. Can you describe those plans and what you have in store for the future?

A. In 2008, we were able to find a new home for Bridges of Hope. It's a home that can accommodate our offices and a multi-purpose auditorium. Right now, the auditorium is being used by Misericordia Fellowship. This has been funded by the Bridges Advantage Initiative. This is a building fund where people can donate to it and they receive a return on their investment. If anyone is interested in that, they can contact me.

Q. It is my understanding that Bridges of Hope has upcoming development plans in several African countries. Can you describe those plans?

A. We have established projects in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Rwanda, the Congo, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Ethiopia. These are countries were we are already involved. These are the countries where we have established relationships with indigenous peoples and leadership, where their interests intersect with ours. Specifically, we are focusing on work in Burkina Faso. We are continuing our work within our orphanage there, where children from age 0 to 2 years old are welcome. We are working on our school as well, not to mention our medical centre. We also maintain our ladies trade school and economic development programs.
In terms of our plans, we have trips planned for this upcoming July, and also from October to November and February to March. We hope to organize a dozen trips a year from now on. We will keep people posted on our plans.

Q. What are the most pressing needs for Bridges of Hope? How do you feel these needs can be met?

A. Our needs reflect the needs of our partners and indigenous stakeholders, which include all the indigenous leaders of our projects, the orphans and vulnerable children we work to help. Our funding partners at present include government and other agencies that form the network capacity of Bridges of Hope International.
Our need is to meet the purposes of our stakeholders. Right now, we are seeing the development of operational discipline within our indigenous leadership in all the developing countries we are involved in.
We also need to expand our capacity to serve more orphans and vulnerable children with the means at our disposal. I want to see that they're equipped and that our indigenous leaders are better trained and able to manage the Social Return (SR) on our investments, as well as the intentional and unintentional consequences of our involvement. We also want to ensure sustainability by equipping our indigenous leadership and their organization to creatively engage their environment in a way that sustains itself.
Bridges of Hope is not in the aid business; we're in the capacity building business, which builds towards authentic freedom.

Q. The federal government has indicated that it is shifting its international development assistance priorities, where they seem to be moving towards Latin America and away from Africa. They are also shifting their assistance criteria and priorities. How do you feel this could impact the work of Bridges of Hope, if at all?

A. The government is shifting its priority towards Afghanistan and the Americas. I believe it is within the prerogative of the government to be strategic in its international development energies. They need to reach the strategic point where their money is going towards achieving poverty relief and community empowerment. They are interested in providing better relief. I'm more generous towards the government on this point. My own vision and personal perspective is that in terms of real poverty relief, the African governments out there need to rise to the challenge. This change in priorities on the part of the government may actually lead these African governments and their leaders to find new and creative ways to stimulate and improve their situation. If you look at history of financial aid to Africa, and we have over 60 years of proof, we can see that the way aid is given out has not worked. We need to find creative ways to improve. I welcome the leadership of these developing countries to just do it. My only hope is that the Canadian leadership sits down with the African leaders and make their points known to them. This should not just be about the more powerful countries telling the developing countries that they can cut them just because they can. It appears that more dialogue is needed and I don't think that is happening.
So, overall, I'm fine with the government's plan. We've had 60 years of aid and it's not worked. If it means we need to be more capitalistic, than that is okay. For example, in Ethiopia, less than 20 per cent of the population has access to cell phones. This is because cell phones are controlled by the government. Whereas, in Burkina Faso, over 60 per cent of the population has access to them, as they are sold through the private sector. All over Africa, cell phone usage is increasing. In Ethiopia, the problem is that 90 per cent of their budget comes from foreign aid. Can they raise that money on their own?
I wonder if the form of current aid assistance from the West is encouraging and accommodating the African dysfunction. Canadian taxpayers need to be conscious of the intended and unintended consequences of their decisions when it comes to foreign aid. We should not continue as enablers of dysfunction. We should not manage down to accomodate for someone else's dysfunction.