Note From The Unite4Africa Board – Dec 2013 – Ken Martin

The power of empowerment. Have you ever really considered it?

If the scientific world announced that some college dropout in a little lab in the basement of a small business had actually produced a bona fide perpetual motion machine that was fully tested and vetted, whose construction was absolutely repeatable with simple parts and methods; it would be an international sensation.

Empowerment is a foundational principle of Unite 4 Africa. It is finding the dynamo inside an individual, starting it, adjusting it, encouraging it, optimizing it and staying with it until it can run on its own. Dynamos like these are contagious, their presence start others within communities. When this is done well, it’s very much like a machine of perpetual motion in that it doesn’t continually require the input of others resources. It thrives on what it can do with itself, for itself; and becomes incredibly powerful when it combines with others who are empowered, and are like minded and community minded.

You see the effects of empowerment written on the pages of this newsletter every month. October saw the return of the annual U4A golf tournament. We had a great time together raising funds to help complete a well we dug for a village in Kenya last year.

The village’s womenfolk walk 12 km every other day or so to collect about 20 Liters of water and carry it back to their families. They lose the whole day doing this and the quality of the water is not very good.

A well would be a tremendous blessing to them. The best place, however, to dig a productive well for them was still 5 to 6 km away from their village. But this was no problem for them!

This year’s funds will buy the piping and other parts necessary to pipe it to them. Would there be need of heavy equipment to dig the pipe into the rugged terrain? No! The villagers will trench it in themselves, 3 feet deep, 5 to 6 km long! That is the power of empowerment!

What an undertaking! No whining, not looking for handouts, not waiting for government assistance. Encouraging each other and building their community up. Praise God for this gift! The power of empowerment.

In His will united we stand

God Bless

Ken Martin
Board Member