Ripples

Africa remains a distant place. While many parts of the world appear to be moving closer and more connected—propelled by the internet, telecommunications and daily flights to just about every corner of this planet—Africa remains in our conciousness a largely dark, undefined and foreboding place.

In South Sudan, so far, an estimated 2 million people have died as a result of war, famine and disease in a conflict that has raged for two decades with no letup in sight.

In the Congo, a war that began in 1998 has claimed the lives of more than five million people. Millions more have been displaced from their homes. Rape is so widespread in this broken nation, it is considered the most dangerous place for a woman to live in the world. Yet we have largely stopped paying attention.

To the extent that we in the West consider issues and concerns beyond our comfortable homes at all, we are more likely to be focused on arresting climate change or stemming the tide of Islamic fundamentalism than we are on doing something to stop the killing, raping and starvation of millions and millions of people in Africa.

This is surely because, in part, Africa defies easy solutions. The problems run deep and wide. Library shelves groan from the weight of volumes written despairingly about this continent. One of the most compelling is Canadian writer and journalist Joan Baxter’s Graveyard for Dreamers— written in 1997 a year before the current wave of carnage erupted anew in mid-Africa. It is a place that we must work harder and more earnestly in the modern connected age, to ignore.

Peta Hall isn’t a despairing person. She is, despite the evidence arrayed before her at times, a hopeful person. And a practical one.

She was raised in Zimbabwe—a country with its own story of conflict, cruelty and heartbreak. Though she would move away and eventually make a life as an artist in Prince Edward County, Africa remained an indelible part of her being.

About six years ago Peta could no longer quell the feelings she should return to Africa—to share her wealth, resources and experience with others in this chaotic part of the world. She reached out to the non-governmental organization Village Volunteers working to improve life in Africa. The scale, the approach and rural focus appealed to her. She honed her mentorship and training skills in some small co-operative projects in Kpando.

Then came Atorkor, a seaside community that had for generations subsisted on harvesting the sea. But a crash in fish stocks put many in this remote community out of work with few opportunities and no place to go. Ninety per cent of the community was unemployed and desperately poor. Most were unable to send their children past elementary school. Without skills they didn’t qualify for the few jobs available. Without jobs they became poorer. The downward cycle had gripped this community and was pulling it under.

Hall arrived nearly five years ago with a dream to provide education, training and entrepreneurial skills to this community. Drawing upon resources and funds from Prince Edward County and building designs by architect Brian Clark, Hall developed and built the Atorkor Vocational Training Centre.

Phase One targeted the needs of the women with courses in dressmaking, batik and information technology. With these skills women could work at home and sell their wares at the local market. After-hours—Hall offered adult literacy training to the broader community.

The first building was barely up and running before a second was planned and rising from the ground. Phase Two is aimed at providing job skills to young men, particularly in construction and fabricating.

Oil companies are beginning to tap the vast reserves just offshore of Ghana. The ATVC is equipping the folks of this community with the basic skills to seize these opportunities.

Through it all, Mama P, as she is known there, has had to beg, cajole, and at times shame local officials, national agencies and aid organizations to help , to allow her to bring this training opportunity to Atorkor. Nothing is easy in Africa.

Yet the dream of the Atorkor Training and Vocational Centre is now a reality. It is growing to serve the broader region. Soon a new school residence will be constructed.

Hundreds of young people have a chance at a life they would have never had were it not for Mama P.

Hall has now handed the reins of the day-to-day operation of the school to a local leader. It is in good hands. She completed the job she set out to do. She returns to Prince Edward County confident the ATVC will continue to awaken dreams and stir aspirations among young and old in this community for many years to come.

Peta’s story is one of hope and of real achievement in continent where too often, dreams go to die. She has shown how change will come to this troubled place, how simple ideas can take root and flourish. But only if we choose not to look away.

When she rests her head on her pillow at night, Mama P must surely feel satisfied that her life has made an important difference in the lives of many. We should all be so fortunate.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca