Macha, Zambia - working on a resilient and sustainable community

The day before yesterday Jasper Bets and I left for Macha, Zambia. Yesterday morning we arrived early in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. There we were welcomed by Anne-Marie Voorhoeve and Gert Jan van Stam. Jasper, Anne-Marie and I are her on a mission for the Center for Human emergence and the CHE School of Synnervation. Gert Jan is a man with a mission working in Macha with his wife and the local community.

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Macha is about one hour by Cessna plain or nine hours by car or bus. We went with the Chessna, which was a nice and exciting experience.  In Macha we had a very warm welcome by the local people led by Fred, one of the leading people in the local community building projects. Fred is also running the radio station and is an entrepreneur growing sunflowers and pumpkins.

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Five years ago a malaria research center was started in Macha. Janneke van Dijk, Gert Jan's wife was asked to run this center. She and Gert Jan felt like this project could be a good opportunity to work from a more holistic worldview. Linear approaches, only dealing with malaria are affective, but integral approaches working holistic could have a much stronger impact on the community as a whole. Not too many people and organizations were interested in this, but that didn't withhold them from starting and continuing.

The picture you see here is old, Macha has now grown at least twice as big and most of the houses are made of bricks with running water, electricity and comfort.

So what is a holistic or integral approach? Besides the medical and educational programs concerning malaria Gert Jan has also started activities for community building. The idea is to grow resilience, ownership and sustainability in this rural area. Malaria and the life conditions in Macha have had a big impact on the local community. People literally say that the initiatives of the last few years bring hope and prosperity into Macha. It is a fast growing place in many perspectives. Now Macha has a hospital, schools, community buildings, a radio station, (wireless) internet and a growing economy. The work of Gert Jan and Janneke is now supported by a foundation called Privaserve. And I guess working holistic from an integral perspective means doing everything at the same time.

In many cases developmental aid has not a real a clue of local situation and needs. I am sorry to write this, but most of the times there is a relationship of Westerners telling Africans what they should do or a relationship built on guilt for slavery or our economical position being built on Africa's poverty. I don't really believe in these approaches, how well meant they might be. One has to take in consideration the local needs, life conditions, change states and levels of development. We can also learn a lot from Africa and African communities. The Macha projects try to do that as well. Most of the projects are initiated by and for local residents. This grows ownership. The economical growth is also primarily local and based on cooperative initiative and ownership. And today we had a sense of community when we got stuck with the car. People left their village and work to lift the car and get us free. No questions, no expectations, this is what we do for each other when we are in need. Where do you see that in modern Western civilizations?

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The initiatives in Macha have an impact on the community and does change it. A crucial question here is "How can this growth be sustainable and interconnected with the current life conditions of thet people?" Here is where Spiral Dynamics kciks in. Actually Gert Jan does use SDi in his work. And in line with Clare Graves he "meets them where they are" from the perspective that "every one has the right to be who (s)he is". There is a lot of respect for local people and their tradition. Looking at the changes one of the questions is how you develop leadership that is needed in this area and how do you support this using emergence as a key element for growth.

We are here to work on three issues.

One Jasper is going to do research on the integral approach on malaria. After five years of measuring it is shown that the approach in Macha leads to a much stronger decrease in malaria than the approaches in other comparable rural area's in Zambia and in Africa. Anne-Marie and I are here to support him and to set the first steps in this research. Ard Hordijk from Nyenrode University and School of Synnervation will be involved as research guide.

Second we are here to find out and learn on leadership and leadership development. What is really going on over here, how does leadership emerge, what are the big questions and how can we support this? The ambition is high, to develop leadership programs for rural Africa and we start with the five local leaders - or young heroes - that are involved in the community building and business development in Macha.

Third we believe that the approach in Macha has a lot to share and we are looking how to develop a long term and sustainable relationship with the current and future leaders in Africa. Mutual learning and exchange between West and South plays a key role in this.

Where many eyes are looking at China and India we believe that Africa can also play a key role in the 21^st century. Looking at planet earth as one Holon which we are all part of we could learn a lot of these so called less complex societies. And at the same time rural areas in Africa can develop a hope giving future integrating modern technologies and knowledge with an ancient culture of wisdom and communion.

This is only my first whole day here. I'll write more in the following days.