Tuesday in Mahasarakham
In 1 hour I will be in Nongkhun Village, about 60 kilometers outside of Mahasarakham city. Ai, Rattana and I will spend the afternoon with Neuy and her family - and enjoy a meal with villagers coming to meet to discuss potential activities for women surrounding Nongkhun Village.
For Nuey and her mother, 15,000baht enabled them to buy a hand-reeling machine to produce fantastic silk sheets. Thai silk handweave is superb and highly sought after item with limited supply. I love the way Openaid that Openaid is working with Neuy’s family - supporting them to use their skills and knowledge and enabling them to experience successful results in a way that evokes power and possibility.
My approach is straightforward. In almost every activity, we don’t need to pour knowledge into people’s heads, we just help them to grind a new idea using their skills and they begin to see the world in a new way. This is particularly important for a small NGO like Openaid with very limited resources. In just the past 2 days I’ve seen this approach working effectively in 3 villages.
Often it’s our perceptions of people that make it difficult. Instead of focusing on the crisis, I try to see people’s potential and focus on actual skills and experience objectively. I think it’s important to acknowledge people, their wisdom, and let them know that they are important and valuable. Once I have acknowledged their value, I can find out more about what’s behind their situation. Building a great working relationship is necessary - it’s the only way I know what’s going on - and enables us to sit down and work together to create a strategy for addressing problems.
I will post a photo tonight (Nuey’s family).
Justin
