The Opsimath

Roots in Project magazine

Our charity - Roots - is featured in this month's edition of Project magazine as part of a focus on ethical thinking in project management.

The article is called "Projects in Uncontrolled Environments". Now there's a name that could catch on!

New Roots film on the way

Last night I saw the first rough version of a new promotional film that we are having produced for the charity Roots Sudan. It's looking very good - hopefully it will be available very soon.

Contentment in the midst of great need

This photograph was taken in a classroom in Southern Sudan and it brings with it a challenge to our western, consumerism-centred mindset.

In what is clearly number 10 in a series of  'rules', this one states that "I will be happy with what I have."

This is in the context of a community where there is actually very little to 'be had' and yet the evidence was that people were living in a way that was consistent with the statement, a way that was content with the very little that they had.

This second picture makes that point, for this is that same classroom from another angle. Notice the rich teaching resources, the interactive whiteboard, the designer desks, chairs and equipment...

Southern Sudan is a nation characterised by its great need. Much of western society is made up of nations characterised by their great greed. Almost identical phrases but a world apart.

Once we are past out current economic difficulties I wonder what the legacy will be? Will we still be such a greedy society, or will we have learned a little more about contentment with what we have?

Contentment is a powerful thing that for most of us is something that we do have to learn - but what a great lesson from that classroom thousands of miles away that could prove to be.

New season - new dreams

It comes around very quickly, but the new football season will soon be here, and this season sees Wolverhampton Wanderers back in the Premier League (their rightful place etc etc).

Just time to say thanks again to the Wolves for the football kit that they donated to our charity Roots, and worn here with pride recently in Sudan. After all, who wouldn't be pleased to get a Wolves kit...

Sitting comfortably...?

It's been a while since we had a post about the work of our Education and Training charity Roots. So over the coming weeks I will correct that with a few photographs from our recent visit to Sudan and some comments about what we encountered.

Starting with this classroom scene and a comment from one of the teachers who attended our Teacher-Training Workshop. When asked what were the factors that would lead to 'good teaching' he answered, "No more than 50 pupils in a class..."

I used to be tall...

...then I met goalkeepers Matt Murray and Wayne Hennessey and I got a different perspective on life!

Matt and Wayne play for Championship-topping Wolverhampton Wanderers, a team I have supported since I was small (which apparently I am again). Yesterday, the club very kindly donated a full football kit - for an entire team - for us to use on our next visit to Sudan.

Special thanks go to Rachael Heyhoe Flint, one of the club's Vice-Presidents, for the way in which she arranged this donation, and also arranged some local press coverage too.

Great developments at Roots

It's an exciting time at Roots, the education and training charity that we have founded to help the people of Southern Sudan.

First, we have recently been granted Registered Charity status by the Charity Commission. It took months to get there, but it's good to have that recognition, and of course it means that we can claim gift aid on all personal donations from tax payers.

Second, the cause-related marketing campaign that pearcemayfield have launched is going extremely well. The campaign gives Roots £10 for every training course booked, and the statistics are looking really good for both Roots and pearcemayfield. See www.pearcemayfield.com for more details. If you are interested in more information on the power of cause-related marketing let me know.

Third, our first major fund-raising event takes place this Sunday (26th October). This is a charity auction, details of which are on our website www.rootssudan.org. Ticket sales are going well, we've been given some tremendous items to auction (including a plane flight, holidays in Bulgaria, Cornwall and the Cotswolds, sports memorabilia, meals, and this week a firkin of ale!). We've received some good local press coverage, made contact with a number of very supportive organisations, and I believe that we can raise a significant amount of funds to help us to make a difference to the people of the Sudan. If you'd like to join us, or see a full catalogue of the items in order to make a bid, please let me know.

Help us to help him

 pearcemayfield have launched a very exciting campaign this month, which makes me very proud to be part of the company.

Let me quote:

At pearcemayfield we aim to be a great company, and that includes taking our corporate social responsibility seriously, and for us this responsibility arises from our set of values.

For example, we recognise that we have a responsibility to express integrity in our relationships among ourselves, towards our clients and suppliers, and in our dealings with the wider community of which we are a part.

So acting responsibly has always been part of who we are, and it will continue to be the way we do business. After all, as the writer Michael Porter says,

“Companies do not function in isolation from the society around them.”

Our ‘Autumn 2008’ Campaign is one way in which we are demonstrating our belief in our social responsibility. For every place booked on one of our public 5-day training events during September, October and November we are donating £10 to the work of Roots, a charity working to make a difference in the lives of people in Southern Sudan.

The specific aim of Roots is to work with the business community and with children and young people in this country that is attempting to recover from 40 years of war. They are seeking to provide training and education to people as they look to rebuild the infrastructure of the country.

If you would like to know more see the company website www.pearcemayfield.com

And for more about Roots:                                                      www.rootssudan.org

Vacancies

We hear from our friends in the medical charity Medic Assist International that they URGENTLY require help for the Goli hospital project in Southern Sudan (tilers, carpenters and electricians particularly).  If you know of any potential volunteers, suggest that they email John Earwicker on info@medic-assist.org and he will be in touch soon afterwards.

When we visited Sudan earlier this year we saw the partly-completed hospital and the fantastic work that they are doing. People are travelling vast distances to receive medical care at this centre because such care is in short supply elsewhere (there is 1 doctor for every 100,000 people).The clinic are helping around 800 people a month already.

This is such an important project so, please, if you know someone, put them in touch with John.

Elias - a leader with a story

On our Principles of Change Management course we talk about the need for successful leaders to embody a 'story'. Based on research by Howard Gardner, this idea explains that stories not only provide background, but help the followers picture the future.

Last weekend I witnessed an excellent example of this.

Elias Taban, the man who very kindly hosted us when we visited Sudan in January this year, is in the UK at the moment (May 2008) on an awareness and fund-raising visit. I got the chance to catch up with him and hear a little more of his remarkable story; let me give you a few ‘highlights’:

• On the day he was born in 1955 violence broke out and his mother was forced to flee from the hospital to the forest with the new-born Elias. He could have caught so many diseases, but he survived.
• As a boy, he was captured by rebel fighters and forced to become a child soldier. So many of his fellow children were killed as they sat in the tree tops observing enemy movements, but again Elias survived.
• As an adult, during the long years of the war Elias was arrested by northern troops and should have been then sent to Khartoum as a prisoner. Instead he was released in exchange for 7 cows!
• At another time he found himself in serious disagreement with an important but annoyed military leader. He was sentenced to death by firing squad, and it was only after an intervention by another senior officer that he was freed.

I am greatly inspired by this man, not just because of this amazing story, but also because of his drive and determination to transform his country. Elias says that in Sudan they are “praying to become a third-world country”. Imagine that as an aspiration for your nation.

But he remains positive. “Give us a push and we will start to roll” he said. Then he said to me “we can make it happen, we can see this country changed.” His story, helping me to picture the future.