11 June 2007
Twenty-five years ago, 6 May 1982, the Solomon Islands Development Trust began its reachout programs to the people of this nation. This week, 12-14 June 2007, its long term director, its founder and many of its workers will celebrate these 25 years of service. Old Staff members, although some many years retired, will return from their villages and provinces not only to celebrate SIDT's remarkable achievement, not only to renew old acquaintances but to reflect what made this small group of people tick. What was it about this tiny organization that kept it going in hard times as well as in good?
From the very beginning, SIDT was blessed by the presence of a strong Board of Directors, men and women, all Solomon Islanders, who were determined to make this newly founded NGO work and work well. Board members were not selected by name but the organization they worked for--NPF, SICA, Government, etc--sent their best representatives for monthly meetings. Reuben Moli, Malaita's recent Premier, for instance, was SIDT's first Board Chairman and held that position for many years.
A second most important strengthening pillar was the Board's determination that all donor funding would be carefully noted and spent exactly what it had been sent for. Yearly, then, SIDT's Board of Governors religiously ordered that an Annual Audit, done by an outside firm, would be conducted on the newly created organization. And so it was! For the following 24 years, each year, an external audit of SIDT's financial records was kept. To this day, each and every audit that has been accomplished remain part of this NGOs record base.
But as important as these two pillars are for any organization to grow and prosper, more, much more is needed. The coming together of two different personalities--Abraham Baeanisia, first director and John Roughan, advisor--brought a unique chemistry to the newly born. It's hard to over emphasize this special relationship since both individuals complemented the other in so many ways. Where Abraham was truly a village person, a born and bred Langa Langa, John's New York City urban roots was unmistakable as well. Abraham know everyone, in and out of government while John's connection with the Church, overseas groups and international connections proved to be a perfect match.
Even these strengths--dynamic Board members, yearly financial audits and a serious professional working admin team--would have never been enough to pull SIDT through 25 years of development work. What other things helped make this NGO tick for so many years?
Of course any NGO, whether from overseas or locally based, needs constantly to learn from its own workers but especially the people for whom it says it is working for. For instance, in the early 1980s SIDT's basic work pattern was to reach out to village people. What it saw there was the need for villagers to understand more deeply, be aware of and reply to the shifting meaning of development. Early on most villagers thought that all that was needed was money, lots of it, to accomplish their development goals. SIDT's approach emphasized the absolute need for community strength, organization skills and dynamic leadership to make any money received work well for the whole village and not just for the few.
But that development approach is not everyone's cup of tea! Simply visiting village groups and sharing this 'story' wasn't enough. During the late 1980s the organization began publishing a quarterly magazine, LINK; then it branched out into drama, having a men's touring theatre group soon followed by a women's theatre group. Still even with these added new ways of getting the development word out--village level workshops, LINK magazine, touring theatre teams--more was needed. It targeted governments of the day. Since 1989 it has conducted 7 separate Report Cards in which the people of the nation marked different governments how well or poorly it was doing in servicing their own people.
In the early 1990s, then, SIDT changed its tactics. Villagers themselves during this time taught SIDT as well. People's deeply seated feelings that, although they agreed that organizational understanding, awareness of local strong leadership and community empowerment was needed, they also made it quite clear that modest amounts of money were also vital to their progress. That is when SIDT pulled its touring teams off village visits and asked its workers to remain in their own districts demonstrating the four vital areas of The Good Life: sleeping under treated mosquito nets nightly, building a family toilet, planting a supsup garden and upgrading the family kitchen.
Looking back over the past twenty-five years history of SIDT is instructive. No matter what experts say, keeping alive a complex, multi-layered and dynamic institution is never a case of one or two things. Of course outside help in the form of dedicated people is essential. Then a proper chemistry among its workers is critical. Couple these elements with a vision/dream to make things better for the least of our people becomes achievable. And that is what SIDT has tried to do: "strengthen the quality of village living". These past years, then, have become the first chapter of a long history to come.
11 June 2007
Honiara
No comments:
Post a Comment