August will see the Awakening the Dreamer message in Africa, and there will be facilitator trainings in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, the first in each of these countries and the first on the continent. This posting is a request for help, but first let me tell you about the people who have laid the foundations for this;
- Awal, a young guy in Ghana, horrified by the deforestation he sees first hand, contacts us in San Francisco and receives the Presenters Kit so that he can take the Symposium into the very communities where they are chopping the trees. He has since presented the Symposium to other communities and his fellow students; this visit will allow me to train up some of these folk so that a community of facilitators rises up around Awal.
- Tracy-Kim, a proud South African, resident in Hong Kong and trained there as a facilitator, delivered 7 symposiums in different cities in her homeland during her recent holiday, exciting over 60 people to now want training. We will be delighted to oblige.
- the other key has been the people in the ATD community world-wide who have brought their connections and contacts in to support the expansion of this message. That’s how we have a large and enthusiastic group awaiting our arrival in Nigeria, consisting of people already in action through NGOs addressing poverty issues, climate change, children’s rights and more; this ensures we will already be landing amongst friends
As a result of this I will be heading for Africa in just a couple of weeks (schedule below), joined for the South African trainings by my friend and colleague Ruel Walker; it promises to be quite a trip.
So here’s 2 ways you can help today.
- Please let your friends, contacts and extended communities in Africa know about the events below. Please invite them all to consider attending one of these events or to contact me to meet during this time. Another highly valuable resource as you invite people is the Symposium trailer here
- The other help we need is money. We are normally able to cover the local costs of events like these with income from symposium attendees and training participants. But this model simply won’t work in Nigeria and Ghana, where our local contacts impress upon us that any kind of charge, however modest, will exclude lots of people and my budget is overspent just getting the air-tickets to Lagos and Accra. I’ve been blown away by the generosity already exhibited by friends from Hong Kong, the US, Japan and elsewhere with who’s help we have been able to gather some funds to support the trip to Awal’s home in Tamale, and even to take him a laptop. There is still a need for more funds in each country, which means an opportunity to be one of the people making these trips possible, to help spread awakening in the world. Please let me know if you would like to help, by emailing me here., any amount will make a difference, perhaps allowing just one more person to hear this message of hope and possibility and to themselves become ambassadors of a new dream for Africa and the world. All funds will be administered through The Pachamama Alliance, as US-based not-for-profit.
The Itinerary
22 August Symposium Abuja, Nigeria
23 August Facilitator training Abuja
24 – 26 August Available for meetings Abuja and Lagos
27 August Symposium Cape Town, South Africa
28 – 30 August Facilitator training Cape Town
31 August Symposium Plettenberg Bay
1 – 2 September Facilitator training Plettenberg Bay
4 – 6 September Facilitator training Johannesburg
9 September Symposium Tamale, Ghana
10 September Facilitator training Tamale
