rtn223’s Blog

1. List ten things that make you feel human.

• Spending quality time with friends and family
• Eating good food
• Listening to music
• Mindfulness exercises
• Having an ultimate vision that I want to see come to fruition
• Working towards that vision
• Laughter
• Having the capacity to feel for myself and others – being emotional
• Playing music
• Having limitations

2. Articulate your philosophy of engagement as it pertains to your work with the GSIF / LVSIF. Specifically discuss 

1. Why should I engage?

There used to be a time when knowledge was power and ignorance was bliss: we are way past that time. Ignorance is a plague that kills and knowledge comes with a great responsibility for sustaining humanity at large. That is the set of lenses I view this world with. The work that GSIF does is that of impact and that can be used to help civilizations that are lagging behind; to give them a hand up instead of a handout. I engage with this work because I believe in the physically visible results that it produces. This belief stems from personal experiences growing up in Zimbabwe, my own morals and personal core values, my identity as a person and the knowledge that I have acquired in different spheres. It is all these that have driven me to develop a passion for the work that I do and make a well-informed decision to make decisions that I deem to be in support of better livelihood for people.

2. How must I engage? 

How I engage can validate the reason I am engaging. As such, gathering enough information about Sierra Leone enables me as part of a team to strategize and come up with the perfect angle into which the project system is co-created between us and the people of Sierra Leone. This can only and only if I am able to blend myself into the country and see things in the same way they do. This idea of co-creation gives the people of Sierra Leone a sense of drive to participate in for various personal/social reasons but it also gives us the opportunity to get the support we will need in order to make the launch of this a success. 

3. With whom must I engage? 

As mentioned above, the people of Sierra Leone are the primary target for this development agenda and hence it is important to start building trust and security with them. This, we can do through the field trips by immersing ourselves into their culture and treat them with such respect and hospitality they will show us. Secondly, we must engage with current existing NGOs working in the country. They will be very insightful about certain things or policies that we need to be aware of while proceeding with our project. At some point, it might prove to be useful to have such connections as we might need letters of recommendations from such at some point. The third party to engage with that will also validate the reasoning for engagement will be the potential sponsors for the projects. This will provide the funds to actually start the project and start planning accordingly. The fourth party would be team members on the project as this is where everything will be emerging. Effective communication and duty allocation can prove useful. The last group to engage with will be the government in Sierra Leone but this comes at a very later life of a project when we are ready to start implementing a system that we would have developed.

4. What kinds of challenges, opportunities, and approaches should I care about? 

Opportunities that will make this project move forward not only include lab work but funding as well. If there is any funding source that the project is eligible for, it is important to apply for it and get more resources to push the project forward. The challenge that is of essence is that of having to get paperwork approvals from Sierra Leone. Not all paperwork happens within the timed deadline in our plans and we have to factor that into our planning for the project. For example, for the field trip that we are going to do this summer, we need certain approvals in time for us to do tests that will change the pace and course of this research itself. 

5. What might my epitaph read?

“He lived, He loved and most of all, he will live on in his legacy he left behind”