By: Fouzia Tua Alhassan
Here in this article is a witty narration of “impact” in the development space. Amidst the shutdown of United State Agency for International Development (USAID) and general reduction in funding by international development agencies, I have read comments of jubilation, social media rants from uninformed place and general fatigue by funding recipients Impressively, I have read a zillion stories of how aid has made impact for centuries.
Let’s pause on the above analogies and talk about the interesting encounter I had with a young lady by name Thelma Mahama. In November last year, I volunteered with the Network for Women’s Rights Organizations (NETRIGHT) to review and lead the writing of a report on Beijing +30 progress on the thematic areas: Education & Training and the Girl Child to feed into the Ghana NGO’s National Beijing+30 Review Parallel Report. I accepted the responsibility to lead six (6) other volunteers to work on the report. As a leader, I established contact with all my members, we assigned roles and worked closely with the members to produce the report. On one occasion during our catch-up meetings, my members delayed joining a virtual meeting and I needed to have them on board. As I picked up my phone to follow up with phone calls, I dialed one of the members and the name that popped up was Thelma Mahama. I had Thelma’s number already after a previous encounter. The call went through, Thelma answered the call and as she responded “hello”, I responded with a few salutations. What happens in the next minute was the realization of impact. I immediately responded, “oh, Thelma, I’m Sorry. I think I dialed the wrong number. I will call you back.” I went back to calling other members who successfully joined the call, and we had a successful meeting without Thelma, sadly.
A few days later, I followed up with members on the progress of their work. There it appeared on my screen again “Thelma Mahama”. I could not believe the shock in that consciousness. The Thelma I knew was the Thelma I called days back to get information except that I didn’t expect that Thelma to be the Thelma who is co-creating a report (confused?). I paused, put the phone down, allowed myself to let it sink in and then picked up my phone again and placed a call to Thelma. Immediately she picked up the phone, she started laughing. We both laughed and she narrated her part of the story and how she knew I was not expecting her to be the Thelma. “Thelma, you were just in Junior High School, a Tech-girl from Savana Signature’s project. That can’t be you.” We both laughed uncontrollably! My unconscious bias towards a young person was imminent and I pinched myself, embraced it and promised never to undermine my “mentees.”
I began to pay attention to the efforts of Thelma as we worked on the project. I knew she volunteered for the review process because she wanted to learn so I had a responsibility to teach her and I gave her good feedback on her contribution to the report. I also realized the efforts and resources the organisation invested in her some 10 years ago yielded results. It was a moment of pride and hope. A feeling that will later develop into a stronger appreciation of community and international development.
It was therefore not surprising that when we met at the National Consultation meeting on the review of the Beijing+30 report, Thelma was one of the representatives from Northern Ghana. She represented her employer and I did not miss the opportunity to publicly announce how my journey with Thelma started and the room was full of applauds, not just for Thelma but for the fact that, 30 years ago when the Beijing platform for action was launched, women and girls then had limited mentors and role models. Thelma and her nine (9) other Tech-girls had the opportunity 10 years ago, they had mentors, role models and there were inspiring women that kept their journey worthwhile. At that moment, I disagreed completely with the action to cut funding to empowerment activities. I also realized that the many other organisations around the world doing the little things we did 10 years ago, will find their Thelma. If they ever did, they will realize that the investment was right.
This is one of many untold stories of impact. Impact indeed takes time, I saw it, felt it and now, I fully believe in it.
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