Profile

I have worked with communities, organisations and governments in eleven countries helping them understand and come to grips with their current situation and find their way forward together.

Some years ago I volunteered in Zimbabwe as a resource management adviser to the Mudzi District Council. There I lived in a small black township with no electricity, often no running water, a severely degraded environment, poverty, gender disparity, poor health and increasing incidence of HIV/Aids, poor governance, and beautiful resourceful people. My challenge was to find a way through the demands of a society collapsing into chaos to a place and method where I could make a difference. I had no inspirational answer and focused on creating friendships and my work where I experienced the melting pot of all the above issues. I questioned ……. ”What could change that could affect everything”?

I took colleagues to meetings in Harare with expatriates and Zimbabwe farmers and leaders. We explored different ways of doing things. We took remarkable steps in wildlife management, business training, forestry lots, community development, and more, and made lots of friends in the community.

When it came time for me to leave, the CEO said “Thank you for showing me how to work with white people.” I was stunned. Of all the things we had done, the relationships I had created were the most important memory. It wasn’t until some years later that I realised the quality of our relationships is the answer to my question: ”what could change that could affect everything”?