This is the fifth post in a series about Five Talents' Business As Mission (BAM) program, which develops training materials that professionals use on short-term mission trips to teach micro-entrepreneurs. The author of this post, Jim Oakes, wrote these reflections before returning from a recent BAM trip to South Sudan. Click here to read parts one, two, three and four of this series.
I'm writing this note from the lounge of the Imperial Hotel in Juba, South Sudan, the capital city of the newest country in the world. South Sudan officially became a separate nation from the Sudan on July 9, 2011, drawing a close (sort of) to a conflict that lasted for over 20 years before a peace treaty was signed in 2005, ultimately leading to South Sudan's recent independence. It has been an incredibly long and difficult journey for these amazing people.
South Sudan is home to some of the greatest contrasts I have ever seen in the world. A country roughly the size of Texas, it has a population "guesstimated" at about 8 million, mostly clustered in the extreme south along the borders with Kenya and Uganda. Further north, where we have been on this trip, you can fly for long periods without seeing any sign of civilization. Only the occasional isolated Tukul interrupts the unbroken landscape. Even the wild animals left during the civil war, apparently because of the fighting. It is a huge, largely empty country, although it has vast natural resources.
It is also one of the most impoverished nations in the world. The list of "first place" standings for this country can be really depressing – one of the highest illiteracy and child mortality rates, appalling health statistics, and more.
And yet, aid (particularly relief) is pouring in from around the world. Juba is like a gold rush town. Western style (well, sort of) hotels are springing up everywhere, they are busy paving roads and building offices, and the number of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) operating here is staggering. The UN even operates a quasi-airline called UN Humanitarian Air Services just to shuttle NGO people around. It is a busy place!
For all that activity, however, there is very little visible effort teaching people to earn a living in a sustainable way. All of those basics are crucial, of course, but it seems to me that any effort that does not acknowledge people's need ultimately to stand on their own abilities is inadequate. That is where Five Talents comes in. Our work here, in conjunction with World Concern and the Mothers' Union, is aimed at helping people with a hand up, not a handout. Our hope is that this combination of savings groups and business training will lead our clients to a future that will create jobs, fight poverty, and transform lives. I think we are helping to make that start here!
As we finished our training session in Kuajok this week, one of the students asked me for my impression of South Sudan. My answer to him was that I saw a place where the people have literally nothing, and yet the enthusiasm, energy, and optimism is so prevalent in the air that you can literally feel it everywhere. Combine that attitude with their natural resources, some capital, and a little business training, and it is enough to make me hopeful about their future. They do indeed have a difficult road ahead, but with God's grace, I think they can do it!
I am so grateful to have been on this trip, and to have seen a land in the midst of an amazing transformation. I have travelled with two wonderful teammates, Tim Purnell and Stoddard Lane-Reticker. I have enjoyed the journey, and have learned much from both of them. It has been a trip I will not soon forget.
