Fueling an economy

So today I returned to Qwa Qwa for the first time in over two months. I want to talk about the assemblies we are doing but I'll wait till the end of week so I can give a broader picture. Now I want to discuss something about Leadership Summit that came to mind.

One of the distinctive things in my mind about Leadership Summit is that we use native Basothos from Qwa Qwa to teach the classes. We call them coaches and we recruit them, train them and grow them to be strong Christian teachers for the students. One of the things that hit me today though is that we also pay them. This may not seem like a big deal but in an area with over 80% unemployment and chronic poverty, job creation is huge.

Today during lunch we went to a coaches' house (named Alfred) for lunch (we had our own lunch he just offered us his home to enjoy for the hour). His house was very impressive if not for its size but for its niceness. A kitchen, living room, and 3 bedrooms. A bathroom and a sink with clean, running water. A refrigerator, freezer, TV and stereo. Not American but everything one needs. He lives with his two cousins, one of which has an incredibly cute baby. You could see that while they weren't excessively rich, they were doing far more than just scrapping by.

By paying its coaches, Leadership Summit is creating strong, local, Christian leaders who are economically independent. That is, Thrive Africa is fulfilling its vision.

Pretty inspiring stuff, if you ask me.