Transcriber: Bernadett Moragyi Reviewer: Zsuzsa Viola
When my son Ben first learned that we were in a lockdown,
that his kindergarten was closed,
and he could not see his beloved friends and family,
he cried and hid in his secret hiding place.
For a long time he did not come out until he shifted his focus to
collecting a list of fun things that we could do,
like camping in our living room.
The problems that we're facing today seem overwhelming.
Wars, pandemic, natural disasters
causing many of us to fall into a deep sense of despair.
Psychologists show us that despair leads to isolation
and inward focus,
and a growing tendency we can observe
both in individuals and nations: “Me and my country first.”
Like in Ben, despair leads to inaction.
When what we need today more than ever,
is action on the many global challenges that we’re facing.
Action, for example, on the U.N. 17 Sustainable Development Goals
for Humanity and Human Progress.
Reaching these goals requires action on all levels:
individual, national and international.
So how can we jump off this downward spiral of despair
and turn resignation into resolution?
We need to change our perspective
because limiting perspectives limits our actions.
So today, I am truly grateful
to share a life-changing experience with you.
An experience that radically opened my perspective,
and of those around me.
It arose out of a feeling of shock and despair
and changed into confidence and action-taking.
In 2007, I first traveled to Nigeria to support a non-profit organization.
And I lived with a lady who later became one of my dearest friends.
A wonderful woman named Maureen.
2007 was also the year a corrupt and manipulated election took place.
Riots broke out everywhere in the country.
Aggressive mobs marched the streets. People set tyres on fire.
Sellers closed their shops, markets, and banks shut down.
We could not get food
or money to buy it with.
And for the first time in my life,
I felt terrified.
When I shared how I felt with Maureen, she simply said, “Jenny.
Don’t worry, we’ll manage.
If we stick together, we’ll manage with what we have.”
And we did.
For more than ten days we traded food with our neighbors,
and we shared what we had in the compound.
It didn’t matter who had how much; everybody contributed what they had.
We survived the riots and did not feel hungry for one day.
Even though this experience was hard for me,
it was also one of the greatest blessings in my life.
Not only did it provide a growth opportunity that
no university or professional education ever could,
the motto “we’ll manage”
impacts the way I do business and solve life’s challenges even today.
I am less fearful and more confident, ready to take action.
This experience has opened my perspective from limiting to empowering.
Many further experiences have given me a perspective of hope
that I can turn resignation into resolution
and make a change in this world.
Let’s explore together what it takes to slowly but surely
change your perspective towards the principles of hope,
H-O-P-E,
and to create the change that we need.
The first principle in HOPE, the H stands for HUMANIZING others.
Think about your assumptions and your perceptions on Nigeria.
Is it the country with a rich culture,
and overwhelming hospitality
and a growing economy that we have much to learn from?
If you grew up in the Western civilization like I did,
chances are high that your perspective on almost all African countries
is a picture of war, corruption
and a sad, malnourished child with flies on its face.
And this, for many people like me, creates guilt and despair.
When I first traveled to Lagos in 2007,
I felt like I had to share some of the prosperity that I enjoyed
with people that were, as I perceived, less lucky in life.
Despair creates isolation and division.
Us and them.
We perceive what makes us different from them
and reach out to people that are primarily like us,
when in fact we humans share the same basic needs
and with that the same life challenges worldwide.
So actually, everyone is like us.
When we humanize, we don’t see the problems. We see the person.
We see people with dreams and goals, problem-solving ideas,
lessons to tell and stories to share.
When we humanize, we connect on an eye-to-eye level
from one person to another.
And when we feel connected, we reach out.
And when we reach out, we reach our goals.
The second principle in HOPE, the O stands for OPENING UP to progress.
The perspective that many of us have
on the world’s negative global situation right now
is that it’s inevitable.
Due to wars, economic crises, natural disasters, things are even getting worse.
When in fact,
according to World Bank statistics for 2021 in low-income countries,
we have made progress
on many of the sustainable development focus areas.
For example, since 2000,
infant and maternal mortality rates have halved,
and the percentage of girls going to school has doubled.
In spite of crisis,
if we take action, the outlook is promising.
News reports and social media are full of negative stories
because that's what creates attention.
But these reports are only half the story.
Opening up means to actively seek and embrace
the positive development that is happening in our world every day.
One of my favorite authors, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, said,
“When we realize that there’s never a single story about any place,
we regain a kind of paradise.”
Listen to empowering stories, tell empowering stories.
Both stories about Nigeria,
the malnourished child,
and the overwhelming hospitality are legitimate.
But only one is helpful and empowering.
Choosing to tell empowering stories,
that’s how we regain a kind of paradise.
When I returned from Nigeria,
I told my story about the humanity I experienced with friends and family.
Together, we decided to open a non-profit organization
that supports vulnerable children in a Nigerian village.
Sometimes I have days where I cry
because the problems that I hear about seem so overwhelming.
But then I remind myself of the progress we’ve made,
like sending 70 kids to school
and accompanying them from their primary school to their high school graduation.
Choose to focus on progress because progress motivates,
and motivation leads to action.
The third principle in HOPE, the P, stands for PARTNERING with others.
Our NGO soon discovered
that roughly a third of our children wasn’t going to school regularly
due to illnesses caused by contaminated water.
We decided to distribute tabs
to the families to help them purify their water,
and quickly noticed that now 90% of the kids were going to school regularly.
One day a friend came by and said, “Jenny, I love your organization’s initiative.
But it’s not sustainable. What you need are boreholes,
wells that can provide water for decades.”
Easier said than done. A professionally drilled well costs around $5,000.
But three of us from Nigeria and Germany initiated a borehole drilling project,
which, over the course of three years hard work,
skyrocketed into a partnership with donors from Germany, the U.S.,
Canada, Ghana and Nigeria.
We raised enough funds through these partnerships to drill not one borehole
but ten boreholes, providing all 20,000 villagers with clean drinking water.
As I’m speaking to you now,
the drilling machines are on their way
to fulfill a vision that three people had three years ago.
When we partner, we can reach even the highest goals.
Let’s work together to make progress possible.
The fourth principle in HOPE, the E, stands for ENABLING others.
When my husband first visited Nigeria,
we decided to visit the beautiful city of Jos.
We stayed at our friend’s, Paul’s house,
and his house had no flooring, no carpets, no paint on the walls.
When Paul said,
“I saved up money to invest in my apartment and make it look nicer,”
I replied, “Yes. Painting the walls and doing the floors
would have a major impact on your quality of life.
If you want, we can help you.”
Paul looked a bit puzzled and said, “Why paint the walls?
I’m looking at buying the bigger TV so I can entertain my guests.
Would you help me transport that TV back home?”
Many of us have fantastic ideas
on how we can create a change in our local communities and our world.
But often when we think we’re supporting others,
but what we’re actually doing is imposing our mindset and our ideas on them.
When we shift our perspective to enabling others,
we first move from what we think is the right thing to do,
to asking more questions, like: What do the people want?
What is in place already?
And what resources do they have to achieve their goals?
And then we co-create the solution and implementation.
When we build on solutions that depend on us,
our ideas, our practices, our finances,
we can help, short term.
But we prevent growth opportunities,
and our solutions are not sustainable.
That’s why
the villagers in Nigeria are taking responsibility.
They have founded a community association that is organizing trainings,
financing and maintaining the wells on the long run.
Next year, ten boreholes will be officially handed over
to their new owners, the villagers.
Engage with others as equal. Leave them as successors.
This is enabling.
The principles of hope have changed my perspective and my world.
When you shift your perspective to hope,
you can and will make a change in this world.
And while you’re creating an impact, you go personally
in your own mindset, knowledge and skills.
Get out of your comfort zone,
challenge your perspective, and actively decide to
Humanize, Open up, Partner and Enable others.
Because then we have hope that by changing our perspective,
we can change the world.
Thank you.