What we can learn from the village lifestyle

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What we can learn from the village lifestyle

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Then benefits of a community village lifestyle like Africa, my goodness that's a fun question. I love that. I think recently, an African proverb has become vogue is that, "it takes a village to raise a child." It's an African proverb that, I think, has really meant a lot to all of us back at home, but now, globally. I think I want to tip this question on it's head and say, an African village is actually a human village. It means that you are actually there, engaged, and present. We talk about people being a village, but in Africa, it means that your uncle or your neighbor can actually discipline you. If they see you doing something wrong, they don't have to say, "Well, that's Derick's son. Okay." No, because they know if they leave you to behave poorly, you end up growing up and becoming a bad adult. All of us in society suffer because you have been raised poorly. Or it means that maybe Derick or my wife are not available at the time to see that. That needs to be addressed right away. So part of being an African village is the discipline is consistent, not just for the person in the home, but the whole village. And the village moral best is always consistent. We all know what's good and bad in our society. It seems overarching, but it's very consistent. It also means that the love is consistent. When I was coming to school in the U.S., my whole village got together to get me the air ticket to come. They all chipped in. It's called the harambee spirit. Harmabee is a Swahili word meaning, "to pull together." That's village-like love. That's what I've enjoyed about being a part of the African village is that even though everything has become technology bound, we still are in touch with our networks of friendship. The communal sharing still exists and that's what I hope will always be the case.

Learn about: What we can learn from the village lifestyle from Derreck Kayongo,...

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Derreck Kayongo

Parent with a Purpose

Derreck Kayongo is a social entrepreneur and the founder of The Global Soap Project. An executive and development expert, Derreck Kayongo has more than 15 years experience developing strategic social campaigns within organizations for cause-related advocacy, public policy, issue management, and community organizing. His work has made a profound contribution in raising awareness aimed at realizing permanent solutions to global poverty.

Kayongo’s journey from child refugee to fearless visionary is filled with moments of inspiration (along with the benefits of good, old-fashioned sweat equity) that make him one of the most popular – and authentic – speakers on the circuit today. From Africa to Atlanta with nothing but a dream and tenacity, Kayongo beat the odds, earned an education, and has served in leadership roles in some of the world’s most respected non-governmental agencies (NGOs) since 1994. Today, he shares his vivacious spirit and invaluable experience in the areas entrepreneurship, environmental sustainability, global health, social justice and professional engagement with audiences in both the corporate and not-for-profit worlds.

Derreck Kayongo’s ability to motivate others to understand the role their work and skills can play in problem solving is one of the many reasons he was chosen as a finalist for the 2011 CNN Hero of the Year Award. Add to that the mantra of being a voice for the voiceless through his noble work of giving back, including dedicating his life to improving the lives of marginalized and vulnerable people across the globe: he has worked with the American Friends Service Committee as Program Director for the Southeast Peace Education program; joined Amnesty International as the Director of the Southeast Region; and currently serves as Senior Advocacy Coordinator for the Southeast region with CARE International.

In 2009, Kayongo and his wife Sarah embarked on a new journey pursuing their life-long passion of starting an NGO of their own. The Global Soap Project focuses on repurposing partially-used soap from hotels into new soap for needy populations, particularly in Africa. To date, The Global Soap Project has been able to donate 9,000 bars of soap to Swaziland, 5,000 bars to Kenya, 10,000 to Ghana, 1,000 to Uganda and another 3,000 to Haiti.

Derreck Kayongo is a proud naturalized U.S. citizen. He has been recognized as a 2011 CNN HEROES finalist and a COX Enterprise nominee; honored by Congressman John Lewis with a Certificate of Congressional Recognition; is currently writing his autobiography; has been featured in more than 20 news stories in the U.S., featured on Fox News as part of the Real American story series; featured on CNN with Fredricka Whitfield.

Since 1994, Derreck Kayongo has given more than 300 speeches on key issues related to poverty reduction in Africa; mainly on water and sanitation, soap, HIV/AIDS, Child Soldiers, Health and Sanitation, Impact of Landmines in Africa, Countries in Conflict and role of basic Education for Girls in Africa.

 
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Transcription: 
Then benefits of a community village lifestyle like Africa, my goodness that's a fun question. I love that. I think recently, an African proverb has become vogue is that, "it takes a village to raise a child." It's an African proverb that, I think, has really meant a lot to all of us back at home, but now, globally. I think I want to tip this question on it's head and say, an African village is actually a human village. It means that you are actually there, engaged, and present. We talk about people being a village, but in Africa, it means that your uncle or your neighbor can actually discipline you. If they see you doing something wrong, they don't have to say, "Well, that's Derick's son. Okay." No, because they know if they leave you to behave poorly, you end up growing up and becoming a bad adult. All of us in society suffer because you have been raised poorly. Or it means that maybe Derick or my wife are not available at the time to see that. That needs to be addressed right away. So part of being an African village is the discipline is consistent, not just for the person in the home, but the whole village. And the village moral best is always consistent. We all know what's good and bad in our society. It seems overarching, but it's very consistent. It also means that the love is consistent. When I was coming to school in the U.S., my whole village got together to get me the air ticket to come. They all chipped in. It's called the harambee spirit. Harmabee is a Swahili word meaning, "to pull together." That's village-like love. That's what I've enjoyed about being a part of the African village is that even though everything has become technology bound, we still are in touch with our networks of friendship. The communal sharing still exists and that's what I hope will always be the case.