Yesterday we celebrated Martin Luther King Day. Just like our national hero, I have a dream. A dream that started 30 years ago in 1995 on my first trip overseas. How could we be so rich in America and yet overseas whole cities are so poor that they live by landfills. I deeply felt the inequity and resolved that I must do something.
Then in 2005 I spent approximately a year as a campus pastor at the University of Zambia and thought surely my time had come to make an impact in the nations. However a crazy African experience left me broken hearted and the dream once again deferred. My time in Africa put a passion in my heart though that has never died to somehow partner with God and others for transformation there.
In 2011 when we were given our coffee roaster my first question was “who do we know that grows coffee?” Now thirty years from my first time overseas I finally have open doors to begin exploring this long term dream to make a difference in the places of origin of our coffees and teas and to do social agritourism trips to facilitate economic development and ultimately transformation.
Open Doors in 2024
For more details read my blog post from September, The Longest Roller Coaster. There I shared how I made connections through Sister Cities of Tanzania to meet the Ambassador of Tanzania and a veteran Tanzanian coffee farmer, David Robinson (son of the famous baseball player Jackie Robinson) for the goal of facilitating farm direct relationships for coffee and tea. I had the goal of raising $7,000 for the Tanzanian Economic Development Summit in Dar es Salaam with Sister Cities and the Tanzanian Embassy March 10-14 to “scout out the land” for partnerships and opportunities.
ProVision for the Vision
I am so thrilled to report that the provision is there for this trip and I have officially signed up to go. While I am there I will attend the Tanzanian Economic Development Summit with Sister Cities and the Tanzanian Embassy. I am also planning to visit a woman owned tea co-op in Tanzania called Kazi Yetu. I love the story and mission of this company and can’t wait to go visit their facility in Dar es Salaam and their farm co-op in the mountains. I first met the owner, Tahira Nazari, on a phone call with the ambassador and Sister Cities about a year ago and immediately bonded over our similar goals. Tahira and her team have successfully built the first ever co-op owned tea processing facility in Tanzania. The result is that more of the proceeds of the tea stay with the people that grow the tea.
My goal is to be able to use some of their farm fresh products in our tea line and to close the gap between consumer and grower. I would love to be part of a female owned tea line. My hope is that we can also use some of the connections through Sister Cities to help the locals with their goals for community growth.
For instance when I met the mayor of Durham’s Sister City of Arusha Tanzania this past year he shared how the orphans from the AIDS crisis had now grown up and were having children of their own. Coming out of their own trauma, they are unequipped to be parents and have been abandoning their children at government functions. They even have to post guards at events to make sure that no one leaves children behind. Theoretically what if we make relationships with things such as the UNC School of Social Work to help them with their social services?
I can also offer my skill set as a mental health coach through Dr. Barbara Ministries to share a faith and psychology ministry with church leaders so that they can be trauma informed. Through this ministry there is a book study and online healing community to make emotional healing more easily accessible. I believe transformation can begin from the inside out with faith and mental health healing tools.
In addition I hope there will be opportunities for Nex Gen CEO to equip youth entrepreneurs to build their businesses. According to available data, around 50% of Africa’s population is under the age of 20, making it the youngest continent in the world with a large portion of its population falling within this age bracket. Read more here about why Africa’s youth hold the keys to it’s development potential: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2022/09/why-africa-youth-key-development-potential/.
Join Me on the Adventure for Transformation
You can be part of this God sized adventure. Here’s some ways to join me:
- Like and comment on my social media and blog posts
- Pray for wisdom, protection, provision, and God’s help
- Connect me with like hearted people interested in win win collaborations
- Donate air line miles
- Donate hotel points for the Hyatt or another hotel close to the venue in Dar es Salaam
- Buy our products or connect us to other people and businesses that can buy our products (especially wholesale)
- Go with me to Tanzania!!
- Join our team at Som’s either as a volunteer, mentor, investor, or employee
Contact Ashley at ashley@somscafe.com for more information.
