International Institute For Global Leadership
Issue #94 * October 2009
www.global-leadership.com
Asheville, NC. USA
Guest Editorial
We Are The Future!
Francis David Masimba Mwale (Zimbabwe)
Barak Obama became President of the United States against every possible prediction. He has led a new America that seeks to be accepted as leader that does not force its will on those it leads. In the last few weeks he carried a message to people in Africa. That message applies to every person in the world as much as it does to Africa. Writing from Africa, I know what his election means to millions of people.
In these times when people are working harder for less, not only in terms of the money they make but they are losing family and relationships, they are losing those things that make us human. The size of our problems has outstripped the capacity of our politics, leadership and economic order to deal with them. It is only left to the will and hope of ordinary people like ourselves to change the way the world works.
I have been inspired by Barak Obama’s election. It has shown us that it is possible to rise from being virtually unknown to becoming the leader of the free world in just 5 years. Where will you be five years from now? What are you goals and what are you doing today to fulfill them? It is possible to become wealthy, to rise out of poverty, to become a professional, an academic, a leader, to become anybody you choose to be – if you are determined.
Never before have ordinary people been more able to straddle the divide of “have” and “have not” to make their dreams come true. I have no doubt that we have the power to create the future we desire, both personally & globally. We live in a unique time with access to knowledge and resources that were once only available to the elite. Empowered by this knowledge we can create a better future for ourselves and for the world as a whole if we seize the opportunities at hand.
At this time, when the there are so many challenges with poverty, disease and wars; when so many people are suffering; Our only resource might be the power which lies between our two ears – our creative spirit and vision. It is times like these that cause us to look at the past and what has occurred to create our current circumstances. It is times like these that challenge us to make the changes necessary to create the kind of future we desire.
If we allow ourselves to be prisoners of our history, then our future will be but a repeat of the past & present. But if we are practical, determined visionaries like Barak Obama, we can rise out of obscurity and help lead the our world to a positive future which is much different than our past.
Good intentions are not always enough. Good things never happened unless someone was willing to hold a vision and to following through on that vision with determination and persistence. Think of your own life. Was there a time when it was much touigher for you than it is today? Didn’t it take a goal, a vision and a lot of hard work to get you to where you are today? We must be willing to reach for what we want and to do the work it takes to get it. At a time when people hunger for opportunity and thirst for justice, we must push for transformation at every level of our society. We must go about the difficult but important task of building our new world, one square inch at a time. In Obama’s words, “This is our moment, this is our time. Yes we can.”
In The News
IIGL Acknowledge by the Dalai Lama Foundation
http://www.dalailamafoundation.org/dlf/en/partnerships.jsp
Zimbabwe Gets IIGL Book Distribution Point
IIGL student, Joseph Ngonidzashe Zvoushoma, from Harare, Zimbabwe recently volunteered to become the IIGL book distribution point for Zimbabwe. This brings to four the number of distribution point we now have in Africa; the other three being in Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda.
IIGL Partners With Sudanese
Due to the efforts of Sunday Taabu Wani, founder and director of the Southern Sudan Institute for Women’s Education and Leadership, IIGL and SSIWEL are exploring ways of making the IIGL curriculum widely available to Sudanese youth both in Sudan and the diaspora. After sharing the IIGL info with her mailing list, we have already enrolled five new Sudanese students in August and September, two of who have already become active students after completing the two introductory books. For more information about SSIWEL, go to www.ssiwel.org
What Our Students Are Saying
Sunday Taabu (Sudan/USA)
I am delightful I register for the leadership program. It has enriched my life more than I can express in a paper. The story of Jonathan Seagull was so personal, it is like my journey in life. It is the reflection of my struggles, but then I also grew stronger by each challenged I face in the journey. I got carried away with the experiences of Jonathan such that I finished the book in just one day. The stories are real to me especially when my father died when I was thirteen years old. I had to brew local beer to pay for both my brother’s (two years older than me) school fees and mine. We were fending for ourselves besides facing many other cultural and economic challenges even death itself. I could also see the positive that came as the result of that struggle in my life especially my sensitiveness to suffering of others. The South Sudan Institute For Women’s Education & Leadership, which I founded, is my way of helping those who might have hit a hard rock and have no hope or change to make difference in their own lives or those of their children. I know exactly how hard it was when I fended for myself. Oh! the two books spoke to me in a personally uplifting voice. I will be reading them time to time. I cherished every bit of information written in these books. Thank you so much. I will send in my assignment after hearing from you. God bless you.
What Our Students Are Doing
Liberia – Youth Radio Station
Diapah Ayo Quinisier
ayobeth@hotmail.com
In 2006, a radio station for and about children was an only an idea stiring around in the mind of one very daring and adventurous IIGL student in Liberia. Today, three years later, ABC FM reaches more than 50 thousand men, woman and children throughout Liberia. Children are now talking to other children and to adults about issues affecting their lives. Liberian children finally have a voice and the success of ABC FM shows that they have only been waiting to be heard.
http://www.abcfmliberia.com
To quote Diapha, “Kids have dreams and with their dreams fulfilled, they can change the world. Without our support, their dreams evaporate like a mist before the rising sun. They need me, they need you, they need all of us.”
Rwanda – Leadership Training
Aloys Hakizimana
On August 22nd, 2009, The Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) of Rwanda held a seminar in Kigali, the Capitol. This was a training workshop for 50 Rwandan YWCA members, chosen from different branches and considered as opinion leaders. They invited me to address the participants about the role of visionary leadership in an organization such as YWCA.
The YWCA of Rwanda is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that works at the grass roots level with women and young girls. It was established in Rwanda in February 1995, after the genocide and in response to the rising concern for the many widows and children left in its wake. Operating in 4 out of 5 provinces in Rwanda the YWCA has almost 1,200 full members, women and girls, and more than 14,299 beneficiaries – orphans and vulnerable children, people living with HIV/AIDS and youth. Its mission is to bring together women and children who would like to undertake activities that enable them to improve their education, health and socio-economic situation. YWCA vision is the society where peace, justice, women and children’s rights are recognized and where the environment is protected.
During the training, I reminded them of the reason why they joined the organization. After discussions about the vision of the association, they agreed with me that the vision is the reason that attracts their commitment and energizes them to go toward the goal. I encouraged participants to act as leaders based on the leadership principles that I shared during the training and to remember that very often, others will join the YWCA or stay active based on how their inspire them or model good leadership.
Ethiopia – World March for Peace and Nonviolence
Bereket Alemayehu
Friday, October 2nd – the United Nations “International Day of Nonviolence” and Gandhi’s birthday – marked the beginning of the first World March for Peace and Nonviolence, a 93-day, six- continent peace trek that began in Wellington, New Zealand with an international team of 25 marchers who will carry the Hiroshima Peace Flame as they cross through Asia, Europe, Africa, and North and South America before reaching Punta de Vacas, Argentina, on January 2, 2010 Along with the march will be a corresponding series of cultural, educational, and social events taking place in more than 100 countries to abolish nuclear weapons and reject violence of all kinds.
http://www.theworldmarch.org
What Our Students Are Reading
Goal Achievement through Treasure Mapping
By Barbara J. Laporte
Goal Achievement through Treasure Mapping: A Guide to Personal and Professional Fulfillment shows readers how to apply principles discussed in the best-selling book The Secret. Barbara Laporte helps you understand The Law of Attraction (or Law of Mind Action) and provides proof of the power of intention and visualization by telling touching, true stories of people who have manifested their goals using Treasure Mapping. Through these success stories, you will learn ways to release negativity and clutter, appreciate the lessons of the present moment, and focus on your goals with positive expectancy. Five simple steps get you started on this fun and easy tool for transforming your life and achieving your goals. Whether your goal is a romantic relationship, a more fulfilling career, a healthier body image, or any other pure desire, you will be touched and inspired by the stories Barb tells, motivated to transform your own life, and challenged to reflect on how best to do this. Barbara Laporte has practiced, refined, and taught treasure mapping as a goal accomplishment technique for almost 20 years. She holds a Masters degree in Human Development with a concentration on Career / Life Transition Counseling for Mid-life Adults, and works as a holistic career counselor. Her ability to touch readers and clients with particular compassion and insight stem from the significant transitions and losses she has experienced in her own life. Barb and her husband live in New Brighton, Minnesota in the home they manifested through treasure mapping.
Meet Our New Students
We are please to welcome three new active students this during September. They are from Nigeria and Sudan.
Dahunsi Olanrewaju
Lagos, Nigeria
Dahunsi Olanrewaju is my name, I am optimistic about life and the opportunity of being a change agent. I am fearsomely simple, exceptionally bold, daringly different, infectiously passionate, and incurably optimistic. I am an avid reader, budding entrepreneur and a soccer enthusiast. I am a member of Junior Chamber International, Nigeria (A worldwide Federation of young Leaders and Entrepreneurs between the ages of 18-40 years). My favorite books is the Seven Habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey and my favorite movie is the Pursuit of Happiness by Will Smith. I am the first In a family of four.
Okeny S. Ochira
Sudan / Norway
I was born in a small town in south Sudan, called Torit, in the middle of the civil war that ravaged the country from between 1955 to 1972. I started my elementary school in 1978, but with much difficulties and irregularities I completed my secondary school in 1990, in the middle of another longest civil war in Sudan, between north and south. The war erupted as a result of race, religion and control of land resources.
I had wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer, but my dream was not what I should follow. In Africa, you must follow what your parents want you to be, thus, my parents wanted me to be a teacher. After my secondary school, I joined the Catholic missionary congregation, and I was told to study in a technical school and become a brother. I follow technical training for 2 years. Then a 2 year course on religious life. I took the vows as a missionary brother, and follow courses at the university where I completed and was awarded with a BA degree in social sciences.
I have to admit that I had never had chance to study and become what I wanted to be. I was always told what to study and at the end, I ended up a different person. I studied several skills and have ended up being an activist. My experience of the civil war has help me to lean towards the studies on conflict managements & conflict resolution. I become critical about why people fight each other and what can be done to have a peaceful and better world. This is where I got stuck after leaving the missionary career. I became critical of being a religious person because I was told to evangelize and convert people into my religion, a view I disputed and I was forced to quit the religious career. I did not want to force people or ask them to convert into my religion. I realized religion was one strong factor in most conflicts and civil wars, including that of my country, Sudan.
I participated in several activities, including leadership, in which I was elected to lead the youth and mobilized them for to join and support the war in Sudan. It was a difficult task, but for the love of my country, I mobilized the youth for about one year, and quit the job, after which I was accused of being negligent, and fired. I love to mobilized youth and teach them, but not take them to war.
But generally, my world view is shaped by my academic career and refugee life experience for the last 23 years. Therefore, I love and believe in democracy. The system we all admired, where people are free mentally, socially, politically and economically, although there is still problems to be solve in the democratic western world, there is a degree of success, and all human beings embraces the peaceful and democratic system, given the asylum influx that we read on the newspapers.
Sunday Taabu (Wani)
Sudan / USA
While I currently prepare to begin my legal studies and working on the establishment of Southern Sudan Institute for Women’s Education and Leadership, I value education and the opportunity of taking this leadership course. Here is a little bit about what I have done in the past two to three years:
Worked as Consular, Community, Social and Cultural Affairs Officer at the Government of Southern Sudan Mission to the United States of America, Washington, DC. I provided support to the Sudanese Diaspora community in the United States, including various women’s and youth groups. Identify and connect resources, including funding opportunities, for Sudanese individuals and organizations. Convene meetings and conferences for training, informational, strategy capacity building and development purposes. Worked closely with the Sudan Embassy to facilitate the processing of visas to Sudan and other nationalities in a timely manner and oversees many legal and community issues facing Southern Sudanese in the United States. Previously I worked in many retail stores, as library technician and college tutor in both math and English.
Thanks!
We extend a special thanks to the following 30 individuals and/or organizations from seven countries who contributed to IIGL during September. Your ongoing support makes this work possible.
Deb Silver (Israel)
Edmee DiPauli (UK)
Lale Eterm (Turkey)
Roger Yomba (Cote d’Ivorie)
Elisabeth Tepper (Venezuela)
Lily Ann (USA/NC)
Deb Rosen (USA/WI)
Ron Walker (USA/VA)
Helen Baker (USA/SC)
Margie Tice (USA/NC)
David Banner (USA/NC)
Marsha Clark (USA/CA)
Lisa Kiebzak (USA/NC)
Colby Collins (USA/NC)
Dina Kushnir (USA/NY)
Judith Royer (USA/ND)
Lorraine Leon (USA/CA)
Corine Wilson (USA.FL)
Naomi Stauber (USA/AZ)
Allen Goodman (USA/PA)
John Hornecker (USA/CA)
Lynne Murguia (USA/AZ)
Jesse Syverson (USA/WA)
Marsha Shearer (USA/FL)
Randa El Sharif (USA/WI)
Anneliese Weiss (USA/FL)
Rommy Banaszczyk (USA/AZ)
Michael Lightweaver (USA/NC)
Wanda Gail Campbell (USA/AL)
Janae & Barry Weinhold (USA/NC)
Student Progress
We had 77 students from 9 countries complete a total of 27 books in September. These students were from Chile, DR Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leon, South Africa, Rwanda, Togo & Sudan.
English Program
Edwine Nyandisi (Kenya)
· Keys to Success
· Success Through Positive Mental Attitude
Erick Omari (Kenya)
· Goal Setting 101
· Goal Achievement Through Treasure Mapping
· The Law of Attraction
Agabi Osaquwa Enogumwegie (Nigeria)
· Psycho Cybernetics
Ayoade, Anthony Ayodeji (Nigeria)
· Psycho Cybernetics
· Keys to Success
· Success Through PMA
Dahunsi Olanrewaju (Nigeria)
· Jonathan Livingston Seagull
· As A Man Thinketh
Igbinovia Peter Efe (Nigeria)
· Psycho Cybernetics
Jeremiah Jibro (Nigeria)
· The Power of Intention
Solomon O’chucks Nwokoro (Nigeria)
· Failing Forward
Obinna Ezeji (Nigeria)
· The Winning Attitude
Aloys Hakizimana (Rwanda)
· The Law Of Attraction
· Nonviolent Communication
Mustapha Klah (Sierra Leon)
· Psycho Cybernetics
Olita Nyathi (South Africa)
· You Just Don’t Understand
Francis Okeny Silvio (Sudan/Norway)
· Jonathan Livingston Seagull
· As A Man Thinketh
Sunday T Wani (Sudan/USA)
· Jonathan Livingston Seagull
· As A Man Thinketh
Davui Kosi (Togo)
* The Montesorri Method
French Program
Mudila Mbinga (DR Congo)
· Attitude d’un Gagnant
· Les Mots sont des Fenêtres ou ce sont des murs
Spanish Program
Ysabel Saa (Chile)
* The Secret
Graduates
The following student(s) complete one level of study last month:
Jeremiah Jibro (Nigeria)
Level Two
Statistics
New Enrollments
14 enrolled in September
87 enrolled in 2009
Book Assessments
27 in September
261 in 2009
Books Shipped
42 in September
226 in 2009
Cost of books
$793.94 in September
$4,881.55 in 2009
To Contribute By Credit Card, Click Here
Newsletter Archive: Click Here to view archived issues of the Global Leadership News