Debut: Raised by a Village

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At this moment I am completely shocked and surprised at the tremendously outcomes of pursuing your own dreams. Three weeks from today, I realized the opportunity to actively understand economic development in West Africa in a holistic manner. To learn from current government efforts, the civil society’s complimentary role, the suggested solutions global industry experts, and the integral role companies contribute to delivering social goods.

I remember beaming with so much excitement until I calculated the budget to be about $5,000. My heart sunk at the pits of my stomach and my brain rattled because of the scarcity of time. The crazy and irrational part of my brain simply thought, “just raise the money” and I was also lucky to have family and friend’s crazy enough to support and encourage me to do so.

This past week has been probably the most rapid growth I have had in short a span of time. Searching for partners, creating tailored partnerships offers, following up, creating pitch decks, following up again all for a gamble of “yes” or “no”. At the same time, I was dealing with exams and assignments while also working over 16 hours per week. I wont pretend and say it was smooth sailing. The perfect visual image would be trying to ride horse but getting bucked off into a pit of mud. The most painful part was getting unfavourable responses and then trying to muster the strength to persist. I am not ashamed to say that more than a couple sheds of tears fell every couple days. But at the same time, I wanted it so bad that failure was not a possibility to consider. However, looking back I would not have it any other way because I have first built more tough skin in being rejected, secondly, I have learnt the importance of owning my passions unapologetically, and lastly strengthening the ability to persist in situations of despair.

Through it all, I once again experienced the incredibly supportive Saskatchewan community. There were individuals that reached out to multiple stakeholders on my behalf, others willingly answered several questions I had on creating meaningful partnerships and others opened their doors and ears to listen to my proposals. A famous African proverb states “it takes a whole village to raise a child”. Saskatchewan has and continues to nurture me into a strong African-Canadian woman on a path becoming a global change maker. For every person that assisted me in this journey, THANK YOU, I am eternally grateful.

I am currently enroute to my destination and will keep you guys updated on concrete steps I am taking to best represent Saskatchewan and Canada generally and my plans for the entire trip.

Till next time.