SACG

Recently the MCC Southern African Coordinating Group (SACG) met in and near Bulawayo to hold their semi-annual leadership meetings. This is a dynamic working retreat. The MCC Representatives from Mozambique, Zambia, Lesotho/Swaziland/South Africa, and Zimbabwe together with the Regional Peace Advisor and the Associate Directors met to coordinate, discuss and plan for the year ahead. Since we met in the 'City of Kings' our hosts decided to give us all crowns!

During this time we explored some of MCC's programming in Zimbabwe including Global Family sponsorships and a visit to Mtshabezi Hospital where MCC is assisting with medical and personnel support. Another day was focused how to work more effectively at peace building within the region. The highlight of this was an encounter with a local peace and advocacy organization briefing us on the skills and tools of actively working towards peace in an oppressive environment. Peace building requires enormous courage and skill in bringing together many conflicting interests and parties towards a consensus that enables people to resolve their conflicts and address outstanding issues. True peace building that yields long term success takes a lot of time, energy, patience, inspiration and hope! It is indeed the only hope for the future. Violence only begets violence and institutes that cycle. Non-violent peace building on the other hand builds consensus towards a stable and sustainable future.

A challenging workshop was that of 'story-telling as a basis for engaging oppression'. It helped us explore, sometimes to our chagrin, our own investment in oppressive systems. We were able to talk together with people from different cultural backgrounds and understandings how we all contribute to and are impacted by oppression, even as at times we work actively against it. Our own personal story was transformed and reshaping by hearing others stories and recognizing ourselves in them.

Daniel Taylor puts it this way, "Stories tell me not only who I am but also who you are, and what we are together. In fact, without you and your story I cannot know myself and my story. No one's story exists alone. Each is tangled up in countless others. Pull a thread in my story and feel the tremor half a world and two millennia away."

Another agenda item was to delve into the results of the Keystone Accountability Survey. In 2010 MCC, together with 25 other northern no-governmental organizations based in Europe and North America participated in a survey of 2,733 partners to assess our effectiveness. MCC had identified 444 partner organizations who were invited to respond. Much affirmative as well as challenging feedback came out of this exercise which will help us focus how we engage with partners. One of the key findings was that respondents wanted northern NGO's help to become strong, independent and influential organizations. They contrasted this with being contracted to implement northern NGO's projects and priorities.