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Creating an Entrepreneur Out of a Baragaite Warrior

This article by our founder, Floyd Hammer, originally posted in LinkedIn.

My wife, Kathy, was home alone in our Tanzania house and a bit startled when she opened the door; a tall figure dressed in traditional Barabaig warrior style filled the doorway.

The tall figure was Serafuli and he was not wearing a costume; it was the traditional dress of his tribe. He held a spear in one hand with a bow and arrows slung across his back. A large knife and a sidearm were tucked in the band of his leather breech. In his other hand he had a small, metal bracelet. The bracelet was handmade as he used goat-skin bellows to stoke a fire to forge iron and copper into brass as traditionally practiced in his tribe. The forging process resulted in a brass rod which he then hammered into the bracelet he was holding in his hand.

Hand-made by Serafuli, a Barabaig friend of Outreach in Tanzania.
Hand-made by Serafuli, a Barabaig friend of Outreach in Tanzania.

“Giftee, Bwana Nyundo,” Serafuli mixed Swahili with English. “Giftee, Bwana Nyundo.” Bwana, in Swahili, means friend. Nyundo means hammer, which is my last name.

I was working on the AIDS hospice we were renovating when Serafuli knocked on our door. Kathy promptly brought him to where I was working. I was curious when I looked up and saw Kathy and a six-foot-two warrior coming towards me; that’s not a sight we see in Union, Iowa. I soon found out the purpose of his visit; to give me a gift. As Serafuli stood there, I wondered how I could return the favor. Soon, the idea came to me: I could give him opportunity to become an entrepreneur.

After several months of working with people of Tanzania who were suffering from the third year of drought, I had developed a respect for their ability to survive in the face of hunger and poverty. However, those who wanted to better themselves lacked two significant pieces of the puzzle: opportunity and funding.

Most people who live in such poverty are not lazy, nor do they want charity. They are looking for any chance to improve their lives, but when the vast majority of a nation lives on a dollar a day, opportunities are minimal.

Inherent within human nature is the dignity that comes by providing for oneself and family. There is a satisfaction that comes from having worked hard and enjoying the reward of that work that cannot be substituted with charity.

Those who work to help the poor and hungry divide their efforts in to two different concepts: relief and development. Relief is the give a man a fish concept that is engaged in times of disaster. We’ve sent millions of our Outreach Program meals to Haiti, the Philippines, Nepal, and other countries in times of great natural disasters.

Development is the teach a man to fish concept that creates opportunity for people to become self-sustaining.

Kathy and I recognized a development opportunity so I asked Serafuli if he could have 50 of those bracelets ready for me the next time I arrived. He sadly admitted he didn’t have any money for the raw materials so we loaned him the money. Access to reasonable finance is critical in the development cycle.

Serafuli paid us back and has created thousands of bracelets from his own business for Outreach. This enabled him to go to school in Nkungi village, a school which we helped build by selling baskets the local mamas made for us. He then went to Babati to study computer technology.

Nearly ten years has passed since that tall, Barabaig warrior handed Bwana Nyundo the first “giftee.”

The greatest gift I could give him in return was the opportunity to combine his hard work with an entrepreneurial mindset. Creating entrepreneurs requires risk, investment, education, and persistence. It’s the only sustainable solution there is to any development work.

If you would like to order one of Serafuli’s bracelets, please go to: Hand-made bracelet by Serafuli

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