After a few years in JCI I had gotten to
know Angela Yablonski, a fellow JCI Vernon member who joined shortly after I
did. She was the President of the Zimbabwe Project, A charitable organization
whose objective is to help impoverished orphans in Zimbabwe. Angela had already
been to Africa around 7 times when she approached me with an idea. She had
become passionate about both her charity and JCI and wanted to see if we could
combine our efforts to help create positive change in another country. We
formed a committee and developed a plan that would involve the cooperation of
JCI Vernon, the Zimbabwe Project and the local chapter in Zimbabwe, JCI Harare.
See our project video.
The plan was to bring 16 community leaders
from 4 different villages together and provide them with valuable
self-sustaining trainings as well as create a broader network for their
communication and problem solving efforts. Of course due to cultural
differences and a language barrier JCI Harare would need to do the trainings.
However, there was still the issue of funding the travel, food and lodging of
the 16 community leaders. The committee brought a motion forward to JCI Vernon
to approve the funding of $1500 to accomplish our objective. I believe they saw
the rare nature of this opportunity and selflessly passed it. It was a
remarkable act of kindness. This willingness to help people half a world away showed me the true
values of JCI.
A few JCI Vernon members, Angela, myself
and Senator Shelly Duggan would travel to Africa. Once there we spent 3 weeks
traveling to different villages and overseeing self-sustaining projects started
by the Zimbabwe Project. We experienced the culture in a way few tourist would
be able to, we were even able to take a few days to go on a safari. But by far
the best part was acquiring new relationships meeting the members of JCI Harare
and automatically knowing what they stood for.
We spent a few days with JCI Harare training the community leaders and
later getting together for a BBQ social where we were able to get to know each
other and exchange stories about JCI. It was a remarkable experience to say the
least and something I will never forget. Because of JCI I was given an
opportunity of a lifetime and able to experience Africa in a way that couldn't
be booked by a travel agent.
Dan Proulx
JCI Vernon
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