We were – as often happens – extremely, deeply frustrated.
None of these organisations are willing to step up. They take soooo long to act! If things stay like this, when we will ever see change in the community???
The thing about working with youth while in your early 30s is that you spend much of your time directing their burning passions…while your own fire still rages within.
sometimes you need reminders
At this post-event dinner hangout with a community elder though, we didn’t hold back. And just like how we try our best to listen to those coming up behind us on this changemaking journey, Brother N listened intently & deeply. He made us feel heard. And after all that, he shared hard-won wisdom that we needed to hear.
Organisations, he said, are vehicles for change. They’re all headed somewhere, and as long as you’re in them then you’re riding there together.
Some vehicles are bicycles. Some are supersonic jets and some are motorboats. Tuktuks, sampans, moving castles…there are as many vehicles as the human mind can imagine. Each moving through the world at their own pace, in their own ways.
But if you don’t like the vehicle – the people inside, how it moves or where it’s going – then you have two options.
Find a new vehicle. Or make your own.
our own vehicle, for the change we wanted to see
The answer to changing the world is always to start with changing ourselves. Sometimes we just need that reminder again.
When H and me started Carevan, it was also a self-reminder: after a combined 20+ years we knew enough to drive our own vehicle without having to ask permission from anyone else.
That definitely doesn’t mean we’re better or we don’t need any other organisation – after more than a year of Carevan, it’s not an understatement that it would be impossible to do anything without partners, collaborators and co-drivers. At the same time, we both individually continue to be part of other organisations and contribute to each of their journeys too.
But sometimes, when there’s somewhere you need to be, you just need a vehicle to call your own. One big enough to bring others along for the ride, moving along with care, dignity & islah.
We imagined this Carevan, and now it moves. Fuelled by fire, but brought to life by wisdom.