The Marketplace Magazine November/December 2010

November December 2010

Where Christian faith gets down to business

Work hard, have fun:

Living a legacy at Sauder Village

Morocco’s youth earning & saving Glimpses of hope as Haiti rebuilds Why I chose to start my own business

1

The Marketplace November December 2010

Roadside stand

Frozen memories 2.0 It’s enough to make a print editor weep. Young adults reportedly now spend 19 hours a week online, but a mere 49 minutes reading books, magazines or newspapers. Most of us “spend at least eight and a half hours a day looking at a television, a computer monitor, or the screen of [our] mobile phone,” according to Nicholas Carr in The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.

He may be dramatizing a bit, but he thinks we are in danger of doing lasting damage to ourselves because the Cover photo of Debbie Sauder David aboard the “Erie Express,” by Wally Kroeker

constant barrage of short-term data flashes interferes with the formation of long-term memories. “Calm, focused, undistracted, the linear mind is being pushed aside by a new kind of mind that wants and needs to take in and dole out information in short, disjointed, often overlapping bursts — the faster, the better,” he warns. That can cost us our individuality, intellect and capacity to invent — all things a vibrant company values.

Commentator LaVonne Neff wonders what this is doing to our religious sensibilities: “The word, no longer hidden in our hearts, dissolves into an infinity of words flashing and prancing on our screens. We glance and pounce, seldom stopping to ponder, rarely pur-

suing one thought or one line of argument long enough to make it our own.” (Christian Century) Most people reading this page descend from immigrants, either recent or long ago. We probably think, justifiably, that our ancestral newcomers brought a goodly dose of vigor to the collective DNA and that our country is better off for having us. That kind of infusion is still happening, say folks who are attuned to the business of immigration.

A new Canadian study contends that immigrants today are a strong force for innovation, bringing new techniques and fresh perspectives to the corporate mix. “At every level we examined — individual, organizational, national and global — immigrants were associated with increased innovation in Canada,” says an official of the Conference Board of Canada, which released the study. The increased diversity is also linked with an increase in patents, as more than a quarter of new patents have foreign-born co-inventors.

Xerox Canada, half of whose staff are immigrants from 35 different countries, reportedly credits newcomers with boosting its innovation rate, now at some 130 patentable ideas annually. (Globe & Mail Report on Business) Forensic fridges: What does your workplace eating area say about your company? The lunchroom is “a snapshot of the core and culture of the company,” says labor-relations consultant Mike Cuma. “When I see a disheveled lunchroom, I see an organization that can’t do the basic things.” After 30 years’ experience with lunchroom lapses a mere detec-

The Marketplace November December 2010

2

tive-like glance into the fridge and environs speaks volumes to him about employee pride, mutual respect and management’s ability to enforce standards. A company with a messy lunchroom “has a very low standard of what’s acceptable, doesn’t do a good job of inclusiveness in the workplace and probably isn’t respectful with regard to human-rights considerations.” The American Dietetic Association, meanwhile, found that 44 percent of office fridges are cleaned only once a month, and 22 percent only once or twice a year. (Postmedia News) Punster Jim Bishop of Eastern Mennonite University sent us this one: The builder, who was retiring, said to his son, “This is all yours now, son.” The son replied, sadly, “I dunno, Dad. You’re a hard hat to follow.”

Resist change? For folks in business (and anyone else who wants to be chic), it is a scathing indictment to be seen as resistant to change. Far be it from us to be counted among that number. But a correspondent has noted a lamentable cultural and culinary loss, namely the apparent passing of the seeded watermelon. Recent figures show that only 16 percent of watermelons sold in the U.S. still contain seeds.

That saddens those who think the old seeded kind have superior taste and texture. It also seems to signal a death knell to the sport of watermelon seed spitting. Saith our correspondent, “It’s only a matter of time before future generations know nothing of the taste of a truly tasty watermelon.” And county fairs across the land will have to find a new sport for the seedspitters of times past. — WK

In this issue

Amid the rubble, rebuilding goes on. Page 14

Departments 2 4 13 20 22

Roadside stand Soul enterprise Reviews Soundbites News

Editor: Wally Kroeker Design: Ray Dirks

Fun in the past

9

A legacy continues

Furniture magnate Erie Sauder had a robust vision for tangible, hands-on pioneer history. Today his granddaughter, Debbie Sauder David, is carrying on his dream at Ohio’s Sauder Village.

His late grandfather’s example still sets the tone for Dan Sauder’s daily work and witness — like integrity in business (“his dying wish”) and that real joy in life comes from serving others.

12

Making strides in Morocco

14

Back to business in Haiti

16

Why I started my own business

After only a year, MEDA’s newest program has sharply raised financial literacy in Morocco. Young people are finding jobs, earning more — and 96 percent now have savings accounts.

Earthquake rubble is everywhere, but like a bloom that just won’t quit, Haitians are battling back. Photographer Steve Sugrim discovered that you can find hope in the strangest places.

After two decades of toiling for others, she was ready to invest in and manage her own ideas and energy. Entrepreneurship offered a new path to meaning. By Jean Kilheffer Hess

Volume 40, Issue 6 November December 2010 The Marketplace (ISSN 0199-7130) is published bi-monthly by Mennonite Economic Development Associates at 532 North Oliver Road, Newton, KS 67114. Periodicals postage paid at Newton, KS 67114. Lithographed in U.S.A. Copyright 2010 by MEDA.

6

Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 32C E. Roseville Rd., Lancaster, PA 17601-3861.

To e-mail an address change, subscription request or anything else relating to delivery of the magazine, please contact subscription@meda.org For editorial matters contact the editor at wkroeker@meda.org or call (204) 956-6436 Subscriptions: $25/year; $45/two years.

Postmaster: Send address changes to The Marketplace 32C E. Roseville Rd. Lancaster, PA 17601-3861

Published by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), whose dual thrust is to encourage a Christian witness in business and to operate business-oriented programs of assistance to the poor. For more information about MEDA call 1-800-665-7026.

Web site www.meda.org

3

The Marketplace November December 2010

Giving money is hard work “I hope you don’t get your wish.”

That’s what a wealthy businessman said to me after I told him I wished I was like him — rich enough to give away lots of money.

He made the comment as we visited a development project he had funded, taking a look at what his generous donation had been able to accomplish.

Now, why would he say that? After all, what could be better than to be wealthy enough to support various good works?

“Giving away money is hard work,” he said. “You may spend the rest of your life working on how to give it in a meaningful and caring way.”

I think many wealthy people who support worthy causes could say the same thing. While most of us feel besieged by the number of requests we get for money, it’s nothing compared to the number of letters that cross the desk of many businesspeople every month. What makes it even harder is In business we often measure our performance by rate of that some of the requests come from friends or fellow return on investment (ROI). We examine our earnings as a church members, making it even harder to say no. percent of our total assets. Or we use an investment base Plus, there’s the effect that having money to give can of equity plus long-term debt. have on your relationships.

I like to think of God as a capitalist (small c) who has “Sometimes you feel that the way people see you has invested heavily in you and me. God equips us. We are changed,” my businessman friend said. “It’s almost like part of his endowment fund. And I believe he expects to they don’t see you as a friend or as a member of their get a good return on his investment. church, but rather as a source of money.”

When God audits my performance, I wonder how Then there’s the whole business of saying “no.” It’s he will measure ROI. Will it be by the way I have treated hard to tell people you go to church with that you won’t my partners and employees? By my loving service? By the support their worthy project, he said. Plus, there’s the woramount of integrity that has gotten to the bottom line? ry about what people will think if he declines to provide By the methods I have used to collect overdue accounts? support. If he says no to the mission board, will people By the ways I have used power? think he is anti‑mission? Ditto for the women’s shelter, the Maybe we ought to begin each day with a prayer town library, the local Christian school. “I’d like to help like this: “O Lord, I am your investment fund. You are them all, but I can’t,” he said. my investment manager. Help me today to produce a And sometimes he really can’t — he doesn’t have good yield on all the assets you have credited to my acthe funds. “I may be worth a lot of money, but it isn’t count. May you be pleased with the rate of return on all cash,” he said. “It’s tied up in the business or investyour investment in me. Forgive me when my short-term ments.” And even when he says “later,” there are times performance is a big zero, or worse yet, a horrible deficit. when he can’t fulfill his promise — an investment may do Don’t purge me from your portfolio, but lift me to higher poorly, or a part of his business may fail. ground. Amen.” — John H. Rudy in Moneywise MeditaIn an effort to guide his giving, he and his wife are tions: To Be Found Faithful in God’s Audit (Herald Press) setting up a family foundation to direct his support to a few areas. As well, they took a philanthropy workshop to learn how to be better givers. Through it they learned how to choose good projects to support and how to give in ways that create real change for the issues they care about.

Through the workshop he learned that “good philanthropy takes work, a lot of research, knowledge about who you are giving money to and a willingness to get involved enough to be part of the struggle for change,” he said.

Without that kind of commitment, he said, it’s just “checkbook philanthropy, and that is often no more than throwing money at problems.”

I still dream of being able to give away large amounts of money for worthwhile causes. But maybe, like my friend said, I should be careful about what I wish for. — John Longhurst

God’s ROI

The Marketplace November December 2010

4

Waiting for leverage A large city was getting second-rate architecture in its public buildings — its schools and the like.

Architects were being chosen for having the right connections. Dave and his colleagues, members of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects, were ready to change the “good old boy” selection process to one that assured better architects for better public buildings.

Dave took his concern to his father who advised, “Don’t give up. Just wait until you are in charge.” He did. He became head of the local chapter of the AIA. He found the “leverage” needed to fix the problem. It came from the members of the chapter who were ready to back him and from a key supporter on the city council.

They drafted a proposal for selection of architects based solely on their qualifications. The best architects got the commissions for design excellence and the public got better schools for better education of the city’s children.

When he heard of the story, Dave’s bishop said, “You are fortunate to be involved in a profession that improves the quality of life.” Those words sustained him in some hard times still ahead.

— Member Mission Network

Disconnect “Recently, I conducted a research survey at a large church in the southeastern U.S. The results showed that 74 percent of the respondents saw little to no connection between their faith and their job. Of those who saw a connection, 64 percent were employees of a religious institution. Only 11 percent of respondents with a job in a nonreligious organization saw a connection between their faith and their employment. Furthermore, even those 11 percent reported a lack of confidence and fulfilment in their ability to integrate their faith at work.” — Mark L. Russell in The Missional Entrepreneur: Principles and Practices for Business as Mission

Work prayer Dear God, I beg You to change my heart about work. Take my joylessness away, and show me the awesome opportunity that I have right now to glorify You in the mundane. — Attorney Kevin Williams

Overheard: “

5

“Grow into your ideals, so life can never rob you of them.”

— Albert Schweitzer The Marketplace November December 2010

Fun in the past Erie Sauder had a vision for hands-on history — the bone and sinew of pioneer life

D

ebbie Sauder David looks out of her secondfloor window at the circle of restored pioneer shops below. The first of several hundred tourists are starting to trickle into Sauder Village, eager for a trip into the recreated past. They’ll stroll in and out of historic homes and community buildings, watch tinsmiths and weavers at work, enjoy hand-dipped ice cream, take a ride on a miniature train, and immerse themselves in a faithful recreation of life as it used to be.

Throughout the day Debbie, executive director, will tend to life as it is now — administering a thriving business where history is swaddled in the reality of finances, customer service and a work force of 450 employees and 600 volunteers. Like anyone in business, she will keep an eye on all the things that make an enterprise sustainable.

She’ll keep another eye on a legacy — handed down by her grandfather, Erie Sauder.

That legacy is never far from view. She occupies his old office in the Welcome Center of Sauder Village, one of Ohio’s leading tourist attractions. When she looks out the window, the first thing she sees is the original shop where a teenaged Erie honed the skills that would produce Sauder Woodworking on the other side of the town of Archbold. When things get tough, as they are prone to do in business, she can recall her grandfather’s oft-quoted observation — “It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t know it can’t be done.”

Debbie Sauder David in the Village “circle,” with her grandfather’s original farm shop in the background.

would become the largest producer of ready-to-assemble (RTA) furniture in the United States.

Visitors came in droves to see his manufacturing marvel.

“We had children go through the factory, busload after busload,” said Erie, who often accompanied the youngsters through the plant.

One day something caught his attention. An employee set the controls on an automated cutting machine and turned around to chat with the children. It struck Erie that the automation might mislead youngsters to think life was as easy as pushing a button.

“It was as if no one had to work,” said Erie, “and that’s not the way life is.”

He decided to tell the “real story” so future generations would understand and remember. Thus was planted the seed that grew into Sauder Village.

The Village opened in 1976, when Erie was 72. By then he had stepped back from day-to-day corporate management, and his travels to Paraguay to establish MEDA were behind him. The Village became his retirement passion.

“He wanted it to be a tangible experience for visitors,” says Debbie. “He wanted people to be able to touch things. He was far ahead of his time, because today museums everywhere are talking about hands-on experiences.”

By his own description, Erie Sauder (1904-1997)

never had much taste for formal education and didn’t get past eighth grade. His gifts lay elsewhere, as the furniture world would see.

Brilliantly innovative, he built a complicated lathe while still in his teens. In 1934, with a stake of $38, he started his own woodworking company. When it burned down two years later, he rebuilt. Another devastating fire came in 1945. Erie discovered to his despair that his insurance coverage had not kept up with the company’s growth.

“I was broke,” he said many years later in a video interview.

Local folk pressed him to rebuild again, and within a year he was back in business. Sauder Woodworking The Marketplace November December 2010

6

Erie’s vision was to recreate pioneer life and offer future generations an authentic encounter with his own ancestors who had come from Europe to tame the Great Black Swamp of northwestern Ohio.

“You can put it in history books,” he said, “but it will never talk like this tangible history will.”

free lunch, treats and free family admission. More than half come from home schools, which recognize the service as part of their training. They learn skills in employment, hospitality, reliability and customer service. “We’re creating the next generation of volunteerism,” says Debbie.

At the other end of the age spectrum are retired folks. “Some of our finest wood craftsmen are in their mid-80s,” she says. “Other crafts workers and costumed guides are in their 90s.”

Today, Sauder Village is Ohio’s largest living history museum, drawing 1,500 visitors a day in high season. Dozens of restored buildings depict the bone-andsinew of pioneer life. Period shops of spinners, woodworkers, coopers and merchants convey the economic, cultural and religious life of early Ohio.

Retail shops feature quilts, crafts and artifacts, and appetites of any size can be satisfied at The Doughbox Bakery and The Barn restaurant. There’s also a 98-room Sauder Heritage Inn and campground, a fishing pond (aptly named Little Lake Erie), Founder’s Hall conference center and an outlet store offering ready-to-assemble furniture from the factory across town.

The newest initiative, Pioneer SettleThe corporate ment, opened August 22, 2009, 175 years to mission — an the day after the first permanent European encounter immigrants arrived.

Back then, north“rich in history, west Ohio was a swampy wasteland, hospitality, full of mosquitoes, bears and wolves. The creativity and fun” newcomers came with ox carts over corduroy roads made of cut logs. Over the years they drained the swamps, producing some of the richest farmland around.

The settlement shows it all through living vignettes.

The “walk through time” begins with authentic Native American wigwams, heirloom gardens, and a trading post where beaver pelts were the gold standard of the day.

A subtext, bred in the bone of Erie’s vision, is the importance of hard work, diligence and entrepreneurship. Like pioneers everywhere, whether in Czarist Russia or Paraguay, these Mennonite forbears had to work and sweat. And Erie wanted people to know it.

Learning about it, however, does not have to be a chore. “Grandpa wanted people to have fun,” Debbie says, noting that the corporate mission strives for an experience “rich in history, hospitality, creativity and fun.”

The fun doesn’t apply only to guests. Staff can be seen smiling and whistling as they show up in the morning. “Junior historians” help “play the game” by joining costumed interpreters to churn butter, make pies and engage guests. Over a season there will be 230 of them, ages 10 to 16, from 50 surrounding communities. They come as volunteers, work three-hour shifts, and receive

Debbie presides over it all with flair and sprightly devotion. Like her grandfather, she wears multiple hats, functioning as a determined executive whose skill set includes administrator, planner, employer, crisis manager, therapist and jack-of-all-needs.

She is the daughter of Erie’s son Maynard Sauder, and wife of David David, pastor of the local United Methodist

Claire Graber, a Native American interpreter, cooks a batch of beets and greens grown in the heirloom garden in Pioneer Settlement. She is a great-granddaughter of Erie Sauder.

Church. She returned “home” after a distinguished career as a specialist in traumatic brain injury in California and Texas. Her patients were people who had suffered accidents or gunshot wounds to the head, were unconscious or in a coma, and needed to be brought back from the edge of death to functional life. It was Debbie’s task to devise a strategic recovery plan for each patient and work with employers and families to help them integrate back into school and work settings. “I worked with high level executives, engineers, factory workers, teachers, kids, football players, criminals and all kinds of people who had a rough background,” she says.

“Through that work I had a very tangible sense of service. I was essentially holding people’s hand at their point of crisis, getting them back to being functional, produc7

The Marketplace November December 2010

tive citizens.”

People who had been in a coma would tell her later, “Yours was the voice I heard — like an angel.”

She became a sought-after speaker on traumatic brain injury, worked her way into administration, and became an expert in integrating healthcare systems. In Texas, she served on a statewide advisory board for traumatic brain injury.

In 2000, three years after Erie Sauder died, Debbie and her family had an opportunity to return to Archbold.

She had resisted earlier invitations to work in the Sauder enterprise, but when her husband was offered a pastorate near her hometown, and with her daughter entering high school, the time seemed right. So she returned to carry on her grandfather’s vision.

Her previous career may not be the usual path to

corporate success, but Debbie sees deeper connections.

People sometimes ask if she misses her work with patients and healthcare.

“I’m taking it to a different level,” she says. “It’s still customer service. It’s still client satisfaction. It’s still education in multi-sensory ways.

Many write back It’s still relationships, building people and nurturing a to say “this was good team. It’s still leadership. It’s still community involvement. It’s still service.” a healing place In fact, she adds, it shares common ground for my soul” with MEDA, on whose board she serves as vice-chair. “All these things are very similar to what MEDA is doing — going alongside and coaching, laying out a strategy for them, helping clients to become independent people who can care for their families and contribute to their community and church.”

She feels keenly the responsibility of generational stewardship, which can loom large in a town dominated by a family company. Being a Sauder in leadership gives a grounding not only to the Village staff but also to the larger community, she says.

“To have a third generation person who is caring about my grandfather’s place and making it a community and regional resource, building networks with other arts, cultural and educational organizations in the region, I think that gives a sense of comfort and stability because our name’s on the door. It’s not ours — it’s a public charity — but it’s ours to be a steward of.”

And that means serving the community in numerous ways, not the least of which is by being a stimulus to draw people to the area. “How many people would get off the turnpike at Exit 25 if it wasn’t for Sauder Village,” she muses. “And what does that mean to the community?”

Courtney Krieger, pictured with Shellee Murcko, costumed interpreter, is a “junior historian” who helps “play the game.” They are on their way to bake peach cream pies on an outdoor oven.

and bolts of finances, employee issues and concerns about keeping the place sustainable, Debbie can take a stroll outside to remind herself that employees love coming to work and people are happy.

Beyond the kids licking ice cream cones or hopping on the train, their eyes widening as they pass by a team of big oxen, she sees people not only having a lot of fun but also learning in spite of themselves and creating family memories.

“How many times in today’s society can you have an authentic experience that’s tangible?” she asks. “At a time when many kids are so preoccupied with Game Boys, texting and MP3s that they don’t even interact with real people, we’re offering a non-digital environment that slows down the pace and allows reflection and creative thinking.”

Of the 100,000 guests who pass through the gates every year, many write back to say “this was a healing place for my soul,” or a respite in a time of need, because it allowed them to work through troubles in a refreshed and renewed way.

“You know, when you’re disappointed by your leaders, or when your role models don’t have the right stuff, it’s important for kids to learn values,” Debbie says.

“When people put their life in perspective, and see how hard people worked, and the sacrifices they made to create a better life for their children, you realize they didn’t just kick back and have the easy life. They built churches, they built schools, they contributed to the future of their community.”

No wonder, then, that Debbie sees Sauder Village, with all its layers of history, fun and entrepreneurship, as another form of service.

No doubt Grandpa Erie would agree. ◆

If she ever gets bogged down with the nuts The Marketplace November December 2010

8

A legacy continues “I just want to hear from you that you’ll be fair and honest in the business”

A

s a child growing up, Dan Sauder heard many stories about Paraguay from his grandfather, Erie Sauder. Erie was on the ground floor of MEDA’s first projects in the early 1950s. Over the years he visited 18 times, and fondly described his work there as the most satisfying of anything he did.

“But it had never really sunk in,” Dan says.

One day in 1997 Dan dropped in to see his ailing grandfather, then near the end of his life, and found him entertaining visitors. One of them was Kornelius Walde, a prominent Paraguayan Mennonite entrepreneur with whom Erie had worked closely.

“Walde had brought along two of his sons,” Dan recalls. “He said he wanted them to meet Erie and see how you can be a Christian in business, how you can be both honest and successful.”

Walde proceeded to relate one story after another about Erie Sauder’s work with the Mennonite colonies and indigenous people in Paraguay.

“When Walde laid out the whole story of my grandfather’s involvement, it finally clicked,” says Dan. “I could connect all the stories. I was fascinated by it all.”

Dan Sauder in his office, with a picture of his grandfather’s original farm shop behind him, and a photo of Erie Sauder at lower right.

he went, with his wife, father Myrl and mother Frieda.

Together they retraced Erie’s steps, visiting, among other things, the Fortuna Shoe Factory in Filadelfia, which was MEDA’s third project. They visited Mennonite colony leader Heinrich Duerksen. “Erie and Heinrich worked together a lot,” says Dan. “They were like peas in a pod.

Our timing was great, because Heinrich died six months later.”

Dan isn’t sure who enjoyed it more, he or his father Myrl, who had never been there before. “He was like a kid in a candy shop,” Dan says.

In the days after that visit Erie Sauder declined

quickly. He would lose consciousness, then rally back.

His former pastor said to him, “Erie, you keep hanging on. Is there something you still want to do?”

“Yes,” Erie said. “I want to talk to the third generation.”

Dan and two cousins hurried over. Their grandfather had one last request. He told them, “I just want to hear from you that you’ll be fair and honest in the business.”

They assured him that they would.

“I told him,” says Dan, “that it had been great to meet the Waldes and to hear the eyewitness accounts. I said I was proud of all he had done, and that I wanted to see it for myself. I said, ‘I promise that I will try to go to Paraguay and see the work that you have done there’.”

It was the last time he saw his grandfather alive.

Today Dan Sauder continues to live his

grandfather’s legacy — in business and in life. He is vicepresident of engineering at the company his grandfather started, Sauder Woodworking Co. In this capacity he oversees designing and building machinery to make furniture, and also looks after product engineering.

It’s still very much a family operation, now solidly in the hands of the third generation. And it is still the largest ready-to-assemble (RTA) furniture manufacturer in North America, with products prominent at Wal-Mart, Target and Office Depot.

A few years later Dan Sauder had a chance to make good on his promise. Co-worker John Yoder, who was then on the MEDA board, alerted him that MEDA was planning a tour to Paraguay in 2001.

That was his chance to experience the country. So 9

The Marketplace November December 2010

His grandfather’s example looms over this and other aspects of his faith/business witness. A leadership program he’s involved in is based heavily on the model set by Erie.

“My section is called Living by Example,” says Dan. “I tell the story of Erie on his deathbed, and the concern he had for integrity and conscientiousness. Integrity was his dying wish. He valued hard work, taking ownership, not giving up. I talk about the excuses people give.”

Erie Sauder had plenty of reasons to make excuses if things went wrong. He had been born two months premature, so small he had to drink milk by sucking it from a rag. He was put in a shoebox behind the stove.

The doctor said, “Don’t tell his mother, but he’s not going to make it.”

He survived, and lived through the Depression to start Sauder Woodworking. It burned down twice (see previous article) and literally rose from ashes each time. Plenty of other setbacks could have been used as excuses.

But Erie didn’t believe in excuses.

Even the work in Paraguay shouldn’t have worked, with all its travel, ranging from commercial aircraft to bush planes to buggies in the jungle, Dan muses. And yet it did.

“He often said that the work with the Indians was the best he ever did,” he says. “The message from Erie that I try to convey is that happiness does not come from wealth, it comes from helping others. Your satisfaction in life is from serving others. That was a great witness to me.” ◆

The company produces 700 different items, from beds to desks. Every year 150 new products are introduced.

Sales and design people come up with new concepts, and Dan figures out how to make them. A lot of effort goes into a continual discernment process — how to pick winners, how to sort out what fits best into their competencies.

Recent economic disruptions have not bypassed the Sauders, whose He needed to visit work force has shrunk from 3,000 to 1,600 mostly by attriParaguay, and see today, tion. They’ve branched into other products to for himself what reduce their reliance on RTA. One of them his grandfather is caskets to meet a growing demand for had done reasonably priced funerals. “It’s a traditional business, hard to break into, but in the past few months we’ve gone from selling one a week to one a day,” Dan says. Other new products have been wood track ceilings that homeowners can click into place, and tension-fit locker shelves for schools.

Dan also carries on the MEDA tradition, which defined his grandfather’s life for many years. Dan is currently chair of the Northwest Ohio MEDA Chapter (see following story).

On a path to help the poor New campus-based ASSETS emerges in Ohio

W

gram that over the years has trained 786 graduates who in turn started 230 businesses and reinforced 200 more.

After hearing the stories of changed lives as low-income people struggled for self-sufficiency, Wade says, “I was entranced. I really wanted to get involved in something to help small businesses.”

hen Jill Wade moved to northwest Ohio she brought along a healthy supply of energy for the poor. By all accounts, she is the powerhouse behind a new program to equip fledgling entrepreneurs to succeed in business.

The program is a replication of the ASSETS model which MEDA launched in 1993. ASSETS has since been unhooked from MEDA, but lives on as an instrument local groups can use to alleviate poverty.

Wade first heard about ASSETS when she moved to Ohio after a long corporate career.

She asked her new neighbors, “Who around here has a passion for the poor?” They referred her to Dan Sauder, chair of the Northwest Ohio MEDA Chapter, and Frank Ulrich, who had been one of the heavy-lifters behind Toledo ASSETS, which was launched in 1999.

The two men took Wade to Toledo to see the pro-

The Marketplace November December 2010

Rather than duplicate Toledo ASSETS, Wade chose to fashion something specific to the northwest region. She felt a new ASSETS would work best as a partnership.

She contacted the president of Northwest State Community College, which serves 5,000 students from five counties around Archbold. A collaboration was forged and a new program was born.

ASSETS is run on campus, with accredited classes open to enrolled college students as well as to community 10

Another wanted to open a lawn care business. “He thought he would just buy a lawn mower and get to work,” Wade recalls. “While going through the class he had a bit of an awakening. He told the class he realized he wouldn’t make it on $20 to $30 a lawn, and that it would work better as a side business.”

Then there was the student who had discovered there were no bilingual daycares in the area. She decided to establish a Spanish/English daycare center for this unique niche.

Wade believes northwest Ohio, where unemployment is 14 percent, is ripe for a self-employment program like ASSETS. “The need here is as great as in places overseas,” she says. “People are going hungry here.”

folk who want to start or expand a business.

The first class last fall was small, but by spring semester 22 people had enrolled, a third of whom were traditional college students.

Cost of the course is $325, but scholarships are available. Wade receives a teaching fee from the college but turns it over to ASSETS. The class meets every Friday for 13 weeks, teaching business skills to entrepreneurs to provide meaningful employment for themselves and those they hire. It has already resulted in the of several new “The need here is launch businesses and the reinforcement of numerous great; people are others.

The textbook is “Plangoing hungry.” ning the Entrepreneurial Venture,” produced by the Kauffman Foundation. Students can download it free, along with additional web-based resources.

The curriculum is basically about developing a business plan, says Wade. Each week has a different topic, but at the end a workable business plan must be produced.

Lessons are augmented by class presentations. A CPA explains finances, another talks about accounting software. Dan Sauder visits each semester to discuss product strategy; two local painters describe what it’s like to be both competitors and collaborators. An attorney teaches basic contract law, and a human resources specialist deals with hiring and firing.

All participants who complete the course receive three units of college credit. For those already enrolled in college, the units are simply added to their transcript.

The calmer pace of northwestern Ohio is a big change for Wade after a 40-year corporate career in strategic marketing, economic analysis and risk management for major insurance and telecom companies. The adrenalin rush of big business is more than eclipsed by her passion to address local poverty.

She sees a providential hand at work in her life.

“We were on a path to become Mennonite,” she says. “God picked us up and put us here.”

By her account, she and her husband “kept being drawn to the Mennonites.”

While living in Chicago they drove down to northern Jill Wade: “We were on a path to Indiana and visited become Mennonite.”

Shipshewana where they discovered the Menno-Hof, a Mennonite and Amish information center. They found the beliefs presented there compelling, and “went corner to corner.” They met a Mennonite couple there and ended up going to church with them. Wade kept doing research online about this group she found so fascinating.

They decided to pick up stakes and move to Stryker, a few miles from Archbold. Happily, her consulting work could be done from anywhere. She and her husband found a property in Stryker, moved two years ago, and were baptized into Zion Mennonite Church in Archbold.

“We really felt led,” she says. “We have been just picked up and carried.”

Dan Sauder may be inclined to agree, at least as far as ASSETS is concerned.

“It wouldn’t happen without her,” he says. ◆

A wide range of skill sets is evident, says Wade.

One student, for example, was essentially illiterate, though highly intelligent and motivated. Unemployed, he wanted to set up a remodelling business utilizing his construction skills. He had an interest in old homes and discerned a niche for remodelling Victorian houses. By the end, he had done enough market research to devise a solid business plan.

Another student was so poor he struggled to get gas money to come to class. His phone and electricity had been cut off. He failed the first course, but took it again and passed. “By the second semester he was understanding the real world, and we watched him go from pipe dreams to a functioning business,” says Wade.

Several students already had small enterprises up and running. Some had hobby businesses, like one who enjoyed framing pictures and hoped to grow it into a livelihood. Almost all brought a business concept they were struggling with.

One who had a small retail store picked up new skills in demographics and decided to rethink his product selection and niche.

11

The Marketplace November December 2010

Morocco’s youth make strides Survey shows YouthInvest clients find jobs, earn and save more

T

he initial verdict giving youth confidence is in — young to knock on employers’ people in Morocco doors, even for part-time show sharply work, and some are improved financial literacy putting into practice the after their first full year entrepreneurial skills they with MEDA’s YouthInvest learn from the training. program.

What’s more, average Many more of them income has increased by have found jobs and are 15 percent among those earning more; almost all who are employed.” have opened savings ac3. Youth are now counts, says Leah Katerbetter prepared to enter berg, MEDA’s program the workforce through manager for monitoring strengthened personal and project evaluation. and professional develThe five-year $5 opment. Eighty percent million program, sponreported better attisored primarily by The tudes and outlook on MEDA’s program “helped me a lot,” says Mohamed Lamrani, MasterCard Foundation, life. “Improvements in who runs an appliance repair shop in a village in eastern got underway in 2009 to personal, financial and Morocco. Besides basic budgeting, it taught him the value boost employment for an business skills provided of advertising. “Now, I place samples of materials to repair exploding global youth by the training have been outside my shop,” he says, “and I have made an advertising population. It aims to imnoted by family members, poster which I hang outside, on the door of the store. The prove financial literacy and advertising has had a large impact on people.” friends and employers,” entrepreneurship among Katerberg says. young people in Morocco and Egypt by teaching business Among the majority who have opened savings acfundamentals and smoothing access to financial services counts, 28 percent said they planned to use the money to that have been out of their reach. start a business or improve an existing business. Another Katerberg says a survey at the end of the first full year 17 percent planned to purchase equipment for their shows positive results among the 2,184 youth (51 percent business. Others said they hoped to use the money for female, 49 percent male; average age 20 years) who have education, emergencies or to finance an event such as a signed on to the program so far. A random survey of 157 wedding. youth clients showed the following: Respondents said the program has helped them with 1. Youth are beginning to grasp the importance of accounting, marketing, customer relations, savings and saving: 96 percent of youth clients now save, compared credit, personal skills, and understanding how to start a to 19 percent before entering the program. “They have business. begun to set goals for themselves and are using their savMastering these skills will help young people (who ings accounts to plan for achieving them,” says Kateraccount for 37 percent of Morocco’s unemployed) create berg. their own opportunities in the job market.

2. Employment and income have risen: 25 percent of “Youth are overwhelmingly satisfied with the content them now work, nearly double the 13 percent at time of of the training and the effectiveness of the trainers,” says registration. A third of the new jobs come from self‑emKaterberg. “All said they would recommend the program ployment. “We didn’t expect to see a large percentage to a friend or family member.” of the youth working at this early stage in the program, YouthInvest plans to eventually equip 50,000 young as many are still in school,” notes Katerberg. “Such a people in Morocco and Egypt with greater access to savpositive shift in one year shows us that the program is ings and credit, increased incomes and wider skill sets. ◆

The Marketplace November December 2010

12

Reviews

Taming today’s lions Job-Shadowing Daniel: Walking the Talk at Work.

By Larry Peabody (Outskirts, 2010, 194 pp. $16.95 U.S.)

W

e all know Daniel from Sunday school, perhaps also from the old gospel hymn, Dare to be a Daniel. But is he more than a one-night stand in the lion’s den?

Daniel emerges here as more than a mere pop-up on the biblical screen. Peabody depicts him as a seasoned bureaucrat who served many decades in the upper reaches of the Babylonian government — “a world superpower of the day” — and who “had his hands on its levers of power.”

During that time he would

Plant your feet in your own Babylon and let Daniel be your mentor have confronted numerous “workplace lions” in addition to the growling creatures he faced in the infamous den.

His Godly witness, then, is more than a one-time showdown, and as such his life “provides a lens through which you can see Jesus more clearly, even as you run the faith-race in your workplace.”

None of us are likely to face a literal carnivorous threat in the places we work, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other forces out to devour us.

“Your workplace ‘lions’ can be just as daunting,” Peabody asserts. Our “lions” might be cloaked in the fur of legalistic separation (the world is too polluted for us); religious tradition (which splits our world into sacred and secular and demeans those who live in the

latter); diminished identity (“I’m just a layperson”) and unbelieving co-workers who will pounce at the first hint of a Christian witness.

Peabody’s hope is that Christians will plant their feet in the Babylon of their own workplaces and live authentic lives Monday to Friday.

“But,” he says, “our training has not readied us with a clear idea of what ministry looks like in the day-in-day-out flow of life in the work world where so many Christians spend so much time.”

He reviews — and critiques — how ecclesiastical structures and tradition have kept Christians from seeing themselves as full-bodied ministers by separating “laypeople” from “full-time” workers in the church. “Other than fueling financial contributions, the workplace plays little or no role in the traditional

church system,” he writes. In fact, there seems to be a “Christian caste system” in place that “assigns most Christians to the minor leagues and a tiny few to the majors.”

Somewhere along the way the church has forgotten that it is not only ekklesia (gathered people) but also diaspora (scattered-seed people). By doing so it has unwittingly played

One decision a day In normal times, the labor force in the United States totals roughly 150 million. Suppose the average working person averages one decision on an ethical question each day. That would amount to 150 million right-versus-wrong choices in the workplace daily. Let’s say half of these people believe God sees each choice and why they make it. The other half think God can’t or doesn’t bother to see such things. Each group will be making 75 million ethical decisions per day. How do you think the choices of the God-sees group would differ from the God-doesn’t-see group? Which workers would do a better job of ruling their small corner of the earth by bringing situations into line with God’s will? — Larry Peabody

13

into the hands of those who would “quarantine Christian influence” inside the safe confines of Sunday.

Daniel shows us how to live as scattered seed, Peabody says. Although 2,600 years separate Daniel’s workplace from ours, there are lessons for today.

Among them: Know the spiritual risks in our world, and “Decide to resist the rot, not to run from it.”

Peabody provides plenty of specific illustrations of how this might be done, and they are not confined to spiritual wordplay.

A Christian presence on the job “does not mean doing religious things on company time.”

Peabody offers suggestions for how Christians can think through how their daily work fits into God’s big-picture agenda. He urges them to think about how their work: • benefits those outside the family; • supplies something needed by people; • contributes to the upkeep of the earth; • helps create or maintain peaceful and quiet conditions.

Dare to be a Daniel? “I wouldn’t advise anyone to take the dare at face value,” Peabody concludes. “Daniel was Daniel. David was David.

Paul was Paul. And you are you. Instead, I dare you to be you, yourself, right there in your workplace. Look to Daniel as a mentor. But let God develop you and your ministry in the way that belongs uniquely to you.” — Wally Kroeker

The Marketplace November December 2010

Back to business in Haiti In the aftermath ... the rebuilding continues Sometimes you can find hope in the strangest places.

That was Steve Sugrim’s experience when he visited Haiti this summer, months after a catastrophic earthquake killed 225,000 people and displaced more than a million others.

As MEDA’s photographer and multimedia designer, he was there to track the economic recovery spurred by MEDA and longtime partner Fonkoze, the country’s leading microfinance provider. Fonkoze’s headquarters were destroyed, some staff lost their lives, and thousands of clients were left homeless. MEDA secured a $4.5 million grant from The MasterCard Foundation to restore Fonkoze’s headquarters and help clients rebuild livelihoods. It also arranged a unique collaboration with Mennonite Central Committee to rebuild and repair homes and train local masons and carpenters in how to build earthquake and hurricane-resistant structures.

Sugrim brought back the photos on these pages, along with some impressions: (left) Rebuilding goes on, sometimes using rubble from the earthquake. Materials are scarce, and construction techniques are rudimentary. (below) More than 800 children showed up for Fonkoze’s youth camp experiment. They spent three days doing crafts and learning life skills. At the end, each was given a citrus seedling to take home and plant.

A Fonkoze client, bolstered by a small loan, sells rice in the local marketplace.

The Marketplace November December 2010

14

C

rumbled buildings.

Tent cities. There are people everywhere — and I mean everywhere — living in things and using materials that you and I would throw out. Imagine living in a shanty made of sticks and a plastic roof, with seven children, a crippled husband, and two chickens. Heartbreaking.

These are among the poorest people I have ever seen. But they helped me see hope in the darkest areas of Haiti.

From my hotel room, at night, I heard singing in the darkness — happy singing in the streets, in the Creole language. Amazingly, people had let go of their hurts and were staying the course towards a better future.

Kids of the very poor have nothing to do, literally. You see them everywhere, just sitting by the side of the road — watching you.

Staff from Fonkoze have reached out to them by starting a youth camp in addition to their normal work of providing financial and literacy services to the poor. The camp drew more than 800 kids, ages five to late teens, to feed them, teach life-skills, restore selfesteem, and help them to — dare I say it — have fun.

We heard them singing from the other side of the hill as we approached the camp. Dancing, singing, clapping, laughing — from everyone in this small community. Amazing.

It sounded like the happiest place on earth.

Where there are children, there is life and hope.

Clients gathered at a local church for a three-day Fonkoze class on how to tend goats.

They were taught, fed, and given an animal at the end of the course. They also received a stipend for travel, as many came a long way to attend. Most kept the money for other purposes and walked home instead.

(above) A Fonkoze client takes home a load of palm leaves she purchased to make into bed mats and rope to resell. (top right) A staffer teaches clients using a MEDAsponsored book (mostly pictures, as few can read). This lesson is about basic business principles and inventory control. (bottom right) A Fonkoze case manager reconciles a loan repayment with a client.

15

The Marketplace November December 2010

Why I decided to start a business After two decades of toiling for others, entrepreneurship offered a new path to meaning

by Jean Kilheffer Hess

I

by adults, a persistent lack of healthy communication and accountability. When it seemed time to consider my next career move, I took stock of the skills I’d developed and took up the exciting, creative challenge of “entrepreneur.”

I recently read that Gen Y women are making career choices based on a “quest for jobs with meaning, variety and true work/life balance,” and they exhibit “a lack of interest in conforming to the way it’s always been done.”

Increasingly these well‑educated, globally‑minded women are choosing to become rather than “A what? Almost entrepreneurs climb the corporate ladder.* no one had heard Some debate the usefulness of generational of the service I cohort analysis, but as a late Gen Xer, I resonate with the spirit of this provide.” apparently‑accelerating trend among my younger sisters. I found myself ready to walk a new path, ready to invest in and manage my own ideas and energy to create a meaning‑filled, balanced life.

learned to provide excellent customer service under the direction of a skilled manager at the deli where I worked in high school and during college breaks.

I learned professionalism and relationship management in my five years working as an auditor and CPA fresh out of college.

I learned team building, cooperative management, and staff supervisory skills in a nonprofit where I had the responsibility, but not the directive authority, to bring about greater efficiency and growth in affiliated, independent not‑for‑profit businesses.

I learned branding, marketing, and communications as manager of a major fundraising campaign focused on empowering local education initiatives around the world.

For 20 years I’d been conducting business for others in the marketplace, thriving on the differing challenges posed by retail service, professional financial services, and faith‑based nonprofit work. I worked with gifted people and great teams in each place. I’d also seen and survived significant dysfunction in the workplace including a psychologically abusive boss, childish behavior enacted

In June 2009 I left my full‑time job and started StoryShare, an oral history interviewing business. “A what?” you might be asking. And that quickly you’ve identified an obstacle to this line of work! Almost no one has heard of the service I provide.

As I described my new business to networks of friends and other contacts, I received mostly‑predictable responses in a particular order. “That’s a really great idea!” a friend replied, before screwing his face into a quizzical look and following up with, “How do you plan to market that?”

A bit of background: between my years in public accounting and my years in nonprofit work, I studied church

Alternative service worker tests milk in western Pennsylvania: “What better way to learn about the period than to interview people who lived it?”

The Marketplace November December 2010

* (From the Washington Post “On Leadership” blog, Sep. 17, 2010 post

by Selena Rezvani titled “What’s Next for Gen Y Women?”)

16

history and theology at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. I’d attended public schools, then expected Messiah College (Grantham, Pa.) to give me a better grounding in Anabaptist history than it did, so seminary was an attempt to understand the faith tradition of which I was a part.

For my master’s thesis work I studied the interface between economic activity and the rules of “nonconformity” in some parts of the Mennonite Church in the mid‑twentieth century. What better way to learn about the period, I thought, than to interview people who lived it? I conducted 30 oral history interviews — asking a few questions, but mostly listening and recording.

Honoring someone’s life story by listening well, carefully transcribing the recorded audio, crafting a commu-

The stories speak, but the interview itself provides its own kind of service.

friend groups, or in a business or other setting, I’m passionate about helping people value and share their stories.

Which brings me back to marketing! As an

entrepreneur, especially in an unusual field, I feel the pressure to be constantly creating new networking connections and introducing people to the services I provide.

This I’ve found to be the most stretching part of building a business.

I take a variety of approaches to marketing, but I know the personal referral network, coupled with a high‑quality product, provides my best chance at serving a new client. And I really do mean serving. The stories recorded will hopefully speak for generations to come, but the interview experience itself provides its own kind of service.

In an interview I conducted last year, I noted that the narrator intermittently prefaced her comments with, “I hadn’t thought of this until right now, but ....” We are so unaccustomed to being asked carefully‑chosen questions and then provided with undivided attention that I believe the situation creates a holy space for self‑reflection — separate and holy as if kissed with the Spirit.

Finally, I invite God to use the disciplines of oral history interviewing to shape me into the kind of person more likely to love my neighbor as I love myself. It’s funny how knowing another’s story can help with that. ◆

Jean Kilheffer Hess: “Passionate about helping people value and share their stories”

nication that integrated the interview, I loved it all. Put together this experience with the often‑lamented rat race of life that leaves people unable to accomplish the very things they’ll value most in the long term, such as capturing a loved one’s life story, and a business idea blossomed.

Clients hire me to create a custom product

based on one or more oral history interviews conducted with a narrator (the person telling her or his story). In addition to the audio, the final product might be a coffee table‑style book featuring an interview with Grandma and accompanying heirloom photos. Or it might be a full‑length book attempting to capture a lifetime of experiences and learning.

One job involved a local family‑owned business celebrating its 40th anniversary and a generational transition. I worked with the family to concisely tell the founding story and promote the business. I collaborated with a designer to provide a unique communications piece which shared their story with anniversary open house visitors and their existing customer mailing list.

Eye contact and physical touch may be the most basic units of human connection, but I suspect it’s story that rounds out the top three. Whether within families, among

Employees of the Moseman Peanut Butter factory (1920s): The final product might be a book capturing a lifetime of experiences.

17

The Marketplace November December 2010

Stewards of the land and its fruits Prairie firms stay close to their roots

W

Recognition is accorded to “values champions” who exhat does a family farm, accessible only by emplify the partnership’s principles in relating to customdirt roads, and a dealership for the world’s ers and co-workers. largest farm machinery manufacturer have For Pankratz, John Deere is a family tradition. His in common besides being “green” busigrandfather ran a John Deere business in Oklahoma in the nesses with Hutchinson, Kansas addresses?

1940s when the company sold fertilMore than you izer. His father also worked for John might think.

Deere. In 1989, Darrell quit his job as a The companies were high school principal and with his father PrairieLand Partners, started Pankratz Implement in Hutchina partnership of John son. He bought his father out in 1998 Deere dealerships, and and expanded the dealership. Pankratz JaKo Inc., which retails sees a promising future in the “many its own products directly young, smart, high-quality” employees from the farm. The firms who keep looking for ways the company were visited on a fall can “do better tomorrow. They’re the tour by members of the ones that will sustain the business,” he MEDA Kansas Chapter said. and students from HessPrairieLand’s Darrell Pankratz (left) and tour ton (Kan.) College. member Tim Penner of Harper Industries.

Ken King also followed his father As they told their and grandfather into business, and is now well into the stories, principals of both companies revealed they shared process of succession. “I find passing on the farm to the many values, family traditions, and common farm roots. next generation extremely fulfilling,” he said.

King (whose company name is a blend of his and his PrairieLand Partners (“Partnering together to nurwife’s initials, Judith Ann and Kenneth Oliver King) is the ture the land”) is the result of merged John Deere dealerthird generation to live and work on the family farm near ships, now numbering 10 locations. the town of Yoder.

The merger sought to combine the synergies of His father raised conthree separate businesses and give John Deere “a bigger ventional crops and footprint” in central Kansas, said sales manager Darrell cattle but was willing Pankratz. He likened the partnership to a marriage, stressto let Ken take on ing the need for each partner to have common values. the farm and run it “Quite simply, our company is built on Christian valas he wished, which ues,” he said. “We care about the company, care about led to a switch to each other, and we care about the community. Our overorganic production. riding philosophy is to be good stewards of the land to The company’s sustain success.” mission is “to proAll personnel are expected to buy into core values of duce the healthiest integrity, excellence, financial success and partnering. “A food possible so that positive customer experience is our top priority,” Pankratz our customers can said. enjoy a sustainable Employees are empowered to take responsibilFor Ken King, thousands of satislifestyle.

Our busiity, make relevant decisions and, if necessary, hold one fied “inspectors” provide their ness will honor God, another in check if a “values gap” is perceived, he said. own form of certification.

The Marketplace November December 2010

18

respect creation, and operate with integrity.”

King amused tour members by telling how he decided to let his cows do the walking to forage for their own food and spread their own manure. After all, he said, they had four legs and he had only two! He fenced eight paddocks for the cattle to graze on grass in a low‑stress environment. By milking the cows only once a day, he focuses on quality more than quantity in the dairy products he began retailing directly from the farm after land that the family rented was sold, leaving them with half He let the cows their previous acreage.

The milk, butter, do the walking, cream, cheese and yogurt from his 26 milk cows is since they had “nutrient dense” and valued by health‑conscious four legs and he customers, he said.

JaKo also produces had only two and retails free‑range chickens and eggs, and grass-fed beef and lamb.

Egg sales soared this fall when an Iowa chicken farm suffered a disastrous salmonella outbreak and customers were anxious to buy unadulterated eggs, said King.

Although its products are organic, JaKo saves some $5,000 a year by not seeking certification. “We have thousands of inspectors,” King said, namely the customers who “certify” the quality of JaKo’s products by coming back to buy more.

Ken and Judy’s children and their spouses are

now finding their own niches in the family business. Son Daniel planted 5,000 strawberry plants that were still producing at summer’s end. He has since gone on to serve with Mennonite Central Committee in Brazil, so Judy and other family members manage the berry patch.

Daughter Kendra assists with marketing and bakes whole wheat bread, rolls and pizzas that are sold fresh or frozen. Her husband, Mark Horst, has a pottery shop in the barn‑turned‑store at the farm.

Horst said he appreciates that his father‑in‑law doesn’t say “no” to anything that family members have a passion to do, and gives them the freedom to fail and to end a product when necessary.

The Kings’ youngest son, David and his wife Haly, live in Indiana where David manages JaKo’s database and online operations and works in the IT department at Goshen College.

JaKo’s retail store is open 24/7, but not re‑stocked on Sundays. The Kings operate it on the honor system. Customers fill in their own sales ticket and deposit cash and checks in an open container.

Satisfied customers do the advertising for JaKo’s products. “Our product is unique enough, they find us,” said King. — Susan Miller Balzer 19

The Marketplace November December 2010

Soundbites

“Female dividend” helps poor countries Note to developing countries: Want to stay poor? Then treat women poorly.

That’s the message from researchers who say gender inequality leads to lower economic growth.

“Countries that deny fair opportunities to women are hampering their potential for development,” according to Ruth Sunderland in the Observer. “Societies where women are treated well are more likely to be peaceful and prosperous.”

Females, who make up the majority of the world’s farm workers, have been hit hardest by soaring food prices, she writes. Female inequality “results in less food being grown, less

“Numerous studies point to a strong correlation between gender equality in developing countries and economic growth. Call it the female dividend: money that finds its way into a mother’s purse is more beneficial to families and communities than the cash funnelled into a male wallet.”

income and more hungry children.” As the economic crisis has deepened, young girls are often pulled from school and sent out to work, making things worse.

“Educating girls is an investment that continues to produce benefits down the generations,” Sunderland says. “Mothers who have attended school are more likely to recognize the value of learning for their children, as well as being more aware of health and nutrition, leading to lower maternal and infant mortality rates. Investing in a girl’s education can produce exponential rewards, but a poor country with uneducated women is likely to stay poor.

The Marketplace November December 2010

God’s hammer Faith without works is dead.

Likewise, faith without work is dead. Work is the arena where faith proves itself to be true.

I know from experience that rewards lie on the other side of getting up, running my two miles, cracking open the Bible, communing with the Father,

20

Son, and Holy Spirit. When the alarm goes off, these are things not seen, for which faith is the assurance. I’m not dead yet — God is here, calling me in the buzz of the alarm. My vocation is His hammer, level, and awl. — Janie B. Cheaney in World magazine

Shouting NGOs Over time, I’m afraid I came to dislike part of the NGO culture, especially the Green groups. NGOs do a great job, don’t misunderstand me; but the trouble with some of them is that while they are treated by the media as concerned citizens, which of course they are, they are also organiza-

Soundbites

tions, raising money, marketing themselves and competing with other NGOs in a similar field. Because their entire raison d’etre is to get policy changed, they can hardly say yes, we’ve done it, without putting themselves out of business. And they’ve learned to play the modern media game perfectly. As it’s all about impact, they shout louder and louder to get heard. Balance is not in the vocabulary. It’s all “outrage,” “betrayal,” “crisis.” — Former British prime minister Tony Blair in A Journey: My Political Life

Crafting a life Even in a short time, we’ve heard that parents who were incredibly stressed now have their children’s school fees.

Now they can buy shoes. They have money in their pocket.

Maybe they’re still living in a tent. But they know they can have some bit of security to craft a life. They know we’re not going away. — Willa Shalit, head of Fairwinds Trading, after brokering a deal with retail giant Macy’s to promote the products of Haitian artisans

Power of one A man who is willing to undertake the discipline and the difficulty of mending his own ways is worth more to the conservation movement than a hundred who are insisting merely that the government and industries mend their ways. — Wendell Berry

Set-up In baseball, everyone cheers the batter who knocks in the winning run in the bottom of the 9th. But just as important to the win was the player who

laid down a perfect bunt to move the man to scoring position, or even the guy who dutifully backed up a throw and prevented the other team from scoring an extra run earlier in the game. — George F. Will in Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball

a person defines himself, measures his worth, and his humanity. — Peter Drucker

Change me I do not ask God that He should change anything in

events themselves, but that He should change me in regard to things, so that I might have the power to create my own universe, to govern my dreams, instead of enduring them.

— Gerard de Nerval

Why work?

Christians often have four levels of understanding about work. Level 1 sees work as something that gets us our daily bread but has little value beyond that. Level 2 also grudgingly supports work because cash thus acquired can go to support ministries and missions, with some becoming an inheritance to pass on to children. Level 3 sees work as an opportunity to witness to co-workers. Those are all good reasons for work, but shouldn’t we also push on to a level 4, in which work is more than a means to an end? Since we spend more of our waking time in our workplaces than anywhere else, shouldn’t those be places where individuals gain dignity, grasp freedom, and employ creativity? — Marvin Olasky in World magazine

Position announcement

Chief MEDA Engagement Officer Due to our success and growth, MEDA invites applications for a full‑time Chief MEDA Engagement Officer.

The CMEO provides executive‑level strategic leadership to engage MEDA’s association of private supporters with our mission; secure financial contributions that leverage other sources of funding; protect and enhance MEDA’s image; and expand awareness of MEDA in diverse market segments. A member of MEDA’s Executive Leadership Team, the CMEO will lead a staff of senior professionals to develop and implement the MEDA Engagement strategic plan and annual budget. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of implementing successful marketing strategies and an understanding of fundraising, particularly within the Anabaptist community. With a keen interest in MEDA’s approach to finding business solutions to poverty, and desire to engage others in this vision, the CMEO will participate in speaking engagements, media appearances, and visits to key members of the constituency. A full-time opportunity, with a strong preference to be based in the Waterloo, Ontario MEDA office, this position will involve regular domestic and international travel. This unique position is a chance to use your significant leadership and technical expertise to make a difference.

Qualifications: • Minimum of 10 years successful executive leadership and senior staff management.

• Demonstrated experience in developing and leading successful marketing campaigns for a variety of audiences.

• In‑depth knowledge and understanding of MEDA’s constituency (Mennonite, Anabaptist and Christian business and professionals).

• Background and understanding of fundraising, especially in the development of major gift proposals. Familiarity with the Moves Management system is preferable.

• Highly motivated, self‑starter, and results‑oriented.

• Excellent and proven interpersonal skills in team leadership, relationship building, active listening, communicating, and negotiation.

• Understanding and appreciation of international development and MEDA’s approach of finding business solutions to poverty.

• Appreciation and support of MEDA’s faith, values and goals.

Poverty fix The only long-term solution to world poverty is business. That is because businesses produce goods, and businesses produce jobs. And businesses continue producing goods year after year, and continue providing jobs and paying wages year after year. — Wayne Grudem in Business for the Glory of God

Yardstick Work is an extension of personality. It is achievement.

It is one of the ways in which

Please submit resume to jobs@meda.org

21

The Marketplace November December 2010

News

More than a hundred passengers from the Mennonite Heritage Cruise took time out from exploring historic sites in Ukraine to see a current initiative that is helping local farmers, some of them tilling land once owned by Mennonites.

In early October the passengers visited clients of the Ukraine Horticultural Development Project (UHDP) being carried out by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). The five-year $10 million project, supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), aims to help 5,000 smallholder farmers create successful ventures on former collectivized farms.

While the project is not directly related to the Mennonite Heritage Cruise, both share roots in the historic region.

Since 1995 the annual cruise has given more than 3,000 visitors a chance to travel the Dnieper River and immerse themselves in the history of Mennonites who developed major settlements in Ukraine and Crimea from 1789 until after the Bolshevik Revolution in the early 20th century.

More recently, cruise organizers have included special visits to local service efforts supported by Mennonites.

This year they invited staff of MEDA’s Ukraine project to participate in the final cruise, which ran from Sept. 30 to Oct. 16.

UHDP field manager Steve Wright and two other staff members joined passengers for several days and escorted more than 100 of them to meet farmer clients and see how MEDA is helping them grow better crops and improve

Photo by Vyachaslav Obozinksi

Cruise ship passengers visit Ukraine farm project marketing.

They visited Crimean farmer Roman Pospelovksy, who grows strawberries, cucumbers and tomatoes in his two greenhouses. He explained how technical assistance has helped bolster production and has encouraged him to plan additional crops, such as table grapes.

For local Ukrainians, the assistance of MEDA and other Mennonite groups is seen as an act of forgiveness and reconciliation, given that many Mennonites were driven out of the area following the Bolshevik Revolution nearly a century ago.

A focal point for today’s Mennonite presence in ancestral regions is the Mennonite Centre in Molochansk (formerly called Halbstadt), housed in a refurbished Mennonite girls school. It grew out of the vision of people who started visiting the area following Ukraine’s independence in the early 1990s, explains George Dyck of Vineland, Ont., a Centre official. “They were amazed by the squalor, poverty and low standard of living in the area, and decided to establish the Centre in 2001 in memory of their ancestors and to help the local people,” he says. The Centre carries on numerous activities, including medical assistance to impoverished pensioners and the handicapped, educational and youth outreach, and informational services about the region and its Mennonite past.

Dyck developed a “Mennonite Return and Outreach” theme for the cruise itinerary so that passengers could see the work and institutions served by the Centre and related Mennonite initiatives.

The Marketplace November December 2010

Passengers stream into the greenhouse farm of MEDA client Roman Pospelovsky.

Walter Unger of Toronto, the cruise organizer, notes that the return and outreach theme derives from the third of a series of shipboard lectures by historian Paul Toews of Fresno, Calif. The lecture, titled “Paradox and Irony in the Russian Mennonite Story,” ends with a section on “Irony of Rebirth” — how the Mennonites have

returned to Ukraine in various roles. “Toews points out that 20 years ago everyone thought the Mennonite story in Ukraine was dead, gone forever, but not so, remarkably not so,” says Unger. “The recent MEDA initiative graphically shows how Mennonites care about their former neighbors.” ◆

Will cookstoves be the next big thing?

First it was malaria nets, then vaccines. Could cooking stoves be the next big player in the business of health?

The application of market know-how to a seemingly non-business commodity like insecticide-treated mosquito nets has become the stuff of legend in the development community.

The premise (as discovered and promoted by MEDA) is simple — rather than merely give nets away, why not offer them at a discount, making the customer pay a little. That way local retailers can make a buck, giving them an incentive to keep a supply on hand and thus ensuring a steady source 22

for tomorrow’s customer. The ploy has a subtle additional benefit — it taps into the truism that people tend to value something more if they pay for it.

Now there is talk of extending the idea to cookstoves, and saving many lives of those who succumb to smoky pollution.

“Makeshift cookers also catch fire easily, maiming and killing,” says The Economist.

“And lives are not the only things wasted. Women and girls in rural villages lose time and energy walking around collecting dirty solid fuels, ranging from crop waste to cow dung (better used as Continued on page 23

News

$12 million project to boost rice and textiles in Ethiopia A new five-year $12 million project has been launched by MEDA to help rice farmers and home-based textile producers in Ethiopia.

It aims to help 10,000 small producers increase their income by improving production and moving into higher value markets.

Some 75 percent of the project will be assistance to rice producers, both floodplain and dryland, says Jerry Quigley, senior vice-president of market linkages for MEDA. The rest will be with textiles.

Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa (80 million people), is among the poorest countries in the world, though the number of people living in poverty has been falling.

The agricultural sector employs more than 80 percent of

Continued from page 22 fertilizer).”

Development experts are promoting new improved stoves that burn cleaner and cook better (at $30 or more, still out of reach for many). A lot of research is underway to test the concept and possible schemes to finance them. “But the best reason for hope,” the magazine says, “may lie in the new-found awareness of market forces among governments and the United Nations crowd.”

A big push behind the new cookstove initiative is U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has been speaking out against give-aways. “As with anti malarial bed nets, she argues, charging a little makes people value and use them properly,” says The Economist.

the population, a great many of them small farmers who till a few acres. Many people are also involved in textile production and weaving. In both sectors, production is hampered by lack of access to information, appropriate technologies and input supplies, and inefficient market linkages.

Rice is emerging as a major food and cash crop. Consumption is growing faster than any other food staple, and it is now classified as a national food security crop along with teff, wheat and maize.

But productivity has been declining and local rice has trouble competing with more expensive imports. Farmers are unaware of simple post‑harvest handling techniques that could greatly improve quality. Sometimes untrained hulling and polishing processors produce rice with a high percentage of broken grains. Lack of proper storage leads to spoilage.

Increasing agricultural productivity is critical, say project officials, but for families’ incomes to rise agronomic improvements must be complemented with strategies to integrate rice farmers into expanding markets.

Tens of thousands of Ethiopian families are also engaged in weaving, spinning and embroidery of traditional cotton products. A growing middle class has increased demand not only for traditional clothing but also for more up‑scale designs featuring Ethiopian fabrics.

But many spinners, weavers and embroiderers work in isolated communities with limited access to contemporary markets and little exposure to changing customer demands.

Opportunities exist for rela-

tively low‑cost upgrading and production efficiencies, but rural producers need stronger links to emerging markets.

MEDA’s project will assist both sectors. In rice, this includes improved modern techniques, appropriate technologies, input supplies, quality support services (including finance and credit), and better irrigation, storage, processing and transportation.

In the textile sector the focus will be on awareness of market trends, improved supplies and equipment, credit, and improved designs for specialized market segments.

MEDA will partner with local organizations to implement strategy and build financial

23

services capacity.

The project will work in three regions: the Lake Tana area in the northwestern highlands, an emerging center of rice production; the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR), a traditional center of spinning and weaving; and the capital, Addis Ababa, a central marketing hub.

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is contributing nearly $10 million with the rest coming from MEDA and other local partners.

An inception mission for the project was completed this summer, with start-up planned for January. ◆

The Marketplace November December 2010

Another business solution to poverty

Making funeral garments in Ghana. Ray Dirks watercolor titled, “She can laugh at the days to come” (Prov. 31:25).

The Marketplace November December 2010

24