Finding Our Way in the World

In 2014, when the Ebola outbreak hit my home country (Liberia), a country challenged by a poor health system and high rate of corruption and poverty, 4810 deaths were recorded out of 10678 confirmed cases. This became the second wave of disaster in Liberia after the cold-blooded civil war which lasted from 1989-1996, that completely sent the country backward.

As we rebuilt our country in Africa, many services were lacking, but we truly became strong in our mindset and commitment to our nation. This process saw the emergence of many civil society organizations creating awareness and community-based organizations taking the lead in ensuring everyone was safe and recovering. Our health workers risked themselves to save as many lives as possible.

As my organization YOCEL was mobilizing young people across the country to complement government and international partners’ efforts to fight the outbreak, I witnessed first-hand the need to foster grassroots collaborations and build a stronger support system.

We find ourselves in a country with limited resources, poor health infrastructure, a lack of national healing programs to support citizens, and limited recovery support for victims of the outbreak. Wayfinding, the theme of this publication, in this case, was challenging because the people we cherished so much were nowhere to support us. Therefore, wayfinding in this context reflects resilience.

The resilience kept us stronger together and helped us find our way right back to our normal lives. Just when everyone was getting adjusted and things were returning to normalcy, the third wave of the disaster hit. This was even more intensive and destructive. The COVID-19 pandemic not only changed our way of life but challenged our co-existence, separated us from the people we loved, restricted, and in some cases, banned our movements. The pandemic is not over yet, as it has proven to be strong and here to stay with us. But with the many challenges presented by the pandemic, there also come new opportunities.

In these challenging moments, I have been drawn to the concept of global citizenship. According to OXFAM, Global Citizenship is about being aware of and understanding the wider world – and their place in it. A global citizen takes an active role in their community and works with others to make our planet more peaceful, sustainable, and fair. We have seen how the pandemic has made everyone care about what’s happening around them and created an urgent need to help and collaborate.

Within this understanding, I see that finding our way in the world can be built on the following principles:

Resilience

Resilience is one thing that helps people and countries find their way back to their normal lives or the world they might have lost. The ability to mentally, emotionally, and even physically prepare to withstand the past and think deeply about what’s ahead is magical. Many people don’t have that ability and that is why I find it a vital piece to finding your way back. With my reflection on the Covid-19 pandemic, I have realized that the only way to move forward is to see the past as the path to the future. Once we become resilient, it becomes so easy to walk our way back to the world and our lives, most importantly.

Fostering grassroots/cross-border relationships

I cannot overemphasize how important it is to build bridges and never burn them. Fostering grassroots or cross-border relationships keeps you calm and makes you understand that you are not alone. We live in an interconnected world where no one person can survive without the help of another. Relationship building is very key in fostering global citizenship. And therefore, it is an utmost obligation to learn about the things we aren’t familiar with and remain open-minded. With the emergence of technology, it has become even more clear that we can only live happily when we respect, are tolerant, and become open-minded.

Endeavoring to care about and understand things happening around us

We live in a world where one can’t ignore what’s happing around them. We have seen how flood, pandemic, fire disaster, war, etc. has immensely destroyed countries and at the same time proven time without numbers that our problems are interconnected and we must fight those problems collectively not as a single individual. In order to find our way back in any given circumstance, we must first embrace our diversities and seek to always learn rather than judge, and we must exercise tolerance in all spaces.

Sitting and watching how the world unfolds will someday catch up with us, just like the pandemic. My advice is to start caring at the earlier stage and figure out how you can be of help. Caring and understanding happenings around us allow us to avoid being judgmental.

Adapting a global citizen identity mindset

Finally, we all have that global citizen identity but we many times refuse to accept it. From where I grew up, when a child is born, they open their eyes to love, the first and true love from either your mother, nurses, relatives, etc. You get to be loved and carried by people who didn’t know you as a symbol of unity and community. Adapting a global citizen identity mindset is to open up our minds to what the world is evolving into. Seeing people as part of one big family that must be kept together at all times. For me, this is one true way to find your way back. Open up yourself and let the universe be part of you instead of you being part of it.

In conclusion, the way we find our way back to our work and the world is by being resilient, caring, open-minded, tolerating, and building relationships. Once we adapt these concepts, we can see the world from a broader perspective and also welcome everyone within it.

Let me leave you with this quote: “You can’t start finding your way when you keep dulling your way.” We dull our efforts when we ignore the potential to serve as global citizens. My organization, YOCEL, has found ways to connect through grassroots and cross-border collaborations. We have led many initiatives that involve citizens’ participation particularly women and youth in economic activities and continue to ensure that young people build social enterprises that take into account the global perspective.

We see sharing as a means of learning, not weakness. Together, we are putting into practice the principles above and finding our way to economic growth and Development by being diverse, collaborative, and inclusive. YOCEL is driven by the concept of global citizenship and is determined to ensure young entrepreneurs through its early-stage Accelerator program found businesses that address not just the needs of their community but the global society.

Links:

www.yocel.org

www.bfoodliberia.net

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fpewee/

Email: flomodeprinho@gmail.com