by
Shelly Satran
Several
Beyond Borders and Limye Lavi staff and
board members meet around the round table at the
Limye Lavi office in Haiti. |
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In
our office here in Haiti, there is a large table made up
of eight sections, each shaped like a piece of pie. During
regular workdays, these sections are scattered throughout
the office and used as desks in different rooms. On meeting
days, the slices of pie are pieced together to make a single
circular table.
This
table represents how our organization seeks to balance power
and leadership. In a circle no one sits at the head, no
one sits above or below another, and all eyes are not on
one person.
If
you visit Beyond Borders or our sister organization in Haiti,
Limyè Lavi, you’ll have a hard time finding
“the person in charge.” Each staff member shares
the title co-director and is “in charge” of
his or her areas of responsibility. Organizational decisions
are made through consensus. Each person is a leader.
Of course, like any other organization, Beyond Borders has
its flaws and frustrations. Reaching decisions by consensus
can take much more time than one person giving an order.
Also, when each person has leadership, conflicting ideas
and opinions can be harder to work through because the solution
isn’t just decided by whoever wields the most power.
Yet we choose this path because we believe the way we do
our work is crucial to what we do. Striving for an equitable
balance of leadership and power seems especially important
when working across cultures. We believe this enables us
to work together more effectively toward change in Haiti.
Beyond
Borders working to end child servitude:
 Billboards
like these are up all over Port-au-Prince
as part of campaign to end child servitude.
The billboard says, "Give me your hand.
Give me tomorrow. Down with Child Servitude."
The Down with Child Servitude coalition we have
helped establish in Haiti has initiated a new
public awareness campaign to change attitudes
about the practice of exploiting children in
domestic servitude, appealing to guardians of
these children and boernment officials to use
their power to protect these defenseless children
rather than exploit them.
 Children
and adults in Les Cayes march to demand
an end to child slavery. This was one of the
many activities organized all over Haiti commemorating
the International Day of the Child this year.
These events were an outgrowth of the work Beyond
Borders has been supporting in Haiti.
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Today,
during a staff meeting as I sit at the table and look around
at the Haitian and American faces that make up the pieces
of this circle, I am amazed at the capacity and initiative
and creativity of each person. What this table represents
is what we seek to be about in Haiti—encouraging leadership,
initiative, responsibility, and collaboration as we work
together in Christ’s name to promote education that
liberates and transforms. |
