Dead And Buried

All kinds of little things are happening that demonstrate the momentum that is building behind this crazy thing that has become the Theodora Project. I really have to pinch myself when I think that I went to Ghana for the first time just 11 months ago with only the vaguest of clues as to what I hoped to achieve and now I am sitting with a not-for-profit company, funding, successful initial tests, increasing participation from key knowledge and influence sources, etc.

Most of you who have followed my blog for a long time know that I have a fairly heavy-duty spiritual side to me. If this whole Ghana/Theodora thing doesn't reinforce that, I don't know what does. Because I feel the project is pulling me along rather than me pushing it. I feel there is a bigger hand at work and I am just the glove over the hand.

Today one of the women that I am getting started doing some work got her first cash payment for doing virtual assistant work - $100. It doesn't sound like a lot does it. But it is about 25% of what is needed per month to live here. She was beaming.

And if you want to know what really gets me pumped about moving this program forward, let me tell you about a conversation I had with my leading proof-of-concept project who we will just call M.

M was the first one I met and convinced me by things she was doing for herself that these women whose circumstances led to sex trade, had the potential to do much more. I have been feeding projects and work to her and she has been growing with each one. She got a major piece of work from a former escort client who also saw the potential in her and has her doing outbound telemarketing to acquire IT and Telecommunications equipment. Seriously. I also greatly expanded the work I am having her do for me. She is handling setting up all my appointments for my coming trip in February. I suspect between these two jobs she is making $400 to $600 a month now...real money here in Ghana.

She had told me a couple of weeks ago that she had deleted all her escort internet advertisements. I had sent her to check out the offices of a pretty high ranking business person/Rotary member who is aware of Theodora. She was relating to me that she felt very comfortable in the meeting and was marveling at how far she had come in six-months.

I said to her, "So M, it sounds like M the Escort is dead."

Her reply was "Yup dead and buried".

It was hard for me to not cry.

Once success at a time. That's all it takes. One at a time.