2009-12-08:CHALLENGE AND HOPE
In any given time, people, societies, or communities large or small come together to land a helping hand to others in need. Deeply ingrained inside human behavior, from time to time, this solidarity shows up in forms of actions making one benefit from another. Throughout history, it more likely happens after a misfortune. To make this process more efficient, non governmental organizations stepped up and came up with a plan. Instead of waiting for hardship to strike before reacting, they decided to take the path of a more preventive approach by laying out a proactive plan in order to lift up the livelihood of vulnerable segments of the human population. Therefore those populations are armed to face up eventual disasters. This endeavor partly finds it origin in the African culture where in every setting (family, tribe, ethnic group and nation), the sense of solidarity is held very high in the ladder of social values. This venture can easily be fulfilled in the United States of America which is the most charitable country in the world according to research conducted by the Harvard School of government. These two assumptions lead to believe that there is a genuine possibility to bring together not only Guineans and Friends of Guinea but also to foster positive development in the USA / Guinea relations by educating the American public about Guinea. According to H. Brunschwigh in his book French colonialism 1871-1914 myths and realities, 1966, the origin of the Guinean problem, similar to other African countries is found in what happened between 1830 and 1880, the period before the colonial era. From the African point of view, the long period entailed an incubation of European influence which took a much stronger hold than any foreign influence in the past. Black Africa was shaken and changed like never before. At that time, Africans dealt at their pace in equal terms with foreigners. But this evolution was interrupted in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The break did not come from a change of direction, but from a brutal thrust which took away the Africans control over their destiny. The colonial era and the ill-prepared independences led to the rise of a state which has no means to fulfill its destiny. In the last fifty years, two dictatorial regimes and the deterioration of the exchange terms in the world trade took the young nation into the path of a corrosive impoverishment despite its tremendous wealth in raw materials. Subsequent social unrests, political instability and other hardship caused many Guineans to flee their native country. Today, the Guinean Diaspora is all over the world. For instance, here in the state of Rhode Island, there are as many as hundreds people claiming the Guinean origin. Those Guineans living in RI decided to start GAFOGARI-NIMBA which sets an informative way to create good relationships between them and whoever wants to be part of this enterprise. The Guinean and Friends of Guinea in Rhode Island is a non governmental organization willing to take on the challenge of organizing and strengthening the Guinean community in Rhode Island and the country of Guinea by building an infrastructure for economic, educational, social and cultural development. Being part of the GAFOGARI-NIMBA leads into partaking in the very challenging enterprise aiming at restoring human dignity to a large segment of the Guinean population. In that endeavor lays a way of fulfilling one’s noble ambition of perpetuating what has been a universal virtue since the beginning of time.