Success...Even When Projects Don’t Meet Expectations
Adam and Christine Jeske have two children—Phoebe and Zeke—and two master’s degrees in international 
economic development. After their recent work in Africa, Christine wrote Into the Mud: Inspiration for Everyday Activists, True Stories of South Africa. Adam recently took time to discuss their experiences.
What were your responsibilities at the microfinance organization, and how was the program administered?
My wife and I shared responsibilities as the managing directors for a pilot project in Kwa-Zulu-Natal, South Africa. The aim of the project was to devise a sustainable model of business training and small loans to vulnerable youth in a challenging rural environment. Weekly meetings brought together staff and students at local high schools, where they learned elementary business principles and took and repaid small loans as groups.
How much discretion did your organization exercise over who received loans?
The organization was eager to gain a group of clients as quickly as possible. As such not much discretion was exercised over who received loans, other than our social issue screens.
How did you measure whether loan recipients were improving their long-term economic position?
We were working with a fairly extreme population…rural youth in an area with an adult HIV infection rate of 40 percent. So any gain in business acumen, self-worth, and life skills was a win. We relied upon qualitative research and evaluation done with and through our field staff. This included home visits, interviews, and conversations with others in the households of our clients.
So could you share some of these results and give us a feel for what you saw?
Well… the results were a mixed bag. We found that the youth and families that we served face a much more difficult struggle than we [and] our local Zulu staff anticipated. Many had not previously handled money for which they were responsible. There were serious power dynamics in households with adults, particularly men. And the surrounding credit culture we found was abysmal, with little repayment on all sorts of credit mechanisms.
But we saw the spark we hoped for in a few young adults, where they took their loans, made a business plan, budgeted, kept records, had the discipline to pay back, and ended with a business that continued to bolster their household economy. These continued even after the loan cycle and the project itself. That is a win.
Finally, we learned a lot from the attempts, even when meeting frustration. We then recommended other routes with the project: serve more traditional microfinance clients (adult women who already have functioning businesses), start business savings clubs (rather than a sustainable credit program), or move the project to an area with higher population density to make the work more efficient for staff.
In what ways did that experience change your ideas about helping people?
Helping people is hard. And when you're working cross-culturally, it's even more challenging. There is a multitude of variables; it's exceedingly difficult to plan for everything. But at its base, I continue to think it's about relationships.
Outside of a mutual relationship, real improvements in finances, health, character, priorities, and other key areas are rare. So I try to learn from people that I try to help. Put another way, I try to be helped as much as I try to help others. In the hard places I've worked, there is a lot to learn from people—joy, peace, patience, perseverance, faith, hard work, generosity, hospitality, and much more.
So you would consider your experience in South Africa a positive, even though the project didn’t turn out the way you had hoped?
Yes, our aim was to see if the vision was possible, to evaluate the potential. While we certainly would have been happier if our outcomes led to a large and successful program benefiting thousands of clients, we were certainly satisfied with the learning from the project. For example, the lessons learned through the microfinance project have been helpful as I've gone on to teach African leaders at a seminary in South Africa and presented to North American audiences.
That seems like a hard perspective to have because many of us define success according to our plans and expectations.
True, but I think my expectations were tempered by the "pilot" aspect of the project. I knew it was a long shot, in some ways. And that's the nature of international development work, generally—there are a lot of glorious wildfire starts, valiant attempts and courageous efforts, but also many missteps and mistakes. If anyone had it all figured out, there would no longer be poverty, right? So that's part of the field.
And on a personal level, while I do plan and set high goals, I realize that I am 
finite and do not control every variable. But my Christian faith gives me hope to carry on despite challenges and setbacks. As Mother Theresa has been quoted, "God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try."
Adam Jeske does freelance writing and photography, particularly on cultural and social issues. You can find his work at www.WorldviewMultimedia.com and find a free excerpt of Into the Mud: Inspiration for Everyday Activists on www.IntotheMud.com.
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Yes, Marti, I found Adam Jeske's perspective on this refreshing and hard to hear since I'm alternately annoyed by society's emphasis on "message" (think "hype") and find myself more desirous of "success" than of faithfulness.
Posted by Loren Paulsson, 26/09/2011 8:42am (4 months ago)
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Awesome article - very thought provoking and inspiring. Thank you for sharing the links, too.
Posted by Marti, 22/09/2011 7:10pm (5 months ago)
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