Day 4: The Art of Focus

The ECON class arrived late last night and it has been wonderful. I got to meet some new people and no longer needs to eat alone! At the same time, I feel fortunate that I had the past three days alone. Instead of chatting, I could listen to the city and let it lead me. Thinking of it, I probably only spoke no more than 30 sentences everyday!
I thought more about Monkeybiz today. Another thing that I need to learn from them and another program in Cape Town, Mother to Mother, is the idea of focus. AIDS in a big issue and there is many ways to address it. You can talk about it more in a medical term. You can work on implementing early awareness for teenagers or even children. You can even work on helping orphans whose mothers had AIDS. Monkeybiz focus on skill training and HIV positive women’s support. Mother to Mother work on counseling for HIV positive women and promoting testing for HIV. I once asked Mitch Besser, director of Mother to Mother program, why doesn’t he also work on AIDS awareness for teenagers as that is the way to stop AIDS, he says… That is an important issue, but one can only do so much. If I don’t focus, then I will not be effective. Such a simple explanation but I always forget because… this is important, that is important, and I ended up doing everything but not being as effective as I could be. If every organization focus on a different aspect of an issue, then together they cover the grounds, isn’t it.