A Soulful Space for Place - A Collaborative Series

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Meet the “Placemakers”



Kiera:

While living in Amman, Jordan I am conducting research on women, peace and security and working on my policy advocacy and travel blog Peace Beneath Her Feet. During this time I have also served as a Girls' Education Consultant, Curriculum Trainer and Project Facilitator at the Families Development Association in the urban refugee community of Al-Hashmi in East Amman amidst the current conflict miles away in Israel and Palestine. I hope to continue to travel as an agent of change by standing alongside women who have fled from war and have a valuable voice in the peace process. The light in me, honors the light in you and I hope you feel inspired to go and follow your own purpose to serve our world. So I extend my hand as we embark on this beautiful journey together.



Ryan:

As the Director of Educational Programs for Agua Inc, an innovative global wastewater treatment company, my job is to maximize community outreach and establish meaningful experiences for a diverse crowd of international interns. I have observed the deficiencies of those seeking purpose within traditional community resource models, and many a time engaged in the dance of finding the meaning in experiences within service projects and study abroad. Through my future practice in Physiotherapy, I hope to offer the most innovative clinics in providing elements of specified sustainable development initiatives in various African regions.



What is a “Place”:



A “place” can be defined as a portion of space occupied by a person. The kind of “place” that we want to emphasize is that of which you would use in the sentence “I have found my place.” The vision is that establishing a sense of place means finding your niche in the grander puzzle of a communities’ purpose. Both Ryan and I work within the idea of cultural diplomacy with students in search for purpose abroad. This is an exchange of theory, knowledge, art and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples that foster mutual understanding. This type of “soft power” is a concept taken in stride by motivated students and graduates and it’s beginning to result in a generation of change that is creating “places” everywhere! Building this connectivity and state of collaboration paves the way for creative ideas on how we can solve some of the world’s most pressing issues together. We may be wandering but we’re lost in the right direction.



Indeed, to not feel identified with a place and its respective community is to feel lost, which is why many wander, including myself. We as a race always seek the destination of a place that can set us on another journey of seeking. This continutiy of place-finding and therefore place-making is the wanderlust-equivalent of emotional attachment. The needs of a place, especially in the developing world, are critical. Simple resources, tools, guidance, idea transfer, and networking has the power to thrust people out of financial, spiritual, and inspirational poverty. No matter the status of one’s region, we all travel to locate a comfortable foundation in which to build a map for purpose. To generate this “purpose productivity”, these places must connect aims and facilitate the place-goers to act as change agents of their own culture.





The Soulful “Spaces” We Entered:



Space is a continuous area or expanse that is free, available, or unoccupied. For many Syrian, Palestinian and Iraqi refugees living in Jordan, finding space is not an easy task. In a reality determined by war, poverty and disconnection many of these displaced persons battle with the concept of settling. For the urban refugee populations, the communities they enter into are most likely not free, available, or unoccupied. These “spaces” are already heavily populated and bare little resources to share for the constant influx of families looking for somewhere to call shelter. For many refugees, their homes in their country of origin no longer stand. They are left with the clothes on their back and a few precious items to remind them of the spaces they left behind to be occupied by ash. Their human instincts are rubbed raw and they look for the bare necessities. Many mothers will ask the question: Do my children have food to eat, water to drink and a place to sleep? If this question is met at any capacity then it is time for these women to create a “place” where their children can try to feel free to be themselves again.



As I started working in the neighborhood in Al-Hashmi in East Amman, Jordan I began to realize that there may not be “space” but a potential for refugees to find their “place” in the community. When each of the conflicts that are raging on in the Middle East have unique qualities and complexities individually, there is a shared narrative of resilience between refugees. Amongst the narrow alleyways of Al-Hashmi, there will be the small apartment of a Palestinian family across the way from that of a Syrian family. The conflicts they have escaped from, and their dialects, food, customs and home differ yet their children now play in the same streets. I work with women and their families and come across mother after mother who has felt the same pain. For women like Amira from Syria, it’s the recent loss of a child and the hope that her existing three children will survive another day, week, or year. Then for women like Laila whose family fled from Palestine when she was a young girl, her loss was of her older brother. Laila, like Amira’s daughter Ana, is a daughter of a mother that has undergone tremendous heartache. Both in different stages of grief, Amira and Laila are mothers who will do whatever it may take to keep their children in a safe “place.” Their resilience is shown through their fight to make sure that their children value their education. Both women have utilized the education services provided by the Families Development Association where I serve as Girls’ Education Consultant. Through the power of books rather than bombs, I intend to continually establish a “place” for this collective resilience to empower mothers and all individuals to contribute to the development of communities like Al-Hashmi for the next generation to be one of peace.



In The Gambia of West Africa, many Gambians lack the resources to pursue their desired education or generate enough revenue for themselves or their family. Innovation and passion seems to be the last concern, while issues such as low literacy rates, environmental degradation, and minimal enterprise sustainability reign apparent. The space I run in the town of Bijilo is in a suburban compound that acts as my company’s HQ and living space. As we wanted to be a center for learning and innovation, we named it the Agua Campus. It has worked out to be appropriate, as many university students, Peace Corps volunteers, local scientists, ministers and government officials have been coming to see the demonstration of our maker-space-generated technologies, our resource library, basic tools, and place for diverse people. Recently, a small group of physics students from the University of The Gambia were working with us to develop ways of preserving fish in an economically-critical fish market without expensive ice or electricity, and one of the students referred his friend, Lamin, who was interested in conducting a research paper on water issues in Gambia. The biochemistry major came to the Campus with no knowledge on water issues, and little clues on where to start. Through facilitated research, international expertise exchange, and some inspirational guidance, Lamin is now highly motivated and knowledgeable on the subject after only three visits. After we recently found that his GPA would not allow his research to be university sanctioned, we decided to continue in hopes of bringing great attention and intervention to toxic metal poisoning currently not tested for in his country. The Gambia’s major utility regulators do not test for many toxic metals, and one of large concern is lead, which is common from pipe corrosion and industrial contamination. Not only is he inspired to advocate and create an entity for carrying such a mission, but led a large group of his colleagues to become excited about applying their majors to the collective water issues in The Gambia. The future implications are huge for protecting the health of other Gambians and young children, and he is eligible to receive funding for such projects with the right catalyzed approach.



What it Takes to be a “Placemaker”:



Becoming a placemaker requires that one takes leadership, but never defines their role. Placemakers must run their place with holacracy, cross-pollinating roles, skills, delegations, people, and responsibilities. Only abstract, open approaches aimed at deeply pollinating relationships can allow a placemaker to create the ultimate environmental specificity for supporting a place-goer’s goals and dreams. Placemaking is an endless effort of selflessness, creativity, hospitality, sense-making, cultural sensitivity, and dynamic philosophy.



As compassionate and visionary leaders, placemakers put an emphasis on the ability to fuse the strengths of those around them. Their emphasis must be on the development of human potential to achieve a goal. There is sense of intuition within placemakers tells them that by taking the time and patience to integrate all perspectives they will design harmonious working groups that solve tough problems. These humble beings, need to take the time to lead by example and they avoid traditional power structures and commands. Never do they pass up the opportunity to motivate, validate and continually affirm in the power that those around them have to make a difference in the world. They understand that power does not lie within them alone, rather it is the power of all of us working together that will shake the world.



I believe that by chasing these elements towards becoming a placemaker, we can transform spaces into places. Meaningful places can arise out of porches, cafes, offices, “bantabas” (for Gambians, a tree-shaded spot or gazebo) and Majlis (in Arabic a “place of sitting” for interest groups). Through attitudes and simple social disruptuon, people can change culture, improve productivity, and collectively provide alternatives to failing systems of education and shotgun approaches to purpose-seeking that often miss the mark. Well-executed places can vanquish violence, push peace, and eventually provide a globally-interconnected grassroots network of like-minded place-goers seeking purposeful mindsets. Kiera and I work in very different regions and contexts, yet the it is clear that the need for places with leading placemakers is universal.



Through the production of these “places” we are creating a world that myself, Ryan and many of our peers envision. Our approach may not be as quick of a fix as the slap of a band-aid, but it’s an approach that looks at the souls of a space in order to create something spectacular together. The road ahead will be long, and our sense of optimistic realism will be judged and challenged but the fight to create will never end when we are continually empowering people to run into the wonders of the human spirit. I believe that these places will be part of a world that is so beautiful that the children of tomorrow won’t believe that the injustices of today were e

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