KNOWING WHEN YOUR NATURAL ENDOWMENTS ARE TRIGGERED AND USING THAT TO GIVE BACK TO HUMANITY.

My purpose in life is to be a community developer and facilitator working with individuals and communities to harness our potential to build more fulfilling lives and community wellbeing with God at the centre. At the centre of this purpose has been a willingness to always “give back” to humanity. Giving back not just because I have been given much in diverse ways and by diverse people through this amazing journey call life. But because I have come to realise that life rewards people for their creativity and ability to use their God-given endowments to solve critical problems for humanity.

Identifying and finding ways to solve critical challenges in creative ways has been my own way to “give back” to humanity. This has meant discovering and using my natural endowment or talents in project grant writing and implementation. My focus has been on working together with individuals and communities to co-conceive, co-develop ideas and turning them into bankable initiatives and projects to address salient challenges. This has been in addition to ‘seeking’, ‘knocking’ and ‘asking’ in line with the Biblical mantra to get the necessary support in and beyond where we find ourselves to give wings to or action these initiatives and projects.

While we are all naturally endowed with diverse talents from the day we are conceived, these can lie dormant from cradle and end up in the grave when we leave this beautiful earth. This could be the reason why some speakers have likened the graveyards to the wealthiest place because many endowments, strengths, and potential lie underground. That said. It takes vigilance, wittiness, assertiveness and proactiveness on the part of everyone to identify their inner potential or strength and when it is triggered or activated. In writing this post I am hoping to motivate someone who is yet to self-discover. Or enable someone who feels lost to start to search inwards, find own strength, and spend time building that and using that for the good of self and humanity. When did I know I had found my inner strength, endowment, and potentials?

I completed my undergraduate studies in Environmental Science in late 2003. After this, I had the invaluable opportunity to start as a volunteer at the Society for Initiatives in Rural Development and Environmental management (SIRDEP). SIRDEP was and has remained a frontline grassroot not-for-profit organisation in Cameroon. It has trained many leaders in the sector. Volunteering in this organisation was an invaluable opportunity for me to be coached and mentored by some of the most seasoned minds in Cameroon’s civil society sector. It was a norm in the organisation to expose volunteers to diverse skills and capacity development opportunities. This was an exceptional to me because counterpart organisations hoarded these opportunities and made them accessible to particular interest groups in those organisations. In 2014 I was privileged to be sent for a 5-day workshop on project proposal writing and fundraising strategies run by the Network for Sustainable Agriculture (NESA) in North West Cameroon where the SIRDEP had its headquarters. After attending this workshop, I was tasked by the management of SIRDEP to develop a training module to deploy the skills from the workshop to the Members of the North West Association of Development Organisation (NWADO Formerly NW NGO Forum). Interesting I became the Coordinator of this network (2005-2011) and moved it from a crossroad to a civil society network reference in Cameroon.

 The presentations with the members of this umbrella network of NGOs in the North West of Cameroon and the ensuing discussions and interactions was the trigger for that inner endowment of project conception, project grant writing and implementation. Giving back to humanity through project conception, fundraising, implementation was something I wanted to be doing in my life. After this, I have not stopped investing on myself in this direction, working with communities, identifying common problems, turning our ideas into bankable/fundable initiatives. The implementation of these projects and initiatives have contributed to address salient community challenges wherever I have been opportune to find myself on mother earth. This has remained central to my life’s purpose and something I want to do through my entire journey this earth.

 With this discovery I have been at the forefront of conceiving cutting edge projects mobilising resources in the context where I work and internationally to addressing local problems in an organic fashion. I have forged win-win technical and financial partnerships with a wide range of development partners. Most of these partners had clear agendas and track record of working with communities and contributing to address community challenges. Some of these partners include, the Commonwealth Foundation, European Union, VSO, DED, CUO, DFID/One World Trust, National Geographic Society, Pollination Project, Emerging World, UNDP, Australia Awards, SELAVIP Foundation. These partnerships have enabled communities to complete impactful community projects on environmental health and safety, improvement of access to water through development of community water schemes, value addition in agriculture food chain, renewable energy development, capacity development, local resources development, promoting civil society accountability and transparency amongst others. My portfolio of successful grant proposals reached 80 in 2020.  The execution of these projects has contributed to take thousands of people out of poverty in through sustainable actions.

While a significant proportion of the grants have been mobilised out of where projects have been executed, relying on this is problematic from a sustainability standpoint. I have remained less optimistic about the future of dependence on aid money to address community challenges as opposed to mobilising local resources in a very general sense. This has been for several reasons and I highlight some of these in a 2016 publications with the West African Civil Society Institute (WACSI)  which I share the link here: (https://www.intrac.org/resources/civil-society-sustainability-local-capacity-development-case-study-cameroon-wacseries-2016/).

From the above discussion, it might appear as if once you discover your inner talents, strength and purpose, challenges are out of the way. The answer is no. You will remain work-in-progress and will need to continuously sow, nurture, and develop yourself. The biblical story of the master who gave different valuables to his servants and left for a far-off journey speaks to us about growing ourselves and therefore our natural endowments. For example, the servant that was given five valuables, invested them on fertile grounds and they multiplied manifolds. Conversely the one with the one valuable kept it buried and did nothing to multiply it. This applies to each of us and the valuables being our natural or God-given talents and endowments that come in different amounts, shapes and shades need to be identified and grown.  We must make ourselves fertile ground for these valuables in us to thrive (making ourselves fertile grounds for the thriving of our God-given endowments is the subject of another post). Thus, I have remained work-in-progress after discovering my inner purpose. The many challenges, failures, rejections I have received through this journey have been invaluable opportunities for my learning and growth. They only strengthened my resolved and improved the way I have sought for ideas, knocked at doors of opportunities, and asked for support to give back to humanity through grant proposal writing.

Some quick suggestions to conclude this post:

1.      While you rejoice in your schooling, remember school only rewards you for your memory. Conversely, life rewards you for creativity and ability to solve problems. The most exciting things I have done in the line with my life’s purpose have been while I was schooling. Do not focus on that certificate and miss out on the interesting things you could be doing for yourself and humanity.

2.      School rewards caution and many school leavers will remain at seeking for a job as a cautionary measure. Life rewards those who are daring, those who identify their talents and gifts and never leave it dormant.

3.      Pursuing and hunting for jobs with your certificates is not a bad idea. However, try finding a balance between pursuit of your life’s purpose passionately as it might be what you need to bless yourself and the world with.

4.      You may be tempted to ask whether there is any need to re-invent the wheel when it is possible to copy or imitate what others are doing as an easy way out. Remember imitation is suicidal. Trust your natural talents and trace your own path. When your heart says this is your strength, spend your life building that. That said, remember you can stand on the shoulders of giants while not forgetting those who walk along with you. The giants are the coaches and mentors you identify work with along the way. Those walking along with you are those you build to become like you as you become a coach and mentor when you are coached and mentored by others.

This post is in celebration of my 80th grant won from the SELAVIP Foundation to provide access to water to 200 households in the Mokwebuh Community in the North West of Cameroon through the development of a community water scheme. This shall be implemented by the Mokwebuh community with the support of Action Group on Governance and Environmental Management (AGGEM).

Do you have a burning idea and wondering how to how to action it, turn it into a bankable or fundable initiative? Please reach out to me and we can think through this together.

 Eric Ngang

Freelance Grant Writer

 Coordinator, Action Group on Governance and Environmental Management (AGGEM) https://aggem.jimdofree.com/

Personal blogpage: https://ericngang.mbokagroup.com/