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Lorne Anderson [9 posts]Failure is the key to success
As I reflect on the past month of the Faiths Act Fellowship, I am already amazed at how much I have grown and gained from just four weeks of grassroots interfaith action – a territory I had minimal experience in before embarking on this fellowship.
After weeks of endless cold-calling attempts and faith community site visits, I am left with a sense of accomplishment despite being unsuccessful several times on both accounts. Why? Because every negative email, rejected phone call, and empty response has been great motivation and has helped me realise just how necessary and timely our task is. And as cliché as this may sound, it is evident just how much can get accomplished when there is a dedicated group of individuals working together for one common cause – the ripple effect is much stronger, much more effective.
While eliminating deaths from malaria is still the primary focus of the Faiths Act Fellowship, our task at the International Development and Relief Foundation this year is to increase the ripple effect on an interrelated but slightly different cause – that of reducing maternal mortality. The facts are striking: 1,000 women die every single day from causes related to childbirth and pregnancy; that is, one woman dies every 90 seconds due to complications during or shortly after pregnancy and childbirth. As a result, over one million children are left motherless every year.
Our message is to provide a platform that can work towards preventing just that, so that the number of children left motherless decreases, and to ensure that safe childbirth takes place. While the message is certainly not falling on deaf ears, widening the ripples so that they expand across faith communities and across different age groups has been met by a fair share of roadblocks. But whoever said 'failure is the key to success' knew exactly what they were talking about. Though there have been failures and obstacles along the way, they have only motivated and inspired me to begin our second month of this fellowship on a more hopeful and optimistic note that we can (and will!) be successful by June 2012.
Insha’Allah. God willing.
