World Vision, in partnership with African Enterprise did a two-day training of trainers on the Biblical Empowered World View (BEWV).

In participation were senior leadership of African Enterprise from across Africa and Europe. National CEOs/Team leaders of all 12 countries (Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, DRC, and Malawi)  in which African Enterprise is domiciled took part in the empowering training over the course of the two days.

One of the challenges during the training was to create the tallest and most stable tower for an egg using nothing more than straws and some tape. This team are showing off their achievement!

The BEWV is a biblically based enabling project model that aims to lead to deeper and more sustainable changes in the wellbeing of individuals when combined with other project models. BEWV also seeks to address dependency mindsets while promoting individual empowerment, especially amongst people living in poverty. 

The chief target for the BEWV is people living in poverty, and African Enterprise interacts with people living in abject poverty regularly through its social action and evangelism programs. African Enterprise leadership therefore found it to be crucial to have all staff trained on this mindset-changing program so that transformation would begin from the trainers and implementers of African Enterprise’s social, economic and spiritual community transformation efforts.

The BEWV curriculum uses Biblical principles to engage individuals on issues of identity, self-esteem, hope, and vision for the future. It has been shown to have a positive impact on an individual’s level of empowerment, increasing their ability to become agents of change within their own homes, families and communities.

African Enterprise uses the Community Transformation Groups (CTGs) and Community Transformational Churches (CTCs) models to reaches out to and meet the needs of communities. A CTG is an informal association of underprivileged members in a community with a common objective of working together for their economic, social and spiritual empowerment. A key factor in the application of the CTG model is that collective and positive thinking is always better than individual thinking.

The merging of the BEWV and the CTG/CTC models provides a promising and robust transformational tool for not just individuals, but families and entire communities at large.

Dr. Daniel Muvengi, the East Africa Regional Director for Faith and Development Programming at World Vision, expressed great excitement at the collaboration between World Vision and African Enterprise.

“I’m very excited because African Enterprise has a vision for transforming every city with the gospel of Jesus Christ through the church; and for me being here this week, working with them and training them, and introducing them to the biblical empowered worldview is such an honor.  Because what that means is that staff are being empowered, and when they are empowered, they take that same power that they’re working with in the cities to the different youth, women, children, and different members of the community they’re working with; and when they empower the church, an empowered church means an empowered community.  An empowered community means the city will be transformed”.

The timing of the training was opportune as there were new CEOs who had just joined the organization and they, together with the other longer-serving CEOs were challenged to put to efficient use all the resources that are available. The lesson on making the most of what one has was demonstrated through an outdoor activity where trainees split into two groups and were asked to create the longest line possible, using only the resources they had on their body. Both groups were able to create a longer line on the second attempt than they had on the first try. This was after they included ‘desperate’ measures such as using belts and shoelaces to create long lines while others even laid flat on the ground.

DRC Team Leader/CEO committed to not only apply the lessons from the training to his own life, but to also ensure that he equips the church and all those he has access to upon his return to his country.

“The first thing, as soon as I get home, my wife, myself, and my family will think about how we can invest our lives in a different way.  That is to say that we will no longer be in a place where we waste our time, our lives, or our resources.  And that is the message that I would like to bring to the whole church; the leaders who will be in meetings with me – each one of them must know that we must have a different way of seeing our identity and a different way of impacting others who see their identity as just a waste.  It’s really a moment of revolution in my head and I believe that it is this evolution, this revolution that I would like to bring to the church as little as we can so that the church finds a different way of doing things other than in the routine,” Leonard Kiswangi, AE DRC Team Leader/CEO.