Rooted in Reality: Simulating Life on the Edge of Extreme Poverty

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Ever wondered what life is really like for families living on the edge of extreme poverty? Most of us have only seen poverty through statistics or images, but a new immersive experience called "Rooted in Reality" is changing how we understand this complex reality.

When a team of college students traveled to Sierra Leone to develop this groundbreaking poverty simulation, they discovered something profound. People experiencing poverty don't define their situation primarily by their lack of material resources – they define it by feelings of powerlessness, inferiority, and hopelessness. "We feel like garbage that other people throw out," one person shared during a World Bank study. "We don't matter to the world and it is our destiny to be poor."

This mindset revelation transformed the team's approach. Rather than creating a simulation focused solely on material deprivation, they crafted an experience that plunges participants into the emotional reality of poverty – the impossible choices, the systemic barriers, and the cumulative stress of living without safety nets. During beta testing, participants emerged feeling "incredibly stressed" and "very anxious," gaining valuable insight into the psychological toll of poverty.

What makes Rooted in Reality uniquely powerful is its authenticity. Every scenario is based on real stories gathered from families in Bo and Freetown, Sierra Leone. The team worked closely with case managers at the Child Reintegration Center and staff at Mercy Hospital to ensure the simulation honored the dignity of these families while accurately representing their challenges. As team member Cassie Robertson explains, "It's not pretending you can understand someone else's reality, but creating a space to reflect on those hard

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Travel on International Mission, meet local leadership and work alongside them. Exchange knowledge, learn from one another and be open to personal transformation. Step into a 25 year long story of change for children in some of the poorest regions on Earth.

https://www.helpingchildrenworldwide.org/mission-trips.html

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A bible study for groups and individuals, One Twenty-Seven: The Widow and the Orphan by Dr Andrea Siegel explores the themes of the first chapter of James, and in particular, 1:27. In James, we learn of our duty to the vulnerable in the historical context of the author. Order here or digital download

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Family Empowerment Advocates support the work of family empowerment experts at the Child Reintegration Centre, Sierra Leone.  Your small monthly donation,  prayers, attention & caring is essential. You  advocate for their work to help families bring themselves out of poverty, changing the course of children's lives and lifting up communities. join

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Organize a Rooted in Reality mission experience for your service club, church group, worship team, young adult or adult study. No travel required. Step into the shoes of people in extreme poverty in Sierra Leone, West Africa, Helping Children Worldwide takes you into a world where families are facing impossible choices every day.

Contact [e-mail] to discuss how.

Shout out to our newest sponsor: The Resilience Institute

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome to Optimistic Voices, a podcast of helping
children worldwide.
We help children worldwide bystrengthening and empowering
families and communities.
This podcast is for peopleinterested in deep conversations
with thought leaders in thefields of child welfare, global

(00:36):
health and internationalmissions.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Welcome to the Optimistic Voices podcast.
I'm your host, laura Horvath,and I'm joined today by my
colleague and very good friend,and also sometimes co-host, but
often guest, of OptimisticVoices, yaz Vaughn and Cassie
Robertson.
Yaz and Cassie, along withthree other college students,
traveled to Beau, sierra Leone,to work on an important project

(01:03):
developing what's known as apoverty simulation, designed to
give people a glimpse into whatlife is like for families living
on the edge of extreme poverty.
Rooted in Reality, was betatested last week and I'm excited
to get to talk with our gueststoday about this project, how it
was built and what they hope toachieve with it.
This project is inspired not byresearch although, yaz, I know

(01:26):
you've done quite a lot of thatbut also by real experience.
Yaz, cassie and the rest of theteam traveled to Bo, sierra
Leone, to visit families andlearn firsthand from the skilled
social workers at the ChildReintegration Center and Mercy
Hospital, to gather the storiesand the information that were
used to build the simulation.
We're gonna dive into how thesimulation was built, what they

(01:47):
learned on the ground and whycreating opportunities for
deeper empathy and understandingis so critical if we truly want
to make a difference.
But before we dive in.
Welcome to the show.
Thanks so much for having us.
Thank you, it's great to haveyou guys here.
Can you tell us what is apoverty simulation?

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, so a poverty simulation is basically an
interactive experience that'sdesigned to help participants
better understand the challengesand barriers faced by
individuals and families livingin extreme poverty.
So people are having tonavigate various tasks and
situations that mirror the dailystruggles of those living in

(02:34):
poverty, and the goal of anysort of project like this is to
increase empathy, awareness andunderstanding of systemic issues
and obstacles that contributeto and perpetuate poverty.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
I would just add that it's getting to have a hands-on
experience without actuallyhaving to travel or be somewhere
, and to give participants andpeople that experience to learn
by doing.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Can you tell us a little bit about the project
that you've been working on andhow the idea for poverty
simulation came about?

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah.
So yeah, just adding on to whatCassie said, I mean the best
way to learn about something isto experience it for yourself,
and we we see that play out inour mission teams.
We like to send people.
We say come and see what lifeis like and take this paradigm
of learning before serving.
If you learn about andunderstand things, then you're
better able to serve people andcome alongside them.

(03:27):
But we know that not everybodycan travel to Sierra Leone and
sometimes that's because ofcommitments here in the States.
Sometimes people have healthissues that make travel for long
periods of time like thatreally difficult, or even, you
know, some people have jobs thatdon't allow them to kind of
have the vacation time you wouldneed.
It's about two weeks that wesend our teams over, and so we

(03:49):
wanted to develop somethingwhere people could
experientially learn aboutSierra Leone.
We've been talking about doingsome virtual mission trip
experiences for years at thisorganization.
We did one during COVID.
That was pretty successful.
But last year I attended a costof poverty experience which is
offered by an NGO called ThinkTank, and they're an

(04:11):
organization that's verydedicated to elevating the
voices of people who live inpoverty here in the United
States and offering solutionsand having them have a seat at
the table to create thosesolutions, and having them have
a seat at the table to createthose solutions.
And so, as I was going throughthat simulation, I wondered
about the additional challengesthat are faced in places where

(04:32):
there aren't such things associal safety nets.
So, of course, in the UnitedStates, we have things like WIC
and Medicaid, we even havereliable transportation and
infrastructure I mean, duringCOVID we saw what happens when
supply chains go down but forthe most part we have fairly
reliable access to a lot ofthings but these are challenges
that don't exist in low andmiddle income countries, in the

(04:52):
majority world, and so Iwondered what the experience was
like if you built a simulationthat simulated a place with no
social safety nets.
And so I started looking intoorganizations that had developed
something similar forlow-income countries, and we
actually discovered twoorganizations that had done this
already.
First is an organization calledGlobal Crossroads.

(05:15):
They're based out of Hong Kong,and their simulation is all
about the hardships and choicesthat are made by people.
I think it's stationed in EastAsia, but it's centered around
people who live in a slum, andso their experience has been
used all around the world.
It's actually been shown at theUN.
They've had billionaires comeand go through it, and so it's a

(05:38):
very thorough experience thatthey have.
This experience was co-opted bya second organization called
Hope International, and theirorganization is very focused on
savings groups and economicempowerment for families, and so
they were doing this model tohelp educate people about the
work that they were doing andwhy it was so important the

(06:05):
result that these organizationshad from conducting these
experiences in the US and allaround the world.
I thought that this might be areally great way for people to
connect with and reallyexperientially understand the
work that our allies around theworld do Sounds amazing.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Can you briefly describe the Rooted in Reality
simulation without giving toomuch away?
And, by the way, why would webe worried about giving that
away?

Speaker 3 (06:25):
too much away.
And and, by the way, why wouldwe be worried about giving that
away?
Yeah, so it's interesting totry and do a podcast and talk
about this without talking aboutit too much, because I hope
that you're listening and go wow, this sounds really interesting
.
I want to be a part of it.
But the simulation actuallyworks best when people don't
know a lot about it coming intoit, which is true.
I mean, if you ended up in asituation right now where you

(06:48):
were suddenly homeless and youhad no idea what you were going
to do next, it can be reallyhard to figure out what systems
are in place that could supportyou and trying to find food and
shelter and housing and allthose sorts of things.
So I'm going to try and keep itsimple for our listeners,
because I want you to bring thisback to your church groups and
to your friends.

(07:08):
This simulation is all aboutallowing people to step into the
shoes of real people who livein poverty every single day.
Everything that we built isbased on the real experiences of
families in Sierra Leone thatare helped, as you said, laura,
by Mercy Hospital and the ChildReintegration Center, but also

(07:30):
by some of our other regionalallies in the capital of
Freetown Child and FamilyPreservation Services, so all of
their experiences were puttogether.
In this and in our simulationyou would be given options that
exist in these communities andconfronted with their choices

(07:50):
that real people have to makeand the consequences that people
have of those choices.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
I'm really excited to get into the how of how this
was put together and how Cassiegot involved with the
development of it, but I want toask you both, before we get to
that piece, why do you thinkit's so important for people to
be able to step into the shoesof someone who's living on the
edge of extreme poverty, even ifit's just for a really short

(08:19):
time?

Speaker 3 (08:20):
So when we train our mission teams, we actually have
an entire session dedicated tohelping people understand
poverty, and this session startsoff with the UN definitions of
poverty.
They have one for poverty andthen they have one called
absolute poverty, and we discussthe different approaches to how
organizations like the UN andeven local organizations define

(08:43):
poverty.
And we really do this for tworeasons.
First is that in 1997, theWorld Bank did a study called
Voices of the Poor, and theyinterviewed people all around
the world that lived in extremepoverty and asked them how do
you define that?
What does poverty mean to you?
And out of all of thedefinitions that currently exist

(09:05):
around the world today, most ofthem really revolve around
material needs.
Most people see poverty asliving on less than I think it's
$1.25 a day.
So it's defined by this lack ofmaterial access.
You don't have food, you don'thave money, you don't have
access to clean water or healthcare.
But what was really interestingabout this study is that the

(09:27):
majority of people definedpoverty not by their access to
material needs.
They did mention that as anexample, but it was more
characterized by the sense ofinferiority, powerlessness and
hopelessness.
So they said things like wefeel like garbage that other

(09:49):
people throw out.
We don't matter to the worldand it is our destiny to be poor
.
There was like an overarchingbelief that I don't matter and
things are the way that they areand no matter what I do,
nothing is ever going to changethat.
So it's a mindset of fatalismand hopelessness.

(10:13):
So if you really want people tounderstand what poverty is, you
can't replicate that just bytaking away material things.
There are plenty.
There are plenty of ways thatyou know you can kind of
simulate those experiences.
But to really create somethingthat is a simulation of what
poverty is like, you have toforce people into a mindset of

(10:36):
poverty and you have to feel theemotional interactions of what
that is like.
So that's kind of the firstreason of why we felt it was
important to develop this.
The second reason that we thinkpeople should step into the
shoes of impoverished people isthis idea that whatever you
think the problem is will alsodetermine what you think the

(10:59):
solution should be.
So if you hear a noise in yourcar and you think that the
problem is the engine, thenyou're going to work on the
engine.
But if the problem is actuallythe tires as it was with me a
couple hundred dollars later,then no amount of work on the
engine is actually going to getyour car running again.
And so, when it comes topoverty, if you think of the

(11:20):
issue is that people have a lackof access to material resources
, then the obvious answer is tojust give them material
resources.
But if you think that the issueis that people are deprived of
consistent access to resources,they don't have social safety
nets when it comes to handlingshocks, and that the deck is

(11:41):
always stacked against them andtheir mindset is that they feel
that they'll never rise out ofthose situations, then your
response to that is going to bereally different.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
So incredibly powerful in a couple of ways,
and I think you're right.
I think that we tend to thinkabout poverty as a lack of
things, a lack of money, a lackof resources, what have you?
That mindset thing is reallypowerful and, I think, something
that people don't really thinkabout.
So, full disclosure.

(12:13):
I participated in the Rooted inReality beta testing last week.
It was my first experience withit.
I've heard, of course, you knowabout it as Yaz was building it
.
But after we went through thewhole process and we unpacked it
with the participants, the veryfirst question, Yaz, you asked
them was how do you feel?

(12:34):
And they'd been in this youknow simulation for a couple of
hours and I think the firstperson said I feel incredibly
stressed, I feel very anxious.
People talked about sort of youknow, feeling, a sense of
hopelessness and a sense of likethere was nothing they could do
to get ahead of these cascadingchallenges that were happening

(12:57):
to them.
And it was just, it was reallypowerful to see that and to
listen to the various decisionsthat they made that led them
actually further down a path ofdesperation or a path of
hopelessness, because they justdidn't really know even how to
prioritize, how to tackle thechallenges that they were facing

(13:17):
.
It was really, reallyincredible.
Cassie, do you have anythingyou want to add to like why this
would be important and thepower of this?

Speaker 4 (13:26):
Yeah.
So I think it's so important tostep into anyone's shoes that's
in extreme poverty because itdoesn't just show you but it
challenges you to think aboutthose assumptions that you've
had before and to build, likeempathy for people in an
experience that you may not haveexperienced yourself.

(13:48):
I think that when I first heardabout this simulation something
that like I was kind ofstruggling with understanding
that it's not pretending you canunderstand someone else's
reality, but instead it'screating a space to reflect on
those hard conversations, and Ireally liked the mindset, like
it's not just the assumption ofit's a lack of resources, it's a

(14:08):
lack of food, it's a lack ofmedical care, but it's also just
the feeling of being stressedwhen is that next job going to
come from?
Feeling like very underwhelmedand overwhelmed and all of those
different emotions that comewith losing things.
So just creating that space forpeople to step into that, even
for just that moment, to answerthose questions and to build

(14:30):
that empathy and challengewhatever assumptions that
someone may have had before,that they didn't know because
they weren't informed, andchanging it from just being that
lack of resources to thisemotional shift, which I think
the emotions, what leads theaction, leads to the change.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, that's really a powerful statement, and I want
to, I just want to pin somethingdown that that you've both kind
of said now, and that is youknow, yes, obviously we're
speaking to people who wouldpotentially participate in the
poverty simulation, in theposition of, like, just learning
about people living in povertyand what their experience might
be like, or whatever.

(15:09):
But I also want to kind of tapthe shoulders of other NGO
leaders that might be listeningto this episode, because I think
, yes, you said something reallyimportant about if you, if you
think the issue is just thatthey don't have enough widgets
or whatever, then of course, asan NGO, you're just going to,
you know, supply them with awhole bunch of widgets.

(15:29):
But if the issue is more aboutempowering people and empowering
systems and building intosystems so that there's a
consistent, you know, access toresources and a consistent
safety net and things like that,and then people are developing
their own capacity that is suchthat is so much more sustainable

(15:51):
than just, you know, we justship over containers full of
widgets or whatever it is, youknow, we think that is the
solution.
So I think that's reallypowerful too.
So, what was your initialvision for the rooted in reality
simulation and how did itevolve as you developed it?

Speaker 3 (16:11):
Yeah.
So I'm excited to hear fromCassie, because I really did
just kind of throw our Decemberteam into it and they're like
what are we building again?
What is this, what does it looklike?
Because I, you know, I had gonethrough a simulation done by
Think Tank and so I kind of hadthis idea of what it could look
like, but I really did want tokeep a very loose initial vision

(16:32):
.
There are some otherorganizations that do very
similar projects.
There's one that we know ofactually that has their own
Monopoly game that you play,which Monopoly is supposed to
simulate the horrors ofcapitalism, and it there
certainly does.
You put your kid in anorphanage.
It's a real rough version.
But I really kind of had thesedifferent frameworks in mind.

(16:55):
But I wanted everything to beshaped by the Sierra Leone
context and by the experiencesof our December team.
So I had some kind offrameworks that I put in place,
ideas of how things could beincorporated, and really I just
developed a list of questionsfor the team to be able to ask
the case managers at the ChildReintegration Center and at

(17:18):
Child and Family PreservationServices and to ask the hospital
staff at Mercy Hospital toreally learn more so they could
figure out how to build thiswell.
But yeah, I try to keep thingsvery open as we develop the
vision for this project.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
I, when I first heard about the project, I was I'm
not going to lie, I was verycurious and a little confused of
what it would look like.
Because when you hear povertysimulation, my, my brain
automatically went to oh, a game.
But how do you make a game outof such a hard conversation and
a hard topic?
So that's kind of where I waswhen I first heard about it.
And then, as we were leading upto our trip and our team and we

(17:57):
had all these discussions, forme it kind of shifted in my head
and it was no longer just thislike we're making this game,
quote unquote, but instead it'screating that immersive
experience for people to connectwith Sierra Leone and the
people there.
This was my third trip and goingbefore I'd come home and I
would someone would say like,how is it there, what's it like?

(18:19):
And I would have a really hardtime kind of putting into words
what that is Like.
What did I feel, what did I see?
So that allowed, so that for methe simulation was creating a
way for people to feel it andsee it and engage in the
frustration and the limitationsthat families in Sierra Leone

(18:39):
face every day.
And I think for me it was alsojust shifting from.
Instead of just learning, itwas capturing the stories and
capturing what the ChildReintegration Center and Mercy
Hospital do in Sierra Leone andhow they help navigate the
challenges that the familiesface there.
So just having thoseopportunities for reflection and

(19:02):
discussion, like with the team,and then bringing that back to
the states, I'm really lookingforward to and I'm excited to
see it continue to be developed.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
It was a really interesting mission trip model,
I think, for this particularteam.
It was something new for HelpingChildren Worldwide.
I think we've talked aboutvision trips before and we've
certainly sent, like you know,board members and others on a
kind of go and see, learn aboutthe programs on the ground and
that kind of thing, and I thinkthat's really powerful and it

(19:34):
really has its place.
But your team, in particularCassie, was, like you say, not
just sort of meeting families orhearing stories or whatever,
but you were really deep dive,focused in on.
You know, leaned in is how Isort of picture you guys
listening to people and hearingtheir stories and trying to
capture them and to do that in away that honored their dignity

(19:58):
and respected their privacy.
And you know all of that, andso it was really an interesting
thing to watch from back herethe work that you were doing
there, when the project thatcomes out of it is kind of after
the trip.
So what was that like for you?
I know I'm throwing in a newquestion in the middle of all
this, but what was that like for?

Speaker 4 (20:19):
you.
I think at first it was reallychallenging.
I think at first it was reallychallenging because I want to do
justice, I want to bring theirstories to life but still
respect that they're real people.
These are their stories and youcan't just bring a story back

(20:47):
to the United States and say, oh, here you go, when that's
someone who's living like thatevery single day.
So I think for me it wasdefinitely challenging but also
very special to hear the storiesthat they would share, the
people in Sierra Leone, to hearhow the staff would speak about
their jobs and speak about howthey're helping families, and it
was really just a very like Iwant to almost say humbling
experience, um, and veryheartwarming that they were just

(21:11):
so willing to share any aspectsof it.
And a lot of the conversationswere really hard to hear, um,
because it's their life and lifeis hard and um, but yeah.
So I think bringing thosestories back and doing justice
is really important and I'mexcited to see um, see how those
stories come to be.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
All right.
So, yes, you led this collegeteam.
I guess actually Cassie led thecollege team and you were the
staff accompanying them, andthere were a couple other
college students Macy and Reagan.
Is that Sarah and Sarah?
And Sarah, your sister, cassie,right?

(21:52):
Yes, my sister, that's cool.
I traveled to Sierra Leone lastyear with my sister.
There is nothing like gettingto go to Sierra Leone on a
mission trip with your sister,is there?

Speaker 4 (22:02):
It was pretty great.
It was a really really great.
That's pretty great Okay.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
So you traveled to both Sierra Leone and Freetown.
Sierra Leone visited with thecase management team at the CRC
and the hospital staff at Mercy.
Can you each share some of thesurprising information that you
learned from them?

Speaker 3 (22:22):
I'm going to make you go first on this one, Cassie.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
Something that I found very, I want to say,
surprising, but I don't reallyknow if that's the right word
for it, but just that when westarted having these
conversations, um, it was withyou know, the staff, and then we
kind of would start with like aquestion and just see where the
questions would go.
Um, and our first conversationwas with some of the staff at

(22:46):
the Child Reintegration Centerand we asked a question about
what does poverty look like herein Sierra Leone, um, and who is
considered to be in poverty?
And with the response is, whatI guess would say is surprising
was that they said thateverybody in Sierra Leone they
consider to be poor andimpoverished, but instead of

(23:10):
just saying that there's likedifferent levels of it,
different levels of access andresources, and that's kind of
where people fall into thosedifferent categories, but just
to hear them, the people theresay, oh, everybody here is is
poor, we don't consider anyonenot to be a part of that group
of people.
So that was really surprisingfor me.

(23:33):
Another really surprising momentthat was very happy for me and
it made me feel a lot of reallygreat emotions is we asked at
the end what they love abouttheir job.
Like that was just the questionis, what do you love about your
job?
And it almost felt like thestaff there has never been asked
that before, because they allkind of pause for a moment and

(23:55):
they like kind of think about it.
And then the second that theywere ready to answer, all of
everybody we talked to it wasthe same like feeling they would
just start to share a storyabout the families and seeing
families go graduate out of theprogram.
Somebody talked about watchingkids go to college, all those

(24:18):
different feelings, getting tosee children with their
caregivers, building thoserelationships, releasing
families on their own.
It was just a really specialmoment to hear that joy and the
happiness from all the staffwhen they were sharing that.
So I that's not reallysurprising, but it was just a
really nice conversation to have.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
I love that you ended on that.
I know those folks well and Iknow they love what they do and
it makes me very happy to hearhow happy it makes them too.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
Yeah, I'll add on to what Cassie was sharing.
I mean, I've been with HelpingChildren Worldwide for four and
a half years now.
I've been to Sierra Leonemultiple times, I'm in ongoing
communication with the staff onthe ground there and so, coming
into it, I thought I had apretty good understanding of
life and culture of people inSierra Leone that I thought

(25:15):
would be very helpful to helpthe team navigate things, and
maybe in some ways it was, butreally taking the time to sit
down with our allies, ask themabout what life is like there.
I learned more on this tripthan I had in any other previous
trip and I want to echo this issomething we actually also just
talked about in our most recentteam meeting is this idea of

(25:39):
assumptions.
You know I had an assumptionabout how they saw and defined
poverty, and so it was actuallyEmmanuel Nabiou who encouraged
me to include a question abouthow they defined poverty and,
like Cassie said, I mean thatreally changed everything about
how we were able to understandthe framework of what life is

(26:01):
like there.
They talked about how, if youstudy social work or study
community development in SierraLeone, you learn that there are
different levels of povertywithin the country.
They call them poverty, poor,and then a third level that they
call popo repo, and each ofthese is described by different

(26:25):
challenges.
So people in poverty may havedifficulty paying bills, paying
their rent, paying theirutilities, but they live in
homes that are made of stone andthey have electricity, they're
able to eat at least once a day,they may be able to send one or
a couple of kids to school.
And then, on the other end ofthe spectrum, people who are

(26:45):
Popo Repo usually can't affordto eat every day.
They live in mud huts or inless stable housing.
They can't access resourcesthat they need to survive, and
then poor being the kind of themiddle category there between
those two, and so seeing the waythat they categorized what
poverty was like was incrediblyhelpful for me to understand.

(27:07):
You know that.
I think I mean we talked aboutlike this being an experience of
what people are like in extremepoverty.
I think I mean we talked aboutlike this being an experience of
what people are like in extremepoverty.
But even if you were living atthe edge of extreme poverty you
know you're not, you are whatthey would just call poverty
Then one shock is all it wouldtake to put you back down on a

(27:28):
lower level, and so seeing thatyou know there's nuance and
differences between that wasvery surprising for me.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
You know what I'm struck by by both of the things
that you've said.
When you're talking about askingthe people themselves how they
define poverty, Cassie, when youtalk about asking them, you
know what is it they love aboutthe work that they do is how
honoring and respectful that isof the people that you went to
serve a mission with, and howthat's often missing from

(27:57):
short-term missions.
Often short-term mission teamswill arrive and there'll be a
project and the work getsstarted and the project may have
even been developed by thepeople on the ground or in
collaboration with the people onthe ground.
But to actually sit down withthe staff at CRC and at Mercy
Hospital and ask them abouttheir lives, to ask them about

(28:17):
the context in which they liveand work, I think that often is
a missing piece in short-termmissions, and I'm just so proud
of this team for just the wholeway this thing was constructed
and the way that that created aspace to really platform the
voices of the people on theground in some really amazing

(28:40):
ways.
So, Cassie, I know that yourteam got to visit and you've
been multiple times to SierraLeone.
You're kind of one of ourfrequent flyers and so you
probably had met with familiesbefore on the ground, but can
you describe for our audience alittle bit what it was like to
step into the homes andcommunities of some of these

(29:01):
people who, as we've described,are in these categories of
poverty poor and popo repo?

Speaker 4 (29:08):
Yeah, so I've been before, but definitely on this
trip I think I had a more onthis trip.
I think I had a more mindset oflooking at what like resources
people have and having moreconversations and sharing
stories and all that.
So, getting to visitcommunities and homes.
Something that always hasstruck me when visiting Sierra
Leone is that it really is likea village, it really is a

(29:31):
community.
Wherever you are, people areout, friends, family, together,
and it's really it's reallygreat when you go, when you get
to go to these communities, alot of families will invite you
into their homes, which is sovery kind of them, especially
because we are four, we're twoand five, so five like random

(29:52):
strangers, kind of just walkingthrough your home and they just
they welcome you in Um, they'llbring you chairs and they'll
share stories and we'll haveconversations and it's um, it's
very kind and it's veryeyeopening, um, and I will never
um take for granted thatkindness and that um hospitality
that we get.
But, um, something that Inoticed a lot this trip was in

(30:15):
these houses, looking forvisible differences in terms of
those economic lifestyles.
So something like electricitySome houses had electricity
while others didn't.
We were in one home that had aton of electricity and furniture
and then we went to anotherwhere there wasn't a lot of
furniture.
So those visible differences interms of like how people live

(30:39):
and reflecting on those economiclifestyles and then just
walking through the communities,you see many different
challenges like access to cleanwater.
You'll see the wells, thehealth services.
You know when you're in avillage that's pretty far away
from the main city there's not alot of health services there.
You get to really see that.

(31:01):
But then a lot of strengths too.
You see the neighbors lookingout for one another and the
children playing and it's reallyit's great to see those
strengths as well and not justlooking for those challenges

(31:21):
just looking for thosechallenges.

Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I just want to echo what Cassie
shares.
I mean, I think it's not loston me that we are perfect
strangers intruding in on theirlives, and we're just really
incredibly grateful that peopleare willing to share their time
with us.
They always bring out chairsfor everybody to sit in.
They'll borrow a chair from aneighbor if they don't have
enough.
They're always very welcoming.
They want to shake your hand,which is a sign of welcoming and

(31:46):
Mende culture.
When we visited Sammy Village,they brought us all coconuts
because it was the dry season,so their chickens were not there
, but they brought us somecoconuts because it was the dry
season, so their chickens werenot there, but they brought us
some coconuts, and so it wasjust a time of incredible warmth
and kindness to be welcomed and, I think, just a genuine
reflection of some of thecommunity differences that exist

(32:07):
there that are actually kind ofhard to replicate in our
simulation.
So in our beta test this pastweek, we had one of our people
say, oh, I didn't know I couldask my neighbor for help, and I
was like, oh yeah, that wouldnever have been a problem in
Sierra Leone.
People depend on one another.
But you know, to really justget back to the question, I mean

(32:30):
thinking about poverty beingsomething where people feel
unseen and unwanted by societyto have somebody come all the
way from America and want tovisit with them.
It's not lost on me that thatis honoring to them to know that

(32:50):
someone from all the way acrossthe ocean cares and that they
are not unseen.
Someone from all the way acrossthe ocean cares and that they
are not unseen, and so it's it's.
It is really a privilege to beable to to do that and and
provide that.
But really it was alsoincredibly significant to see
the way that, well like thethings that CRC was talking

(33:12):
about is being reflected.
You know, cassie shared aboutelectricity and houses and
having this and having that andwhat the actual differences
looked like.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
Again, I just think hearing that kind of framework
really opened my eyes to what Iwas able to see and understand
within their culture, both inFreetown and in Bow, spent a lot
of time with the CRC casemanagement team on the ground

(33:41):
and you saw some things andengaged with those families in
ways that are reflected in theway you're talking about this
right now, which demonstrate tome a kind of cultural humility
that, yes, I know you work veryhard as our admissions person to
help all of our teamsunderstand and sort of frame
that out for people tounderstand that you know, when
you're entering into the life ofa person, there's a certain
amount of respect that needs togo along with those engagements

(34:04):
and interactions.
And so I just want to highlightthat there are ways to do this
that are honoring of people andare respectful of people, and
there are ways of doing thatthat aren't.
And I appreciate so deeply howcarefully you trained this team
and worked with this team, bothbefore you left the United
States and while you were inSierra Leone, around this way of

(34:29):
practicing cultural humility asyou engage with real life
people.
Cassie, do you want to speak tothe value of that for you
personally as you traveled onthis team?
I know you had had it before,but in particular, as you were
engaging so deeply in people'slives this time.
How did that impact the workthat you were doing?

Speaker 4 (34:48):
I think, like the training and the conversations
before were so important.
I think in any circumstance, nomatter where you are, who you're
with, it is really challengingto meet.
Going to a place that's verydifferent from where you're from
and when you're asking a lot ofquestions about that can be

(35:18):
more sensitive.
So having those conversationsbefore we even left the United
States, before we got to SierraLeone, I think made it a lot
easier to have thoseconversations with the people on
the ground there and I think itkind of opened my eyes into a
different way of askingquestions and it prepared me to

(35:39):
think about what.
If I think about if I wereasking a question, how would I
want it to be asked and how canI make this question easier for
someone to understand or make itin the context of something
that I understand?
Um, and I think it alsoprepared us when we got there
for those deeper conversationsthat we easier for someone to
understand or make it in thecontext of something that I
understand.
And I think it also prepared uswhen we got there for those
deeper conversations that wewould have after having

(36:00):
conversations with families forour own reflection purposes and
trying to learn.
So the conversations before ourtrip.
I think without those it wouldhave been really challenging to
come into a new country and meetnew people and try to learn as
deeply as we did.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Okay, so what are some of the biggest challenges
you heard CRC case managers talkabout when you visited with
them and interviewed them?

Speaker 4 (36:24):
One of the challenges that I think a lot of people
talked about when we were havingthese conversations was just
about transportation having adifficult time reaching out to
families and visiting differentfamilies.
Some of the case managers havefamilies that are very far
outside of Bo.
They have, you know, bikes andmotorcycles, but still there's

(36:45):
only a few of those and a lot offamilies.
Another challenge that a lot ofpeople we talked to spoke about
was just the inadequateresources.
So that also falls intotransportation, but just having
enough resources to helpfamilies, because it's not just
the child, it's the whole family.
So making sure all the childrenhave school and food and just

(37:06):
the ability to have a job.
So a lot of the case managersand the staff at Mercy Hospital
talked about those inadequateresources for those families.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
Yeah, when I am thinking back on some of the
conversations that we had, and Ithink one of the most important
ones for me to understand wasthat the reputation of these
NGOs really, really matters alot in a place that is
incredibly community-based andwhere your reputation means

(37:34):
everything in an honor-shameculture.
It's not like people in SierraLeone are going to look up their
GuideStar or Charity Navigatorrating to determine is this an
organization I want to receiveservices from?
No, they're going to look at,you know, do I know somebody
who's gotten something from them?
What did they get?
What does that look like?

(37:57):
And so I think one of thebiggest challenges that NGOs
face is maintaining thatreputation as somewhere that is
helpful to people, because ifthings go wrong, then the NGO is
only as strong as the I mean,you know, to use a business term
the customers that they have.
If people, if you build it,that doesn't mean people will

(38:19):
come, and therefore they have toreally work hard to maintain
relationships with people and tonavigate the boundaries that
they do have to set, because, Imean, like all NGOs, have limits
in what they are able to doNavigating.
You know, we can only help youwith this thing.
We can only do this much, Ithink is an incredible challenge

(38:41):
that they have to face everyday.
That's built on maintainingthat relationship and
maintaining the knowledge thatCRC and Mercy Hospital are
places that are here to help.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Yeah, that seems like a really difficult line to
navigate between having areputation as a place, as an NGO
, where you can get help, butalso being limited in the kinds
of help and the amount of helpthat they can provide, just
because of the reality of thesituations.
Were there any moments orconversations for either of you

(39:13):
that really shifted yourunderstanding of poverty or
resilience?

Speaker 4 (39:17):
I think we talked about the poverty before, but if
you have anything, Somethingthat I noticed throughout a lot
of the conversations I wouldhave while in Sierra Leone was
having those conversations andhearing a lot of the challenges
in terms of resources thatfamilies face.
So, you know, lack of food,lack of electricity, schooling,

(39:37):
you know, having not being ableto afford the school fees to
send children to school andmaking a lot of those impossible
choices in terms of resourcesand poverty really stood out to
me.
But on the other end of that,what also really stood out was
that those hardships andchallenges those families face.
But they spoke with such prideabout their life and about their

(40:00):
accomplishments and theirfutures, even when they face
such those daily challenges.
That I know for me is somethingthat I have a hard time trying
to imagine, especially hearingthem talk about education.
You know, we're in a countrywhere almost everyone gets to go
to school and to hear howimportant education is in Sierra
Leone and to hear that it's achallenge, you know, send
children to school but then tohear that that's something that

(40:22):
people want to do in the futureand they're happy and they're,
you know they face thosechallenges that was a really
those are always really niceconversations because I think
for me it changes how I thinkabout poverty and that it's not
just that lack of that materialresource, but it's also there's
a lot of strength behind it andit's the resilience behind the
people who are trying to get outof those challenges in any way

(40:43):
that they can.
So it just reminded me thatpeople that are living in
poverty are not just defined bythose like circumstances.
They're probably the mostresourceful people that I've
gotten to know and they'rereally committed to their
families and communities, whichI think is really strong.
And it has made me a lot morecautious of how I talk about
poverty and how I've nowrealized the importance of

(41:03):
speaking about it, and not justin terms of lack of resources,
but there are all these othercharacteristics of people who
are in this that live in povertyevery day.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
So what impresses you the most about the CRC's
approach to the way they supportfamilies?
It feels like a loaded question.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
I'll tell a little story.
I think for me it's therelationship part of it, and
that the CRC and the casemanagers have such a good,
strong relationship with all ofthe families and the communities
in Sierra Leone.
When we visited Sammy Villagewe were with one of the case
managers and when he got out ofthe car it was like the
celebrity had walked into town.
All the kids came running tohim giving him hugs.
They were so excited to justsee him and that went across the

(41:49):
whole community.
Everybody was so thrilled thathe was there and I think for me
that was such a nice way ofseeing that relationship between
the case managers and thosecommunities, which I think is to
me such an important thing inCRC takes is that relationship
building with the communitiesand the families.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
Yeah, I'll add on to that.
Cassie spoke earlier aboutasking the case managers what
they most loved about their job,and George, who is the lead
case manager at CRC, he said hisfavorite thing was when they
complement our work with theirown work, and so I think just
seeing and hearing them reflecton the idea that empowering

(42:43):
families isn't just about givingthings, but it is about
altering that mindset andinstilling that resilience in
people to be able to handleshocks so that they can handle
things on their own, I'm goingto pile on and say that one of
my favorite comments that one ofthe case managers ever made to
me was last year as CRC wasreleasing about sudden families

(43:05):
from CRC support because they'restrong enough, resilient enough
to be on their own.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
And Rosa Safa, who's one of the case managers and one
of the counselors at CRC, saidthat she described that moment
is very bittersweet in the sensethat this is a family that
she'd come to care about andworry about and had worked
really hard with, and she wasboth proud and a little sad to
see them go.
I imagine it's probably alittle bit how, Cassie, your

(43:33):
parents felt when you went awayto college.
You know something along thoselines where there's just this
sort of mixed emotions of prideand gratitude and all of those
things that you feel when youreally have a real relationship
with people.
And I love that.
The CRC case managers, you knowthey have their caseloads, they

(43:55):
work with the same families,they build those trusting
relationships and I think itreally impacts their work
powerfully.
So back to the simulation.
When you were building it, whatreal world realities did you
feel were absolutely critical toinclude?

Speaker 3 (44:10):
Yeah, again, without giving too much away about how
it functions.
I think a couple of the thingsthat repeatedly came up,
regardless of whether we were inFreetown or Bow, whether we
were in a city or in a village,was access to health care and
the barriers to accessing it,whether that be maternal and

(44:33):
child health issues.
Women being able to get qualityprenatal care and access it,
while also trying to balancehaving a job and maybe having
other children and other thingsgoing on, was a huge thing that
I wanted to make sure wasincorporated, especially because
we had such a strong focus onthe work being done by CRC.
I wanted to incorporate some ofthe on the work being done by

(44:53):
CRC.
I wanted to incorporate some ofthe work that's being done by
Mercy Hospital to increaseaccess to health care.
Another thing that also came upquite a bit was children being
cared for by other familymembers because of the loss of a
parent.
It was a term that I learnedjust recently, which is men pick
in, which is where a relativecares for a child that is not

(45:16):
their own, but as if they weretheir own child, and so we
wanted to simulate both thevalue of that of children being
taken in and the value ofknowing that children do have
other family options when theyhave lost a parent, but also
some of the problems that comeup with that.
A mother dies and she has threechildren and an aunt takes them

(45:38):
in and now there's three moremouths to feed than she's used
to having to pay for, and howdoes she handle that situation?
And then I think you asked meearlier about kind of the
initial vision that we had forthis, and when we first were
talking about this, we were veryagainst the idea of anyone
playing a child in thesimulation.
We didn't want to kind of havethis child-centric model to it.

(46:00):
We wanted to emphasize familydynamics, but we found it to be
really important to includechildren working and include the
barriers that children have toaccessing education.
Because another thing that wereally learned is part of the
reputation that CRC has is as anorganization that provides

(46:21):
education support to children.
It's not the familystrengthening, it's not the
microfinance, it's not some ofthe other programs that they do,
but education being one thatthey're most well known for,
programs that they do, buteducation being one that they're
most well known for and sohighlighting how NGOs like CRC
can overcome that barrier andimprove family well-being as a

(46:41):
result.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
So how did you manage to balance the challenge of
making the experience authenticwithout being overwhelming or
discouraging participants?

Speaker 3 (46:51):
Well, laura, I'll ask you, as someone who helped do
it being on the outside isharder to see and, really
honestly, as we were developingit, we were like how do we
balance all these differentthings?
And I can't say for certain thatwe have absolutely done that,
because part of understandingand having empathy is
recognizing that poverty is, infact, overwhelming and

(47:13):
discouraging for people who livein it.
But I think, going back to whatCassie was talking about with
resilience, I think the way thatwe've built this simulation
allows people to either succeedor fail, depending on how you
want to define that, based juston themselves.

(47:34):
There are systematic factorsthat are put in place that make
things difficult for everyonewho participates, but whether or
not someone is able to affordthings and take care of
themselves really does depend onthe way that they invest in the
simulation.
So it's really, you know, wecould have a family that we

(47:54):
expected to do very well in thesimulation that does very poorly
.
Based on the resilience of thepeople who are portraying that
family, I think the balancecomes in to the debriefing and
how people react to thesituations that they're put in.

Speaker 4 (48:11):
While we were there, we were kind of, you know,
starting to think about thedifferent scenarios and the
people we met, and there were alot of conversations that we
kind of started with, okay, sothat's a story, but we don't
want everyone to leave feelingjust sad, like we don't want
everyone to just walk out ofthere, kind of feeling like okay
, so that's just it.
Like you know, we wanted there,we wanted that hope.

(48:32):
So I think there was a lot ofconversations we had as a team
of kind of okay, here's thisstory, you know.
And to what Yaz was saying, howcan we make it where it's the
person who's in the simulation?
It's up to them, you know, howdo they get out of it, versus it
just always being a sad story,because we didn't want everyone
to leave feeling discouragedafter that simulation.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
So as somebody who got to participate in the beta
testing on Friday and thenobserve, you know that whole
process but was still kind ofnew to it.
I know you opened up the group.
There was like an introductionthat you gave to the entire
group once the participants camein and you were very careful to
say you know, this isn't a game.
And it was very like in the inthe very beginning moments of

(49:21):
the first round, like it wasclearly not a game.
I don't think anybody had thesort of impulse to gamify it.
People got very into charactervery quickly.
They stayed in characterparticipants and facilitators.
It never had the feeling ofsilliness or, you know, of being
a game.

(49:41):
And then afterwards I think thepiece where we all sat around in
a circle you deliberately kindof moved us physically out of
the space of the simulation intoa different configuration, to
kind of signal now we're doingthis other thing.
And then there was a very deepkind of unpacking of what just

(50:02):
happened to us and what do wethink about that and what did
you notice and what do you wishyou'd done differently?
And I think that piece was acritically important you'd done
differently.
And I think that piece was acritically important part of the
simulation.
The simulation part is is, youknow, obviously the main
attraction.
But the ability to unpack it onthe back end, I think, is for

(50:24):
me what let people walk awayfeeling uplifted a little bit, a
little more hopeful a little, Iimagine.
Otherwise people would justsort of leave feeling very
discouraged and overwhelmed.
We've even talked about youknow the appropriate audiences
for this kind of thing.

(50:44):
It's difficult stuff that youget into.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
Yeah, yeah.
I think it's just echoing whatCassie was sharing at the
beginning about how she saw this.
At the beginning, she was like,oh, it's a game.
How do you make somethingthat's such a hard topic a game,
and so it was really importantto really be intentional.
We were very intentional in howwe approached learning about

(51:11):
and developing this, and thenreally intentional in how each
aspect of the simulation wasdone to really balance
overwhelming feelings anddiscouragement with being able
to rise to the challenge.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
So building the simulation and sort of deciding
who are the key kind of stationsin the simulation, what role
did you envision NGOs like theChild Reintegration Center and
Mercy Hospital would play in theRooted in Reality simulation
and how did you decide torepresent their impact?

Speaker 3 (51:48):
You know, like we said before, we don't just want
people to walk away with justlike a feeling of wow, that was
awful, but really be able tolink people to action.
You know, you learned this andnow you act on it, and so we
wanted to highlight why NGOslike CRC and Mercy Hospital are
so important, why theyspecifically do what they do,

(52:10):
what services they provide, andwhy they do those as opposed to
other things.
Because the work that they doyou know I was thinking and
reflecting about it today isproviding essential services
that cushion people againstshocks, whether those are
economic shocks, whether they'rephysical shocks like a health

(52:32):
issue, or emotional shocks thathappen, and these things all
have the potential to dividefamilies.
They're the reasons whychildren end up in orphanages,
they're reasons why children endup living with other family
members and having divisions andthings like that, and they also
exacerbate cycles of poverty.

(52:53):
So I think the simulationprovides a glimpse into how NGOs
can improve the lives ofimpoverished families with
providing them support andresources to take care of
themselves.
So I not to give details away,but you know, I think of it sort

(53:15):
of like if you're living inextreme poverty, you can't keep
your head above water.
You're, you know you're tryingto swim, but you can't keep your
head above water.
And NGOs can work to changesystems and work on a systems
and governmental and largeradvocacy level, but that doesn't
mean that just by themselvesthey have the ability to drain

(53:37):
the ocean.
So they can't change the waterthat people swim in.
Often they can, you know, maybea little bit, but they can't
completely drain the ocean.
But what they can do is givepeople a life preserver or, you
know, a buoy so that they cankeep swimming.
So we wanted to make sure thatthat was a part of the

(53:57):
simulation.
Cassie, I don't know if youhave anything to add from some
of the things you learned.

Speaker 4 (54:03):
Yeah, I think we were just kind of discussing how we
wanted to incorporate NGOs andorganizations into the
simulation, ngos andorganizations into the
simulation, making sure that werepresented those organizations
NGOs as partners and not saviors, and making sure that those the

(54:35):
partnership was, you know,working alongside the family and
providing support andempowering a family, rather than
trying to create thisdependence between the NGO and
the family, which I think wasreally important and something
that we had a lot ofconversations about leading up
into the simulation.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
That's incredible.
I love that that it wasn't thissort of typical.
I think people who are sort ofoutside this work often think of
you know a CRC or a MercyHospital as sort of a rescuer.
But the way that you'veincorporated them into the
simulation and, honestly, theway they actually work is much

(55:04):
more in alignment withempowering people to get on
their own feet and to find theirown solutions and to get
stronger on their own with alittle bit of help.
So I think that's really great.
What do the two of you hopethat participants will walk away
with after they've engaged inthis Rooting Reality simulation?

Speaker 3 (55:24):
So I spoke earlier about Global Crossroads being
the organization that developedan experience very similar to
this, and so when I spoke withthem about what is the purpose
of their experience, what dothey hope people come away with,
they gave me these three E'sand they were really good, so I
incorporated them into how wedid it, but I'm trying not to

(55:47):
take credit for them, becausethey're doing really incredible
work too.
So we really want people towalk away with three things, and
we've talked about all of thesesort of intangibly, but I can
kind of solidify them here.
First is education.
We want people to have agreater understanding of what
poverty is like, what it feelslike, not just what it looks

(56:07):
like.
Like what it feels like notjust what it looks like, because
you know, in the conversationthat I had with them, they were
like the sights and sounds andsmells of poverty.
You know you can experiencethose in so many other ways, but
to experience the feelings ofit is what's really important.
So having a greaterunderstanding of what it is like
and especially understandingthe structural barriers that

(56:27):
exist that limit people fromrising out of poverty, I would
say that's a big thing.
That Think Tank incorporatesinto their experience is
understanding that people canwork really hard and still not
be able to provide for theirfamilies is really an important
knowledge that they want peopleto have.

(56:49):
Second thing is empathy.
We want people to be engaged intheir heart, have this emotional
experience.
They put it as we want todistill a lifetime of distress
into a two-hour experience, andso you know, having that
emotional reaction, experience,and so you know, having that

(57:12):
emotional reaction, knowing howpeople feel in poverty and
knowing what those feelings arelike, even for a short amount of
time, I think is incrediblypowerful to walk away with.
And then last is engagement.
So you know, as I said before,whatever you think the problem
is is going to determine whatyou think the solution should be
.
So we wanted to engage peopleto see that the solutions to
poverty were not simple, or atleast is not as simple as only

(57:35):
giving things to people, thatthere are structural barriers
that are in place, there aredynamics that happen, there's a
mindset that deeply empowerswhether or not you're able to
succeed or fail in any sort oflife situation, and that life is
hard for everyone.
And so there's a there'sthere's a lot of knowledge on

(57:56):
how to do things better, whichcould be useful not just for
people who are interested inlearning about Sierra Leone and
people who are interested indoing, you know, volunteer work,
but NGOs around the world thatare trying to do things better.

Speaker 4 (58:10):
I think Yaz said it perfectly in those three words,
but I think for me, justespecially that education aspect
and that empathy, teachingpeople and sharing with people
about that it's not just it'snot just you don't have food or
you don't have money, but it'show people feel and how we feel,
and that it's a real thingthat's going on throughout the

(58:32):
world.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
I was meeting with a couple of our board members
yesterday afternoon.
We beta tested this on ourboard and some of our longtime
ministry partners, and one ofthe board members said to me
yesterday that he found theexperience so incredibly moving
and just really really powerfuland you know he's been a

(58:54):
longtime member of the board,this is something you know.
He's familiar with HCW's workand our allies work in Sierra
Leone.
But it still gave him a newperspective, a new lens.
It put him more in the shoes ofsomeone experiencing poverty in
the ways that you all havedescribed, and so I just wanted

(59:15):
to acknowledge that, just howwell that went.
I also wanted to say that you'vebuilt the simulation obviously
using stories from the ChildIntegration Center, families and
the Child and Family PermanencyServices, families and Mercy
Hospital and the staff at CRC,but you very intentionally not

(59:37):
made it so specific to ourallies on the ground.
You've created a simulationthat I think could fit in many
different similar places in theglobal South, and so if we have
listeners in the audience whoare interested in checking out
Rooted in Reality, pleasecontact support at Helping

(59:59):
Children Worldwide or check outour website, where it will be
eventually, but probably isn'tnow.
But yeah, let us know if you'reinterested in finding out more
and how you might be able toaccess this resource, as we
continue to roll it out, both asan opportunity to travel
virtually, but also to walk amile in someone else's shoes and

(01:00:21):
come away changed.
So what's next for this projectand how do you see it being
used and what do you hope itsimpact will be?

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
So, laura, I think you yeah, you hit it on the head
.
If there is anyone listening tothis that says that this project
really sounds interesting andyou want to get involved with it
, please contact us.
We would love to do it with yourchurch, with your neighborhood,
with your ministry group, withwhatever group of people that
you want to get together.
We need a minimum of six to beable to do it well and a maximum

(01:00:49):
of 29 participants to reallyroll it out in full, but we'd
love to have it debuted with youso that you can really
experience it for yourself,although next step for us is
really getting some feedbackfrom our allies in Sierra Leone
to really make sure that we'rerepresenting life as accurately

(01:01:10):
as possible.
Like I said, you know, cassieand I learned a lot, and the
rest of the December teamlearned a lot listening, but we
want to share it back, make surethat they reflect on this and
really feel that it is capturingwhat they want us to capture
and the way that they are beingchallenged and the way that they
are being successful in reallife.

(01:01:32):
So, once we have all thatfinalized and get out a couple
more kinks, we're going to offerthis to our partner churches as
a way for them to engage othersto join us on mission.
So if you are interested,please let us know.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
I'm wondering if Cassie and the rest of the
December team are ever going toget a chance to participate.
Or would that just be so weirdbecause you already know
everything?

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
I am hopeful to get to participate in it once.
I think that we were, you know,a part of the creation of it,
but I think it's going to be sodifferent actually like doing it
and I think it'd be really coolto see that work really come
together in a participatory way.
So maybe one day I willdefinitely participate.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
Yeah, I think we had Reagan for half an hour or so on
Friday just kind of sitting inand observing.
But yeah, I'd love for theDecember team to get to see one
in action or participate, maybeas facilitators, and one just so
you could see just the fruit ofyour labors, because it was
really, really amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:02:39):
Yeah, definitely want to pull you guys in.
I know you guys are mostlyfinishing up college, so that
was just a timeline thing.
So, yeah, priorities so thatwas.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
it's just a timeline thing, so um yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
Priorities.
Okay, um, yes, this is kind ofin your wheelhouse.
How can people stay connectedto and even support the work of
CRC and Mercy Hospital afterthey've experienced the rooted
in reality simulation?

Speaker 3 (01:03:03):
And the same way that I tell all of our mission teams
when they get back um, you canpray, do or give.
You can give to the work that'sbeing done on the ground not
that you understandexperientially the work that
they're able to do with familiesto empower them and strengthen
them towards resilience.

(01:03:25):
So you could support usfinancially.
You can volunteer with us.
If there's some aspect of thisthat you went through and we're
like, oh, I now understand whythis is a problem and how it
could be addressed, then you cantravel with us on a mission
team and the first thing we'lldo is plug you in to learn, just
like we did with this team andlike we want to do with all of
our teams.

(01:03:45):
So volunteer with us to learnmore about what life is like
there and how you can besupportive of that.
And then you can also volunteerwith Helping Children Worldwide
in various aspects and ways tohelp us develop this more.
But I think the most importantthing that I want people to do
is share what they learned fromtheir experience of going

(01:04:05):
through our simulation.
That education, like Cassiesaid, is one of the most
important things that matters inthis simulation, and so we want
people to share what they'velearned.

Speaker 4 (01:04:16):
All right, it's time for the last question, so I'm
going to ask you both what keepsyou optimistic or hopeful about
your work in this space in thisspace For me, just that this is
such a unique way of sharingsuch an important topic about a
place that not everyone will getto travel to, but that to me is

(01:04:37):
very important and special tome.
So getting to be able to sharethat and just like seeing all
the different ways of teachingpeople and learning about
different topics and I'm reallyhopeful that this project and
that the simulation does teachpeople and teaches the empathy
and challenges people to thinkdeeper about what poverty is and

(01:04:59):
what does it mean to be poor.
So I'm very hopeful andoptimistic about that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:04):
I, yeah, I want to completely echo everything that
Cassie said and just add on thatI hope this experience allows
people all around the world toreally learn more and engage
more, to really take on ourmodel of doing missions, which
is learning and listening beforedoing no-transcript and

(01:05:50):
spending this time with me andwith our audience on this really
important topic, and I want tothank our listeners for joining
us on this episode of OptimisticVoices.

Speaker 2 (01:05:59):
We like to say it's a big messy world out there and
there is no shortage of need,but we here at Optimistic Voices
believe that with radicalcourage and radical
collaboration together we canchange the world.

Speaker 5 (01:06:14):
Thanks.
Thanks for listening.
If you enjoyed this episode,please subscribe, share it with
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