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Jo Noble has worked and lived in Africa since 2002. After 24 years of owning and managing her own businesses, she retired in Boulder, Colorado. In 2000, her son Micah died suddenly at the age of 27. After more than a year of grieving and feeling stuck she decided to do a year of service to help herself move on. She packed her bags, bought a ticket and went to Cape Town, South Africa, without knowing anyone or what she would do. She did know that Ela Ghandi was co-sponsoring World Peace and Prayer Day with Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Lakota. She looked up Ela Ghandi's name on the internet and found a Cape Town phone number. |
Jo's business background and Master's degree in Social Planning and Administration have proved invaluable in her work in Africa. She has taught women how to paint walls, taught strategic planning, worked in schools developing creative writing, de-wormed school children, helped develop a presentation for the President of Uganda and is now building police housing in war-torn northern Uganda. Click the links to the ongoing and finished projects to learn more about the many different projects. |
Ela answered the phone and invited her to lunch the next day at Parliament. After sharing her resume, Jo was asked by Ela if she would go to Durban and help organise the event that was happening in three weeks. This event was the result of a dream that Chief Looking Horse, the Spiritual Leader of the Lakota people: to take the message of many peoples, one prayer, to the four directions. Jo grew up in South Dakota not more than two hundred miles from Chief Looking Horse. So, half way round the world she worked in the Zulu and Asian communities to welcome Chief Looking Horse and the 18 other Native Americans who came to South Africa. When this project was finished, she met with the director of FINCA, South Africa, and began volunteering there. FINCA is an international organization that provides micro-lending to very poor women. Jo had served on their International Advisory Board and had done public speaking for them for many years. Just three weeks after she began at FINCA, she was asked to go to Uganda and present a marketing plan. Uganda is a beautiful, welcoming, safe country for a single woman and she decided to move there when she finished her work in South Africa. She has been there since. |
Jo has always used her own resources to fund herself and her projects. However, people began giving her money to support projects they found meaningful to them. She is now a registered non-profit 501 (c) (3) so that any donation is tax deductible. Any funds given go directly to the projects designated and are not used for any overhead. |
And, she has learned a great deal along the way: Don't ask people if they want help. Ask them what they need to get done. Ugandans are my bosses. I try to enhance their plans and ideas with my experience and skills and pass it on. There isn't one project I have worked on that needs me for its survival - and that is the way it should be. I speak the truth - and the truth is that this isn't my culture, my language, or my politics. Their guidance is the only way my efforts can effectively support their projects. |
Jo Noble |