From Riots to Empowerment in Africa:Appreciative Planning and Action in a Liberian Refugee Camp

Those who have heard about how Appreciative Planning and Action played a powerfulrole in empowerment and income generation among poor women in Nepal will beinterested in a recent story from Guinea, West Africa 1 . My wife, Marcia, is takingWORTH, the new incarnation of the Nepal program, to half a dozen African countries.She shared the following story about the AI/APA-based training-of-trainer program sheand her colleague, Erica Tubbs, from Pact ran for Liberian refugee women, undersponsorship of the American Refugee Committee. At its core, this is a story about stories— about the power of tapping the positive experiences within each of us to empowerourselves and others for positive change. These lessons from Africa now are returning tothe US where we are putting them to work to bring about similar results with USbusinesses and organizations