The Pitfalls of Sustainability

At the beginning of Peace Corps, during PST, every Peace Corps Volunteer was talking about their “failed projects” and how we will eventually have projects that fail. I resolved never to have that happen to me. Unfortunately, it did.

One of the first projects that I started in my village was a Karate Club. My intention was to start it and center it on informing community members about Gender Based Violence, in addition to teaching them simple self-defense moves.  I was so excited to get started! I had about 20 people signed up, and I was ready to go. However, my excitement soon turned to dismay. The first month that Karate Club started, no one came. Why? It was the rainy season. It rained almost every single day for about a month when Karate Club first started. Because Batswana walk everywhere, and most don’t have cars, Batswana don’t usually brave the elements and go out. This included going to Karate Club.

However, after that first month of disappointment, I soon had about five people who came to Karate Club on a regular basis. I was teaching them my style of karate, Uechi-Ryu, of which I have a black belt in. My little sister just tested for her second-degree black belt, and so I was inspired to start karate up again. It was incredibly challenging. Not everyone came to every class, and so having one teacher teaching five people all at different levels was tricky. However, against all odds, I managed, and I managed to graduate everyone to their first stripe on their white belts.

Then, disaster struck.

Karate was two times a week, for an hour each. However, soon I became too busy to maintain that schedule. I was leaving Sefhare for workshops and trainings almost every month and couldn’t keep a consistent schedule. I eventually had to tell the members of Karate Club that I couldn’t keep the classes going. I was disappointed, but not being able to have a consistent Karate Club schedule was stressing me out. Also, it wasn’t fair to Karate Club members if I couldn’t keep the schedule I had created.

The failure of Karate Club was my first lesson in sustainability. I never envisioned my karate class lasting beyond my service. No one in my town knew my style of karate, but that didn’t matter. My plan was to train the members of Karate Club in GBV and basic self-defense, and then they would inform other community members about what they had learned. It was supposed to be a short-term project. However, I never envisioned that I would become so busy that I couldn’t maintain it even short-term. Thus, my first lesson in sustainability was this: always make sure that you have a clearly defined timeline for projects you want to carry out. I wanted my project to be “short-term,” but I didn’t define short-term. How short was it? One month? Two months? Six months? I didn’t have a time frame, and therefore couldn’t plan at the start of the club to make sure that I could carry out and finish the project.

My second lesson in sustainability was this: always make sure that you have a community partner to carry out projects with you. If I had located an enthusiastic member of Karate Club and trained them separately on the topics I wanted to discuss with the group, they could have continued without me when I was busy, and helped shoulder the burden, ensuring a sustainable project.

While failing at a project was not something I ever wanted to have happen to me, I am glad it happened. It has given me a better understanding of steps that I have to take to ensure that future projects are successful and sustainable.