Paula Lu­cie-Smith

Al­ta stands as an ex­am­ple of what women work­ing to­geth­er can achieve, de­spite the odds be­ing stacked against them.

As a fe­male-in­spired and run or­gan­i­sa­tion, Al­ta aims to be strong and in­de­pen­dent, but to act from the heart. Have we been able to achieve these goals over the years? Let's look at Al­ta, the NGO, as a work­ing woman.

At Al­ta, some 300 vol­un­teer tu­tors turn up twice a week, vir­tu­al­ly every week for an aca­d­e­m­ic year, with a core of tu­tors stay­ing for five or more years. Two cur­rent tu­tors have served Al­ta for 20 years and count­ing. Both are fe­male. What does this tell us? Women ac­cept that work does not have to be paid to be valu­able and val­ued.

A key mo­ti­va­tor for women is their chil­dren. Many stu­dents have said to me, "My life was hard. I al­ways feel left out–every­body else can read the words all around. I don't want my chil­dren to be like me. So I have to learn to read and write to help them." It is in­ter­est­ing that more men are com­ing to Al­ta say­ing this as well.

Al­ta's alert­ness to needs and re­spon­sive­ness to them are what have made us strong, but equal­ly im­por­tant has been choos­ing the needs to re­spond to. Over the years, we have heard,

"Al­ta should do class­es for chil­dren."

"Why you all don't do maths? or "What about hav­ing CXC Eng­lish?"

The short an­swer is this: check the first two words in the name of the or­gan­i­sa­tion: adult lit­er­a­cy. As an NGO with very lim­it­ed re­sources, it is vi­tal to main­tain fo­cus and this too makes Al­ta strong.

Ac­claimed ed­u­ca­tor Richard Gerv­er re­cent­ly came to Trinidad and in speak­ing about ef­fect­ing change in ed­u­ca­tion he said, "The vi­sion must be pow­er­ful enough to en­gage oth­ers."

This is Al­ta's true source of strength: the high qual­i­ty, com­mit­ted peo­ple who have come as vol­un­teer tu­tors...and stayed. Al­ta is strong be­cause we re­spond to needs, we stay fo­cused and we work to­geth­er.

So Al­ta is strong, but are we in­de­pen­dent? While Al­ta is in­de­pen­dent in de­vel­op­ing our pro­gramme, full in­de­pen­dence is im­pos­si­ble when your clients don't pay for their in­struc­tion. Al­ta has eked out a de­gree of in­de­pen­dence by pay­ing no teach­ers' salaries.

But that F word–fund­ing–is the re­al ob­sta­cle to in­de­pen­dence. Donors think like men and NGOs think like women. Donors look for the ex­cit­ing, the glam­ourous, some­thing new they haven't tried yet–even if it is risky and may turn out to be all pack­ag­ing and lit­tle sub­stance.

On the oth­er hand, NGOs are look­ing to set­tle down with re­li­able, loy­al part­ners so they can build some­thing sus­tain­able for the long term. If a donor gives Al­ta this year, that's Al­ta done, who's next? They need to share it around. Man talk. To con­sid­er Al­ta again, you have to give them some­thing new–not the same old, the tried and test­ed.

You have to re-cre­ate your­self just for them...and then they want own­er­ship. But like Tri­ni women, NGOs know that hand­ing over own­er­ship is tricky, es­pe­cial­ly when your part­ner has giv­en no com­mit­ment, so NGOs do have to opt for mul­ti­ple part­ners.

So while Al­ta is strong, we can­not be ful­ly in­de­pen­dent. But re­li­able, long-term part­ners can make all the dif­fer­ence to us, to NGOs gen­er­al­ly and to the so­ci­ety.

Next week: Does Al­ta have heart?

Be­come a part of Al­ta. Vol­un­teer, do­nate, spread the word. Al­ta vol­un­teers are un­paid. Call 624-AL­TA (2582) or e-mail al­tatt@ya­hoo.com or find us on Face­book: AL­TA Trinidad.