Nicholas Kristof and the Power of Hope

It’s not just me. Nicholas Kristof, the renowned New York Times journalist and two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, also believes there is power in hope. He published an article in the NY Times opinion section on May 29, 2019, entitled Cash, Food and Health Care All Help the Poor, but Something’s Still Missing. It’s about poverty within the indigenous population in Paraguay, and how opportunity (also known as HOPE) can be a transformative force in substantively changing the trajectory of people’s lives.

Hope doesn’t mean just an idea and a good feeling. It means a pathway to something new and the supports to get there. The program in Paraguay references mental health support in addition to guidance on how to grow a small business. No one goes it alone. The notion that anyone is successful completely alone and in a vacuum is one of the biggest fallacies ever promoted.

As I read Mr. Kristoff’s article, I found myself thinking about the MAIA Impact School in Guatemala and the similarities between what he observed in Paraguay and what I have seen happening in Guatemala. The MAIA school, led by courageous and empowered Mayan women, sees hope in the form of providing a real, robust education to young girls with the potential to succeed but no opportunity to do so. These girls are rural, poor, indigenous, and female, four major challenges in a country where machismo is the norm and racism against the indigenous population is severe (of the 200,000 people killed during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war, 93% were indigenous). MAIA provides not only academic opportunity for these girls, but also the mentoring and support that they and their families need to navigate the extremely demanding road before them. This road begins with these girls beginning to build a path for their families out of systemic poverty. Imagine the trickle-down generational impacts when empowered, educated girls become empowered, educated mothers. The possibilities for change spread like the roots of a strong tree.

MY HOPE is that Mr. Kristoff finds his way to Sololá, Guatemala, as he winds his way back north…this story, the incredible work being done by this school in Guatemala to create hope and an actual opportunity for a viable future needs to be broadcast more widely. The little news we hear about Guatemala in the U.S. fixates on negative imagery from illegal border crossings and migrant caravans to drug cartels and political instability. What if the news focused more on what kind of hopelessness would compel someone to make that fraught journey to an uncertain and antagonistic future? What if they presented solutions that would help people build a future that would be a reason, a means, to stay?