Penahafo Imbirikani

This blog post is about my good friend and local inspiration, Penahafo Imbirikani. Penahafo is an amazing business-woman. She comes from a difficult background, having struggled as a child even to have enough to eat. Today, she owns a butchery and general store, and runs a kindergarten for our village. She is inspirational in every way – kind to others, confident in her businesses, and hopeful and optimistic for the future of our community. I sat down to talk with Penahafo recently to learn some of the secrets to her success.

I asked her how she has achieved such success, especially given a challenging start in life. It had everything to do with her attitude. She ignored the difficulties that she faced. She tried to look deep within her challenges to understand why they were happening. She set high goals for herself, and emulated others that she respected, following their path to become a successful businesswoman. Her focus was also consistently on service. What guided her in opening a kindergarten was an assessment of the local community’s needs. She saw that the youngest children were not being taken care of, were not being educated, and she set out to fill this gap.

Having come back recently from being away for a few weeks, I noticed significant changes and improvements in our village. There is a group of individuals who have organized under the “shack-dwellers” organization and have begun building nice, concrete houses for themselves. Also, several businesses in our local township have new storefronts, beautifully painted signs and advertisements. This face-lift works wonders for the morale and physical aesthetics in an often dusty, dirty and quite impoverished place. Beyond these steps forward, I wanted to know what Penahafo’s vision for the future of our village is. It is a bright one. She can see beyond the suffering of the present to a brighter future – to a place where people are not mired in poverty or at a high risk of ending up in jail. She sees youth respecting themselves, people waking up in the morning with purpose, knowing that important and fulfilling work awaits them. She wants women to “respect their womanhood” and to have peace in their lives, pockets of calm and serenity amidst the noisy and chaotic reality of the township. She aims to show them love and acceptance. Maybe one of the worst perils of poverty is its lure into hopelessness, into a loss of dignity. When you have very little, when everything is a struggle, it is a test of the human spirit to remain optimistic. I see Penahafo as just the recipe to reverse this trend. She has many times simply spoken with her neighbors, given them a hug, shared what material help she can, and these small acts have turned the tides. People need to know that they are cared about, that they are part of something great. People need human connection.

Penahafo is a Christian, and feels led by the word of God. She hopes to help others also to live long and happy lives. Penahafo embodies leadership and is a tremendous beacon of hope. I can’t wait to see what the New Year holds, and to accompany and support Penahafo and our other community members.