Global Action Plan International

Is this empowerment?
My goals are clear.
“Impossible” is not in my vocabulary.
I know just what you need.
I always get what I want.
Believe me, this is the way it is.
You have to keep after people if you want something done.
No I don’t need help, I can manage.

Not really – it’s more like control than power. The difference is: the need to control comes from fear. Is that not true? If I feel a need to control someone, is it not because I’m afraid they will do or say something not to my liking?

No, empowerment seems almost the opposite of control – more like flow. Flow like a dolphin playing with the water, not like a dead fish being carried downstream. Perhaps something like this:

I know what I would like to happen.
How can I help?
When unexpected things happen, they often seem just right.
When I most need help, something usually turns up.
People are amazingly kind.
People do the best they can.
People can move mountains for something they truly care about.

So empowerment is a state – the end of a scale with disempowerment (victim and controller) at the other end.

Empowerment is also another word for freedom. Nelson Mandela is
credited with having said
“No-one can take away from me the ultimate freedom, which is the freedom to choose how I will respond to what happens to me.”
After decades in prison, a remarkable statement. Maybe few of us can travel that far. But all of us can move in that direction.

So empowerment is also a process – a journey of liberation towards the dol-phin state.