Conference speech:
Take That Risk!

When Kim Chamberlain was 13, at school in Liverpool, England in the 1970’s, a missionary Nun who was working in East Africa came to school to give a talk. She was a pleasant, quietly spoken person; her visit was uneventful and most likely quickly forgotten by most of the students. However, that brief visit inspired Kim so much that over three decades later she, her husband and their two children left their comfortable, established life in New Zealand and moved to East Africa.

Despite two years’ research and a fact-finding trip over there, they ended up arriving in Uganda with nowhere to live, no work to go to, no source of income, and no schooling arranged for the children. All they had was a suitcase each, two days’ accommodation in a guesthouse, and a belief that it would all work out.

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For two years Kim and her family had many interesting, amazing, frustrating and life-changing experiences. They lived in four different houses; had snakes in the garden, earthquakes, regular power cuts, no water, no petrol, experienced the unbelievable inefficiency in the bureaucracy, learned why it’s useful to have a big bottom, nearly been electrocuted, been the subject of a home invasion, paid bribes, learned that if Kim belonged to one of the local tribes she would have to eat her son, seen beautiful scenery, experienced a country that has permanent summer weather, been to the source of the river Nile, had bugs in their underwear, seen poverty first hand, learned about child sacrifice, and realised that whatever your situation, your attitude towards it is what makes the difference.
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​Kim shares with you the steps she took to be able to do what someone called ‘jumping off a cliff’, how she counteracted that with the phrase ‘well, how difficult can it be?’ and how she inspired others around her to take risks they had been wary of taking.

Through sharing and explaining her journey, she allows audience members to look at risks they would like to take, to have some time of reflection, and to come away with an action plan for their next step.