What does development look like in Nepal?
By Dale Dodge
The village of Kunauri, in the province of Ramechhap, in Nepal, was approached by a fledgling new NGO called Tamakoshi Service Society (TSS) in the early days of 1986. TSS offered the citizens of this small village the opportunity of having a village water stand pipe, at no monetary cost to themselves.
The only catch was that the citizens would have to organize themselves, then decide on the water source to use, the location of the ditch, the digging of the ditch, and the location of the stand pipe. They would have to transport the materials (from 40 kms away) and would have to take on the long term management and maintenance of the water line once it was complete. TSS, using funds provided by WNC and CIDA, offered the pipe, the cement, the fixtures and the engineering help, but provided no labour.
The villagers did organize themselves, and did pack in all of the materials over 40 kms of the roughest trails you can imagine. They dug a 3 foot deep ditch from a spring 1.5 km away – all by hand – and they set up a 9 person management committee, including 3 women, to run and maintain the system. It is still running today.
What does development look like in Honduras?
By Michael Newman
Tony Sevilla and Petrona Álvarez were among of the earliest participants in our La Esperanza project in eastern Honduras. When beginning the project back in 2006 it was couples such as Tony and Petrona that our program coordinator, Victorino Rivera, sought out. They were eager and interested in the ideas that he was introducing to the villagers. They volunteered their time and attended the workshops and training sessions.
Like many families in their village of El Guano, Tony and Petrona grow coffee. What caught Victorino’s eye was that Tony was among the few local growers who understood how to properly use pruning to rejuvenate older coffee plants. The couple had also conducted an interesting experiment the previous year that had demonstrated that their greatest challenge to producing high-quality coffee was not in their horticulture but in the antiquated local equipment that was used to extract the coffee bean from the coffee cherry.
Over the past six year Tony and Petrona have played an active leadership role in their community serving on the credit union board, the community centre’s management team and the farmer-to-farmer training on better organic alternatives.
They were also one of the first families I met when visiting the project in 2006 when I took a photo in their home. The house was of plank construction, typical of the poorer homes, with a dirt floor and few amenities. When back for a visit this February, I made a point of revisiting their home and farm as I hadn’t been back to their home since the initial visit.
The changes were startling.
World Neighbours Canada is an international people-to-people organization that supports grassroots community initiatives to alleviate hunger, disease and poverty in Asia, Africa & Latin America
World Neighbours Canada supports local organizations that share some basic principles:
- build on traditional knowledge and values to help people to analyze and solve their own problems.
- encourage and train local leaders and organizations.
- rooted in the tradition of neighbour helping neighbour.
World Neighbours Canada is operated by volunteers who work out of their own homes. Because our overhead costs are very low, we send 100 per cent of your donation to the field program. Furthermore, a portion of your donation is matched by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
World Neighbours Canada Society was founded in B.C. in 1989, and currently supports village-based integrated development programs in Burkina Faso, Honduras and Nepal. World Neighbours Canada is a non-sectarian organization. We are a federally registered charity BN 89212 8646 RR 0001.
