Pangeo

Clean water changing lives in Nallathanniya

I just received a wonderful update from Celeste, our director in Sri Lanka.

You might recall I took a Honolulu-based company there this year who had just adopted the village of Nallathanniya through our Adopt-a-Village program.

Here's Celeste's report on the progress of the clean water system that our Sri Lanka GHNI staff helped the village install and learn how to maintain:

"This lady named Papadi has lived in Nallathanniya since birth. She now has three children in her own family and she is about 49 years old.

"Papadi tells us she is very grateful to GHNI for making the water system work, replacing the broken pipe line. She joyfully tell us that now they do not have to wait for hours to collect water that is required for the family as within a matter of minutes the clean water required can be collected. She tells us washing clothing before was difficult due to the water problem now she is happy to wash clothing as it is very easy.

"Papadi also tells us that now there is no queue in the morning as before everybody wants to be first to fill a bucket of water and wash themself, that problem is no more. The water has made cooking easy, and drinking water available all the time to her family and the people in Nallathanniya.

"Papadi smiles as she relates a story. One day during the month of December she tells us there was no water in the taps and she thought that once again there is a water problem. When she inquired as to what was wrong she was informed that maintenance was carried out on the system cleaning the catchment tanks. She tells us that she was happy to understand that the water system is also maintained to be clean by the village water team unlike before.

"Papadi tells us that there is no word to explain her joy of this wonderful miracle that has happened in the village. When they lost all hope in the government and the government representatives of the village GHNI comes in and do a great job that benefits the village."

Changing the world really can happen... one little village at a time!

 

How asking for the toilet saved babies

Asking where to use the toilet can end up saving babies.

I'm at a conference of our worldwide village-coaching staff, here in Indonesia. One of our staff told this story today:

"A few years years ago when we had just begun helping a village, I was sitting with some men and I asked where I could use the latrine. They looked at me dumbfounded, and a bit offended. “Look around you,” one of the men said, as if I was crazy. “How much jungle do you see among our homes? It's everyhwere! Use the jungle. Why do you ask where you can use the latrine?” After that they made fun of me on that topic for months.

The sickness and motality rate among babies and infants in the village was certainly not zero. But they had never learned that human waste is the highest cause of infant sickness and death.

We knew we needed to teach lessons on how each home can have its own properly designed latrine (one of our standard village topics worldwide). But we also knew they were clearly not interested in latrines. They wouldn’t understand the science of micro-organisms, so we had to devise a clever way to get the point home.

At our next Wellness-training day for the village we took a stick and drew a 20-foot “map” of their village on the ground. We marked where homes and jungle are. Then we gave each person a small bag of yellow powder. We told them, “Dump your yellow powder at the spot on the map where you usually do your business each day.”

One by one, each person went and dumped their yellow powder on a spot representing where they toileted themselves. After everyone was finished, it looked like the whole village was covered in yellow powder. We said, “This is what happens in just one day. How much poop and pee is in your village from this whole year? How much the last 5 years?”

Everyone suddenly felt like they were going to get sick. One man said, “I need to go home and throw up.”

Today, every family in the village has its own properly-constructed latrine, and the sickness rate of the children has already decreased.

Last week I was in the village and the topic of latrines came up. Even though they’ve had latrines for less than a year, they are already making fun of nearby villages, saying, “They are so backward they don’t even have latrines.”

So we said, “Then let’s go help them learn what you have learned!”

It’s stories like this, of how our GHNI staff are helping poor villages worldwide transform themselves, that make me honored to serve them with all of you who are jumping in to help.

THANK YOU for your incredibly generous interest and partnership!

--Jeff

Video: Bonding with a village

This is what it's like for one company to have their heart knit to one poor village on the other side of the world.

Recently a Honolulu company chose a Sri Lankan village to help through our Adopt-a-Village program. So I took the company owners and several employees to their village to launch their 3-5 year relationship.

Suddenly, that little village became infinitely more than just a group of poor people in a far off place. They became neighbors. They became names, faces and stories. They became friends.

The company has engaged a videographer to capture the ongoing journey of their unfolding friendship with their village.

Enjoy this touching video -- and consider having your company/church/organization adopt a village of your own.

 

Day One in Nallathanniya, Sri Lanka from 10th Letter Media, LLC on Vimeo.

7 days in Tibet

I just returned from my first visit to our work in Tibet. We spent many days with our local director and met with local villages... and a clear picture is emerging for me of our early-stage work with the beautiful and warm Tibetans.

I'm back full of excitement and hope... eager to find churches, businesses, clubs and schools to adopt viilages there.

Here's my summary: The Tibetan people are deeply spiritual and deeply poor. Yet their hearts are open wide, and our locally-focused method of Transformational Community Development will honor their village communities and help empower their villages to transform.

Now, for the pictures :)

It took four plane flights and two days to get from Denver to western China. We finally landed at the small Yushu airport, one of the highest in the world at 12,700'. Yushu is the location of the chilling 2010 China earthquake that leveled the entire town and tragically killed thousands.  The town is still in the early rebuilding years.

Next, a 6-hour truck ride alongside the majestic Yangtze river (bumpy, often narrow and scary!), delivered us to our town-base for the week.

We stayed in a simple guesthouse called "The Friendship House."

In town, we interacted with many delightful Tibetans and ate many Tibetan dishes.

From town, we visited several villages in the area... being with the people... seeing the homes, the religious focus and the deep needs.

The beginning of our work in Tibet is simple -- our director will empower locals to learn about how to do TCD in a culturally appropriate way. They will be trained in comprehensive TCD topics that include community health, how to build sanitary toilets, economic development, harnessing clean sources of water and other regional needs. Then those trained people will go live in Tibetan villages for 3-5 years and help as a true village member. 

Pretty exciting! 

Interested? You can partner with Tibet villages in our GHNI Donation Store.

High school group joins hands with Ethiopian Village

Whoever claims that the students of the world can change the world is absolutely right.

The student members of Broomfield High School's National Honor Society (in the Denver metro area) have taken on the challenge of adopting a drought-stricken village in Ethiopia through our Adopt-a-Village program.

Broomfield High's NHS is now linked with Tuka Ethiopia!

The picture above shows the students excitedly connecting with our Ethiopian staff on a video call direct from Ethiopia this past February (thanks to "GoToMeeting").

Read more about the students' bold adventure in the Broomfield Enterprise article.

Four American Moms, One Ethiopian Village

What do you get when you introduce Four American moms to one poor Ethiopian village?

You get huge compassion.

And love.

And an eagerness to help in any way they can.

Meet Jennifer, Courtney, Heather and Laura (left to right, backs to the camera). These four incredible women first discovered the village work of GHNI through reading the blog of another awesome mom, Jennifer, who came here this same time last year. And they were among 100 women who responded to the need Jennifer described by adopting a village at $12/month.

Late in the year we then invited those 100 moms to come see "their" village, and also meet other villages that needed help. Jennifer, Courtney, Heather and Laura responded. And now they're here.

And their hearts have been knit to our newest village -- Megaladi.

The four have been hearing from Megaladi's moms, dads and village leaders. They've been hearing about Megaladi's needs and dreams. They've heard about a shortage of clean water. They've heard that Megaladi doesn't yet produce any of its own food. They've heard about needs to educate children, increase household income above survival, and stomp out disease.

They've heard, and they want to help.

So now Jennifer, Courtney, Heather and Laura are brainstorming how to invite 24 women apiece to join them in adopting Megaladi when they get home.

It won't be easy, honestly. It's hard to convey something this powerful. It's hard to fully tell your kids' clasroom parents or church group the story of one poor village 10,000 miles away that has captured your heart and for which you have great hope. It's hard to get others to join you in a world-changing mission.

It's hard. But I bet they succeed.

My money is on four American moms who've fallen in love with one Ethiopian village.

Meet our growing Kenya team

We just concluded a fantastic week with our growing Kenya team.

From left to right meet Dire, Dire, Habiba, Hassan and Wubshet. What a hard-working and effective team!

My teammate Jonathan and I just spent a week with them, hearing powerful stories of progress in their work to help villages transform themselves.

For instance:

• The newly created volleyball court in Gambella is daily drawing a crowd of young teens for fun, and drawing them away from what was a growing drug and alcohol problem
• One of the energetic women's groups in Ola Nagele has astoundingly started 10 different businesses in the last 8 months, increasing family incomes 2- to 5-fold
• Our team is very effectively helping Bulesa Dima in their delicate land-use conversations with the government -- and our delayed school-building project with the village can begin soon
• Our Wellness Committees in all four villages have received their second 1-week training from a health organization partner, and they are energetically teaching their villages family-transforming health lessons

Speaking of wellness, the "second Dire" in the picture is the newest member of our Kenya team.

Dire is a recently-graduated public health nurse. She's hired to be the "Wellness Specialist" on our team. Dire will specifically support the Wellness Committees in our villages -- helping them identify key village diseases and health problems, helping them with their house-to-house teaching of core wellness lessons, and helping them effectively connect with the regional government health offices.

We're thrilled to have her!

And Jonathan and I and the Partner Development Team in the US are thrilled to keep inviting businesses, churches, other groups and individuals to keep adopting more hard-working villages like these, here and around the world, through our Adopt-a-Village program.

Connect with me about adopting a village, and let's talk!

We now fly to Ethiopia tonight, and welcome volunteers to help villages in the east by the Somali border.

 

How to Save a Village $Thousands$

What if you tried to help a poor village get water, and bankrupted it in the process?

It happens. And it's not good.

And that's why we visited one of Africa's top windpump companies today here in Kenya. Because wind is free.

Consider this: Thousands of boreholes are drilled into the ground across Africa, every year, to find water. Some of those boreholes are drilled to get clean water for drinking, but many others are drilled to get water for irrigation -- to grow food in drought areas and solve starvation.

Now, of course, once you hit water, everyone cheers.

But then you have the challenge of how to continually lift water out of the ground and pump it to all the crops. And that's where you can bankrupt a village.

Many well-meaning organizations, after drilling a borehole, "give" a village an expensive diesel-powered pump for irrigation. But it's a costly gift. That complex pump can actually bankrupt them in fuel and repairs.

The village starts off excited. They plant LOTS of crops in anticipation, requiring a big outlay of cash for seeds. Then they fire up their new diesel pump and begin watering their seeds. Plants start to grow. Green sprouts begin popping up all over the field. Everyone is happy.

Eventually, however, the money to buy more fuel gets tight. But they see all that food growing and can't let it die, so they pinch their pennies and buy more fuel to pump more water to keep their plants alive, and they hope for a good harvest. Maybe they even borrow money to pay for the fuel, betting on a good crop in the end to be able to repay the loan and end up with some profit.

But that's a bet many poor villages lose.

In fact one of our key villages here in Kenya -- Gambella -- had to abandon their prized farmland this season, because fuel costs for irrigation have gone just too high. Gambella was given a diesel-powered pump many years ago by a development agency. But that pump has almost sunk the village financially.

Here's our plan: We want to model a sustainable way a poor village can pump irrigation water out of the ground, so we're carefully calculating the sustainable costs of how do that.

And we're looking at wind-powered pumps.

The initial cost of a wind-powered rig may be a bit higher (but not too much) compared to a diesel-powered pump. But after that, wind is free. And this area has LOTS of wind.

With the wind-pump approach, a village could perhaps split the purchase with a benevolent donor. Maybe the village would even borrow money for their half. But now, their cost of fuel is zero, and maintenance is next to nothing, and repayment of the loan is less than half of what they used to have to spend for diesel fuel and repairs.

And after each harvest, even mediocre ones, they still have a handsome profit.

Much better.

We want our first sustainable model to be Gambella.

Anyone want to help??

Women form peace walk near our Kenyan villages

Isiolo town is our staff's base in central Kenya, as they diligently help the surrounding poor villages.

Violence between tribal groups again escalated there in recent months, ebbing and flowing. Deaths have occurred sometimes weekly. And our staff are wisely limiting their movement to and from our villages, as they daily monitor and evaluate safety conditions.

There is hope, and our staff are among those contributing to it. Many people are passionately working toward lasting peace and a change of mentalities.

Just this week for instance, hundreds of women in Isiolo formed a Peace Walk to urge everyone toward reconciliation and peaceful cooperation.

And that's one of the many good signs. Even though conditions in the moment can turn dark, there is abundant evidence that minds are changing and new generations are seeing a new way forward.

Kenyan news gathered footage of the Peace Walk to help spread the hope...

 

Good News from Kenya

I just had a great video call with Wubshet & Habiba in Kenya. They shared several pieces of good news:

1. The recent tribal fighting has subsided. Things had gotten bad, with one particular tribe killing over a dozen people from another tribe over the last 10 weeks. Travel back and forth to our villages was risky and infrequent. So district officials from around Kenya recently convened in the area to address the problem head on. Wubshet & Habiba told me that things have now returned to calm, and they are back at work in the villages.
2. We're providing a solar-powered water pump to our village of Shambani. We are working closely with World Vision to help Shambani with their water needs. We are splitting the cost of an affordable solar-powered clean-water pump, with a large storage tank. Now the village will have enough regularly available clean water for everyone!
3. Ola Nagele will plant drought-resistant fruit-bearing trees. Ola Nagele has been a stark, barren village, with no shade or plant life. Our team has been teaching them about strong, drought-resistant, fruit-bearing trees like avacado, papaya, mango, etc. Yesterday we purchased and gave hundreds of young trees to every family, and trained them how to plant and nurture the trees. If you come to Ola Nagele in the future you will see a different, lush village!

THANK YOU for continuing to follow the progress of these developing villages. Through out Adopt-A-Village program individuals, church groups and businesses are helping these villages to transform themselves, one step at a time.