When your work is successful word spreads!

Things have gone so well with our Transformational Community Development (TCD) program in Gambella, Kenya, that the United Nations has taken notice, the Kenyan government has come to take pictures, and other non-profits are coming out to learn. Now other villages are asking for our TCD coaching.

So Wubhet and Habiba have selected a few nearby villages to begin helping. They’re forming a small “cluster” of villages to build TCD momentum in the area.

Our volunteer team got to briefly visit two of those villages: Shambani and Bulesa Dima. The welcome by both villages was sweet!

At each village I shared my little message of “The Three Men.” Here’s how it goes:

We are a small NGO with small amounts of money and a big heart. We help only certain kinds of villages. I’ll explain by telling you about three men.

Three men come to you, each asking for some money.

You ask the first man what he will use the money for and he answers, “To buy alcohol and chat (a local narcotic).” Will you give him any money? (The crowd always answers “NO!” though many of them habitually chew chat and get drunk.)

You ask the second man what he will use the money for and he answers, “My family is hungry and I will buy us food to eat.” You say, “Food is good, but what will you do tomorrow after you have eaten today’s food?” and he answers, “I will come back to you for more money!” (At this point the village always laughs.)

You ask the third man what he will use the money for and he answers, “I will use it to hire someone to teach me how to farm well, and I will use it to buy some farm tools, so my family will be able to eat for every day!”

Which man will you give the money to?

Which kind of village do you want to be?

The story is simple but it sticks with the village as a point of reference for years to come. We keep asking the villages, “Which kind of village do you want to be?” and we hold them to their answer.

A week earlier Wubshet and Habiba had given Shambani a test: The village said they wanted to keep their babies from getting sick so often and dying so frequently. So Wubshet and Habiba explained how every family could make a personal latrine for health and sanitation. They told the village GHNI would help them build a model latrine in the center of the village, but first they had to work hard and dig a hole 3′ x 4′ and 12′ deep. Wubshet and Habiba said if the villagers had dug the hole by the time we retuned a week later we’d work with them, but if they hadn’t, we wouldn’t.

When we returned Shambani had dug TWO holes.