I recently spent time meeting with community members, sometimes one-on-one and sometimes as a larger group. I taught them about alcohol misuse and addiction. When I visited some families, I found they were under the yoke of alcohol addiction. I found that those addicted might fight with wives, husbands, or even neighbors. They might work hard and earn money, but then lose it by drinking so much alcohol. Because of these observations, I taught people to avoid drinking alcohol and explained that when people become alcoholics, they become unhealthy, have bad relations with other people, and have a bad status in the community. I taught eight families these lessons on needing to become free from alcohol in order to become self-sustaining. I will continue to follow up with them.

We are always teaching the community to ask for resources from the local government for the development of the village and encouraging community members to know about the resources available. In Ramantar Village, people are aware of this, but there is still much development to be done for roads, improving drinking Water, Education, Health, etc. This month, we went to the rural municipality office. The Transformational Community Development (TCD) committee called a meeting and discussed the problems and needs. The leadership decided to go to the local government office to ask for a road development budget.

This month, I have taught the community’s children about sanitation, using the toilet, hand washing afterwards with soap and water, cleaning a bedroom, brushing teeth every day, and personal health education. I have also encouraged them to get an education, to go to school, and to do the homework given by the teacher. The local community members helped 50 poor children in the area by giving them warm jackets during this cold season.