A Clean Space Builds Business
May 6, 2024
This month, I visited sixteen families in the community and taught lessons on proper sanitation. Knowingly or unknowingly, some families in the community ignore sanitation and face health problems, so I taught community members about the importance of cleaning their kitchens, toilets, houses, and even their neighborhoods. I spoke with an Income Generation member, Yahnaa*, who has a small business called a chattapate (snack shop). When she focused on cleaning the shop, the materials, and other things around the store, more customers were attracted, and she increased her profits.
I also taught the community to use the local resources to be sustainable. Still, some community members are not able to recognize local resources, and they pretend that they have no money to purchase materials or to start income-generation work. Through the Transformational Community Development (TCD) program, I taught people to use local and available resources and to go ahead with what they have, not concentrating on what they don’t have. Community members who really want to learn from TCD apply it to their practical lives too. This month, Batsal* built a small goat cage using local materials with zero cost and started his micro-business with one mother goat.
I continue to teach about how to have safe drinking and cooking water. TCD is teaching the community to use clean, safe water and drink it after boiling and filtering. I taught community members not to use insect repellant or other chemical poisons in their kitchen gardens but to do organic gardening.
I also visited the community to encourage families to send their children to school and to provide school education for their children at any cost. The community members are trying their best to provide an education for their children.
This is the story of Biswabandita*. She lives in Ramantar Village and is an active and successful Income Generation group member. Before the TCD program, she was not happy with life because she had no income sources and no encouragement or inspiration. It was very difficult to provide her children with daily food and materials for school. She had no knowledge about Income Generation, but after the TCD teaching, she understood sustainability and started to keep goats, receiving support from the partnership with TCD. Now she has a good income through goat-keeping and can easily cover her family’s basic expenses! She is very happy now and wants to give thanks to GHNI and TCD.
Transformational Community Development (TCD) Update:
Water
We taught community members about the use of safe water, and community members became involved in water source cleaning activities.
Wellness
This quarter, we had classes about community and personal health and sanitation. Community members should go to the hospital if they are seriously ill.
Education
I spoke about the need for the community to send their children to school. The children’s education has improved.
Income Generation
We started a new Income Generation group and supported them with seed money and training on how to use it effectively.
Thank you!
Written by: Sudip
GHNI TCD Worker
*For the purpose of safety and wellbeing, “Yahnaa”, “Batsal”, and “Biswabandita” are pseudonyms for the individuals being helped by these projects.
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