Many community members of the Polewali Transformational Community Development (TCD) Village leave their homes for a couple of months out of every year to labor on rice farms several hours away. This is due to the limited Income Generation opportunities present in their village. Many of those that leave are young people and this also contributes to the discontinuing of their high school education.

This issue is one of frequent discussion during TCD Village Committee meetings and home visits. The GHNI training team and the Village Committee continue to work to facilitate the solving of this problem through TCD lessons that challenge the current mindset, and through connecting residents to training activities to build various skills that can help improve the economic situation of families.

One recent example was a training held by a local charitable organization, teaching communities to use food waste and local resources to make feed. One young man from Polewali, Reza*, was very enthusiastic about joining the training. Now that he and his peers have been equipped with new knowledge, Reza looks forward to applying what they have learned in order to reduce costs for feeding their animals and potentially find a new income stream by selling the feed locally.

This initiative, combined with other TCD Income Generation activities is one more step toward the realization of a future where Polewali young people finish school and families stay together as they find ways to improve their economic situation at home.

*For the purpose of safety and wellbeing, “Reza”, is a pseudonym for the individual being helped by this project.

Thank you,

Written by Didi, GHNI Partner