Fatehjit* has seven members in her family. She worked as a day-laborer to provide food for the family. Due to extreme poverty, her family did not have enough food, causing daily unrest in her family. Her daughter-in-law would scold her a lot, beat her and throw her out of the house. Fatehjit spent her life crying a lot. One day an incident happened in her life. Unable to afford food, her daughter-in-law beat her and broke four of her teeth. She was living in a very abusive situation.

Fatehjit became a regular member of the Transformational Community Development (TCD) program. She presented her case to the members of TCD committee for justice and said that the violence she had suffered was because she could not provide peace in her family due to extreme poverty. After she pleaded with the members of the TCD committee, they confronted her daughter-in-law but she never gave up abusing her.

The members of the committee helped to solve her problem by providing seed money and she bought two small goats. She started farming vegetables by taking the income from goats and made a land contract for farming. She used the knowledge she learned from TCD lessons to grow vegetables.

Another great miracle happened in her life. Due to the long rains, most of the crops were destroyed by water, but the vegetables she planted were not destroyed by water. She sold expensive vegetables and earned daily food for her family that way. Now she is very happy to see that the poverty of the family, the need for daily food, and the daily problem of her daughter-in-law are solved. She has also been able to enroll her one grandson and granddaughters in school. She has been able to live a very peaceful and happy life. Many were surprised about the great change to her life, and it has given her the opportunity to become an example and to teach other people how to change. It has become a way to spread the word about TCD. She would like to thank GHNI from the bottom of her heart. If TCD had not been teaching in her village, her life would have been spent in darkness and she would have been in pain. TCD has brought her life great changes. Again, thank you very much to GHNI.

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

Thank you!

Written by Mary, GHNI TCD Worker