Community development should be a mutual effort of the people being helped and the people donating the help. Our little visit to a village in the Dust Valley resulted in a textbook case of community development.
First of all there was a need. The school was cold and they had inadequate heat for the children in school. Most of the classrooms had ice on the inside of the windows. The community lacked the resources to put stoves in the majority of classrooms and they were looking for some help.
That is where we came in. We had a desire to help, but we had limited resources. We listened to the school leaders and community representatives tell the story of the school. That night we considered their requests and prayed for God to give us good solutions. The next morning we went to the school and explained to them how much money we had. We included the estimates we had gathered from the bazaar and then asked them how they would like to see the money spent.
There were a number of combinations of materials that could have been purchased. We felt it best for the community to set the priority. We left the meeting in the morning with a plan: we would buy six stoves and two tons of coal. We would not buy the exhaust pipes needed to install the stoves nor would pay anyone to install the stoves. It is what they wanted and so that afternoon we were able to buy the stoves and deliver them (with the help of another NGO) late that afternoon. The next morning the coal would be delivered.
The next morning came and we went out to the village to pay for the coal that was to be delivered and say a few words and pray with the teachers. Now here is where it gets good. By 10:00 that morning each of the six stoves where fully installed (pipes and all) and working with a bit of the coal they had mixed with wood. We were so blessed, not by our stoves, but by their stoves! They took them, they installed them, and they used them. That is true community development.
Please keep praying for this village, the winter is still hitting us very hard.