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Experts from HCW, CRC and Mercy work together to get at root causes of the problems they are attempting to solve and grow in-country sustainability for Mercy Outreach and the CRC programs for children in the villages at the same time.
1. Mercy & CRC initiate contact with village leadership and perform community mapping exercises of villages within their service area. 2. Villages are prioritized for selection by HCW/CRC&Mercy. 3. Funders are solicited to sponsor projects and villages. 4. A collaborative process for managing the work on the ground is established through meetings, selection of a local management committee and negotiation of an MOU for each village before projects are initiated. 5. Agreed infrastructure projects are initiated, health services are provided through Mercy Outreach and child welfare services and scholarships are provided to children deemed eligible for enrollment in CRC programming. 6. The village enterprise project is selected and a business plan is generated. CRC provides business planning and financial management training to those who will be engaged in the enterprise. 7. A grant is issued for operating expenses for the enterprise during its start up year. If the enterprise meets targets established during the planning stage to a satisfactory level, a loan may be issued for the second of operation. If the enterprise continues to make progress, and the first loan is being repaid according to the agreed upon schedule, a third loan may be issued during the third year. At the end of the third year, responsibility for the enterprise is handed off to the village, along with responsibility to provide for maintenance of all infrastructure improvements made during the life of the partnership. |
In 2019, Ebenezer UMC of Virginia decided to support the initiative under its Focus 2025 vision for Transforming the World. Representatives from Ebenezer joined us when we met with the governing leaders of two villages selected by the collaborating team's leadership, Fengehun and Samie. We listened to what the village leaders described as their most urgent needs and discussed what HCW, CRC and Mercy could and could not do.
The point of the initiative is not the infrastructure improvements or services provide over three years. Nonprofits have visited villages many times, building wells that ultimately fail, latrines that collapse and services that help a few members of their community for a while. The program ends and the village struggles to maintain its infrastructure. With no improvement to the economy, it fails and cannot be repaired. As we visit potential partner villages, we see signs left behind that previous partners posted about the work they did, the rusty, fading sign being the only evidence they had been there, the fruits of their labors had disappeared long ago. We saw the failed latrines, the broken, dry wells, over-crowded classrooms, and washed out roads and bridges. We saw signs for literacy programs that had ended with no improvement in adult literacy, and women's empowerment enterprises, that had abandoned the young women without providing a path for them to move forward.
In Samie, we were welcomed to the village with many songs, but we were also met with a healthy skepticism that we would be different. The women sang a song to us about doing the work you promise to do, which the village speaker sheepishly translated. As we described the goals of the enterprise project, and how the projects would be collaboratively managed, trust began to grow and we were taken seriously.
In Fengehun, we presented a draft Memorandum of Understanding for their consideration and agreed in principle on the terms of the partnership. In return, the village appointed a leadership committee to work with CRC and Mercy.
The point of the initiative is not the infrastructure improvements or services provide over three years. Nonprofits have visited villages many times, building wells that ultimately fail, latrines that collapse and services that help a few members of their community for a while. The program ends and the village struggles to maintain its infrastructure. With no improvement to the economy, it fails and cannot be repaired. As we visit potential partner villages, we see signs left behind that previous partners posted about the work they did, the rusty, fading sign being the only evidence they had been there, the fruits of their labors had disappeared long ago. We saw the failed latrines, the broken, dry wells, over-crowded classrooms, and washed out roads and bridges. We saw signs for literacy programs that had ended with no improvement in adult literacy, and women's empowerment enterprises, that had abandoned the young women without providing a path for them to move forward.
In Samie, we were welcomed to the village with many songs, but we were also met with a healthy skepticism that we would be different. The women sang a song to us about doing the work you promise to do, which the village speaker sheepishly translated. As we described the goals of the enterprise project, and how the projects would be collaboratively managed, trust began to grow and we were taken seriously.
In Fengehun, we presented a draft Memorandum of Understanding for their consideration and agreed in principle on the terms of the partnership. In return, the village appointed a leadership committee to work with CRC and Mercy.
