Posts Tagged ‘Extreme Poverty’
Love Rejoices with the Truth
Combatting Harmful Beliefs
This is a story about a small village in Mzimba, a northern district in the Southern African country of Malawi. It is a story about love and the relentless pursuit of the truth—a truth that has set the village of Jenda free and paved the way for love to flourish.
Five years ago, the Ngoni people never could have imagined the transformation their district was about to experience. Though amongst some of the poorest people in the world, the Ngoni are a proud people, rooted in age-old traditions, closed to outsiders and cautious of change.
Before World Relief began working in Mzimba, life was dictated by tribal traditions that oftentimes perpetuated, or worsened, the cycle of poverty and suffering in the community.
The Ngoni people lived their day-to-day lives believing that:
- A malnourished child meant there was infidelity within the marriage.
- Girls were valuable solely for their bride price and should not attend school.
- Upon puberty, girls foreheads should be cut and scarred to reveal their readiness for marriage.
- If women did not bear sons, men may continue to marry as many women as they like. (Polygamy was commonplace.)
- Upon the death of their husband, widows must walk on their knees to the closest river without food or water.
- Pregnant women must not breastfeed or eat eggs.
- Witchdoctors were the only solution to sickness and challenges.
In many cases, these beliefs lead to chronic malnutrition, child abuse or gender injustices that could often mean the difference between life and death. Yet, this way of life went unchallenged for the Ngoni people, who had no expectations or hope of a different way — no opportunity to act on their natural instinct to love, and no relief for the suffering they endured.
Change Takes Root
In 2012, when local World Relief staff first arrived in the village of Jenda, villagers were guarded. They sent local pastors and leaders to meet with the outsiders, doubting the significance of the gathering, in some cases even fearing it was a scam. Little did they know, this meeting would be the beginning of a vibrant transformation. One that revealed life-altering truth, rooted in love and that would lead to the renewal of their lives, their people and their entire community.
As leaders around Jenda came together with World Relief staff in vision-casting seminars, community-based needs assessments and cross-denominational conversations, a wave of excitement and optimism began to spread. Like wildfire, 15 churches soon became 22, spanning 10 denominations and multiple villages across Mzimba as community leaders realized that a different life, and future, for their people was possible.
“We began to understand God’s vision for our community. A truth that had been obscured from us due to age-old cultural practices and mindsets. We learned God had a desire to see us and our community working together in unity to serve one another, love one another and to lift up our community. We learned to work together, to realize our part in helping the most vulnerable, to become self-reliant and to shed harmful beliefs that were hindering us.” — Church Network Committee Chairman
As community leaders and increasingly, community members, began coming together in conversation around these new truths, the tide began to shift.
“We began to understand poverty in a deeper way. We came to realize the power of knowledge, and of self-reliance. And we realized some of our practices must change if we were to lead better lives. — Modesta, Jenda Savings Group Participant
A Flourishing Community
As the people of Jenda gathered to discuss the needs of their village and their vision for the future, the community began adopting changes that gradually gave way to community-wide flourishing.
New cash crops were planted to include soya beans and groundnuts, yielding added household income. With the pooled profits, seedlings were planted to regrow trees that had been lost to deforestation, hundreds of thousands of bricks were molded for the construction of a new school and homes for teachers, a clean-water well was dug, and savings and agricultural groups were formed.
As each new need was identified, the community gathered together to raise money and invest back into their collective vision for their lives and the lives of their children.
But the changes were not just physical. Love and appreciation for the children of the village was instilled as community members began to understand the meaning of Imago Dei—each child created in the image of God and possessing inherent worth.
The value of the girl child and the importance of education for both boys and girls began to take root. Community members began looking out for their friends and neighbors, and families began to repair once broken relationships, thriving in a growing love, care and respect for one another.
Little by little with each passing year, leaders and community members alike began speaking out against harmful practices of polygamy, rites of passage, child brides and witch doctors.
Mothers groups were formed to keep children in school and protect the rights of children, especially girls.
Leaders from other districts began to visit Jenda to witness what, why and how such positive transformation was taking place. And Jenda’s influence was so great that even local government Village Development Committees took note—putting in place by-laws that forbade marriage under the age of 18 and required mothers to give birth in health-centers or local hospitals so as to ensure proper care.
A Flourishing Future
Today, the village of Jenda is unrecognizable. As you enter the center of the village, you pass a deep-water well, three primary school blocks, five well-constructed teachers’ homes, three large enclosed cultivation plots, two brick-molding kilns and a large field of newly planted trees.
The church, which sits as the center of the community with two classrooms, continues to be a place of planning and dreaming toward a flourishing future. Community members plan to build more schools and child care centers, a library and a recreation hall. They want to ensure all girls attend school and every disabled child has access to wheelchair and wheelchair accessible classrooms. And so much more.
Ten years ago, these plans were not even a thought, let alone an aspiration for the Ngoni people in Jenda. Yet today, they stand before us, proclaiming the gospel and the truths that have opened their minds, encouraged love and instilled a bright and bold vision for their future. It is a truth we can all rejoice in.
*At World Relief, our goal is to see local churches continue to serve the most vulnerable long after World Relief transitions out of the area. We do not seek to establish a long-term, ongoing presence in the areas we serve, but instead build capacity among local leaders to sustain the progress they themselves initiated. Once a community is able to meet their target goals, World Relief begins the process of graduating the community, which includes a time of reflecting and celebrating together. The Jenda community is currently set to graduate in 2023! Join us in celebrating and praying for this continuous transformation.
Francesca Albano currently serves as Director of Branded Content at World Relief. With a background in Cultural Anthropology and a graduate degree in Strategic Marketing Communications, she connects her interests in societal studies and global cultures with her training in brand strategy and storytelling. Francesca is especially passionate about grassroots community development and the treatment and advancement of women and girls around the world.
Leveraging Relationships to Serve the Most Vulnerable
A Critical Moment
We are facing a critical moment in the global COVID-19 crisis. While many parts of the U.S. are reopening, the crisis continues to unfold in Africa and other parts of the developing world. While official case numbers remain modest in many countries (due, in part, to limited testing capacity) the severe effects of the pandemic are being felt.
Our international staff are reporting growing signs of economic strain and increasing poverty. Economically, local currencies are losing value, bread and other staples are becoming scarce commodities, and many of those living day-by-day on a day’s wages are going without food because they’ve been unable to make sales in local market places. In many parts of the world, families live on less than $2 a day and children struggle with malnutrition.
In April, Oxfam predicted that the pandemic “could push half a billion more people into poverty” in these regions, “[setting] back the fight against poverty by a decade.” Similarly, the World Food Program has forecasted famine of biblical proportion with the potential for the number of people facing life-threatening food insecurity doubling.
In the countries we serve, we are seeing concerning signs. Even though testing capacity is extremely limited, many countries are seeing sharp increases in the number of confirmed cases — some as high as 50% in a single week. And in countries where cases aren’t officially growing at high rates, other signs of virus spread — such as increased cases of pneumonia and other illnesses — continue to rise.
Learning from the Past
I saw firsthand the lasting effects of disease during the AIDS epidemic when children were left orphaned, and when World Relief served communities in DRC severely affected by Ebola. Without action, there is potential for similar devastation from COVID-19. But there is also hope — local churches, community health workers and local leaders are in the fight daily. Like AIDS and Ebola, this crisis is bigger than something each village can take on by itself. With effective global partnership, we can equip these men and women to help prevent exposure, recognize and treat the infected and mitigate the social and economic vulnerabilities associated with COVID-19.
Now is not the time to withdraw from our global responsibility to love our most vulnerable brothers and sisters abroad. Instead, it’s time to lean in with compassion and justice.
Leveraging Relationships
At World Relief, we are committed to serving and empowering the world’s most vulnerable. That commitment was true before the COVID-19 crisis, and it will continue to be true long after case numbers have declined. Our international teams have already taken steps that could greatly reduce the number of deaths worldwide. They’ve trained local churches and health workers, improved health facilities, provided lessons on proper handwashing and educated households about COVID-19 symptoms.
We believe education and awareness will continue to be our greatest ally in fighting the effects of COVID-19. As we’ve seen in the U.S., rumors spread easily, prompting FEMA to build an entire website dedicated entirely to coronavirus rumor control. Internationally, we’ve encountered superstitions in places like Cambodia where scarecrows have been erected in some communities to scare off the virus. In several countries, we’ve heard reports of individuals with respiratory illness fearful to seek treatment or testing because of stigma. As a result, ongoing efforts to saturate communities with accurate public health information through public awareness campaigns is imperative. Leveraging trusted community voices such as religious leaders is essential in overcoming rumors and stigma.
In the past, this approach has proven invaluable in containing disease. At the onset of the AIDS crisis in Africa, World Relief worked extensively with churches to help break stigmas associated with the virus. And in recent Ebola responses, local churches played a critical role in dispelling rumors, locating and protecting the most vulnerable, training medical personnel and educating the community. As we respond to COVID-19, we are continuing to leverage our relationships with over 3,000 local churches in Africa to share critical, accurate information about how the disease is spread and what should be done if someone suspects a case.
Respond With Compassion
While many countries in which we work continue to have a wide range of varying restrictions, our local network of volunteers and community leaders are using creative solutions to continue our existing life-saving and life-improving services, while also honoring social distancing requirements. The already vulnerable populations we serve are the most at risk of increased hunger, poverty and violence as a result of the social and economic effects of the pandemic. Continuing agriculture and food security programs, economic development activities and child protection activities are crucial.
As we move into this next phase of responding to the coronavirus, our local networks will continue to play a vital role in addressing the economic, health and food security concerns that the virus has brought on. Our commitment to empowering and equipping them in this fight remains steadfast, but we cannot do it without the continued prayer and support of our donors.
To learn more about how we’re responding to COVID, go to https://worldrelief.org/covid-19/, and be sure to follow our live updates here.
Myal Greene has a deep desire to see churches worldwide equipped, empowered, and engaged in meeting the needs of vulnerable families in their communities. In 2021, he became President and CEO after serving for fourteen years with the organization. While living in Rwanda for eight years, he developed World Relief’s innovative church-based programming model that is currently used in nine countries. He also spent six years in leadership roles within the international programs division. He has previous experience working with the U.S. Government. He holds B.S. in Finance from Lehigh University and an M.A. from Fuller Theological Seminary in Global Leadership. He and his wife Sharon and have three children.