When I joined the international team of Hilfsverein
Nymphenburg, I was privileged to be part of a team that
has continued to make decisions and implemented development projects that have directly affected the very
rural vulnerable communities like the one I come from.
It’s here that I came face to face with nomadic young
children who had never thought of joining school, smiling happily now in clean blue school uniforms.
This is a future generation of empowered communities that is slowly beginning to change the narratives
of their lived realities. I cannot forget the joy and celebration that I witnessed in the mountainous community of Atapar (Turkana North). Previously the women
walked 8 kilometers every day in search of water, until
we fi nally brought a drilling machine and struck water
in their village!
As we launch this new exciting project, I have the confi –
dence that this is what our communities need. This has
very little to do with communities receiving aid, which
I grew up with and which has proven to be unsustainable. Value Villages comes in to empower communities
with a full set of measures to help to be self-reliant.
I believe in Value Villages because its built on a strong
foundation of our experiences and lessons learnt
through daily interaction with local communities. This
requires the adaptation to projects that meet the local needs, circumstances and social contexts. Help us
change our narrative, I believe my people have the potential to add value to this planet!