Blog: Africa

Ezbit el Amir, Egypt

As each year comes to a close, we wonder how we can make the new year even better than the last. We set goals and resolutions, we make plans, and we set our hopes high.

Maybe your new year's resolution is to make the world a better place in 2019, but you don’t know where to start. If that’s you, you’re in the right place.

The Situation

Isiolo is a village in central Kenya where GHNI employs Transformational Community Development (TCD) training. Women in Isiolo typically build and maintain their homes, but it is uncommon for them to be able to earn a steady source of income.

On behalf of all of GHNI's staff, volunteers, villagers, and partners, we would like to sincerely thank you for all you did to support us on Giving Tuesday this year!

Whether you were a donor, advocate, or social networker, you played a key role in our Giving Tuesday success. The numbers are still being finalized, but here's a summary of what we know so far.

Community Health Volunteers (CHV) from Shambani Village attended a training on pregnancy and family planning. GHNI partnered with other NGOs in developing and providing this meaningful training. The training took almost a week and participants were taught four key guidelines to address the top issues affecting mothers in our villages:

GHNI taught Attir Village the importance of networking with other organizations and soon after, an organization drilled a well for the community. Water is life as it revives humans, animals, and plants. Attir was once a dry village but now everything is full of life and so useful to the community. The availability of water has really benefitted not only human beings, but also the animals.

Transformation is the key to our success. Changing attitudes and helping an individual believe in himself takes time but with determination and continuous coaching, change will automatically come. The vision of restoring hope to those who are hopeless and helpless will be accomplished as it is GHNI ‘s dream.

Ahumbe Primary School is growing day by day. Some challenges are resulting from the growth. One pronounced challenge is the lack of school infrastructure with no completed buildings or furniture. The six-classroom building that was started last March is still at the foundation stage. Construction of the building could not continue throughout the rainy season because of the excessive downpours experienced this year. The rains are subsiding fast and it is hoped that work will commence in earnest in the next one-to-two weeks.

Just like in other villages, we are establishing different Transformational Community Development (TCD) committees in the newer villages. The committees are receiving different TCD trainings. In Elala Village, there is a boy called Lelisa who completed high school last year. He did not score highly so he could not enter the university. Disappointed and discouraged, Lelisa discussed with our TCD workers joining the Agriculture Group along with his plan to improve his scores by studying at night school. He is planning to pay his school fees by working hard with the group.

Abdul and Sadat are friends living in Bisidimo Village. Both graduated from high school two years ago and did not score well enough to join the university. One day, they were discussing the future and decided to join our Transformational Community Development (TCD) groups. After they were accepted by the TCD workers, they began working hard to change their lives. During the discussion, I asked them why they decided to join the group. They shared that they saw no other option, as their future was dark. But now, they are able to work as they gain knowledge.