Community development in Jumla

The highlight of my recent trip to Jumla was being able to get out on field trips to two of the community self help groups supported by INF. These were both physically close to the town of Jumla, but a life time away in terms of people's attitudes and expectations. INF's approach to community development is a slow process, and usually involves nothing more than talking, usually to the women of the village, making them aware that they have rights, that there are solutions to the problems they face every day, and that there are people who will listen to them and help them if they work together.

Before visiting one of these villages I found it hard to appreciate exactly what INF was doing. INF hardly ever actually gives anything away, and yet the people we met really seemed to appreciate what was being given: time, encouragement and advice. In one meeting we sat down on the roof of someones with eight community leaders who represented the 100 households of the village, and we were able to ask them about their relationship with INF and how they were developing their community.

They said that over the last few years, 15 different NGO's had come and gone: all promised something, a few had delivered something, but none had stayed. INF was different they said – "INF didn't promise anything, but they taught us how to think". Five years ago there were no community leaders, not even a real sense of community. Now there are recognised leaders in the village who organise the building of toilets and for drinking water to be piped in – several of those who were confidently answering questions about their village would previously not have dared to speak in public.

One group decided that educating its children was the highest priority and they have now organised a community school that teaches children until they are ready to go to the nearby government school. Another decided that income generating schemes were important and so each group member no contributes around 40p a month to a fund that then gives cheap loans to group members to start small businesses.

The villlage is still extremely poor, there are few jobs for the men, and many of the old problems still exist, but I found it very encouraging that now the people had a forum for discussing the issues they faced, and they knew where to go to get answers. To me it was a real life example of the old proverb "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day: teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime "