Hello friends! I know it’s been a while since I’ve written a
blog post; things have been quite busy on my end for most of November and
December, especially with all the travelling I’ve been doing. In November I
went on my first field visit, which lasted about a week and then to Singapore a
week later (this city – state will always have a place in my heart)! After that
it was two back to back field visits each a week long, so I haven’t had much
time in Hanoi. But, I am back now and finally have a couple of weeks to catch
my breath before I head off to Malaysia to spend the holidays with my family! I
am beyond excited to see them and even more so to start the New Year off with
them! Anyways, I thought I would write about one of the trips I took with work
this past month!
I am very fortunate to have been included on the field trip
to the Bac Me district of the Ha Giang province. Though the trip had to be
extended a day longer than expected (we had to stay there for eight days, when
we originally intended to stay for seven), I was thoroughly impressed with the
way the whole team from Oxfam Quebec and WARECOD staff were able to manage and
complete all planned activities and training sessions with precision and even
enthusiasm. For those of you who do not know, by the sixth day in the field,
the tiredness and exhaustion take over and you find yourself pushing through
the remainder of the time, very anxious to return home. On the bright side, since our trip was
extended, we got one day off and were able to take a lovely boat ride along the
Gam River, seeing mountains and waterfalls all the while experiencing the misty
rain splash our faces while standing on the boat deck. It was all very
wonderful.
The title of this project is Community – Led Water Resource Management. There are three phases
of this project, and so far we are in the second phase which entails
establishing “water user groups”; on this trip to Ha Giang, we established four
water user groups in the district of Bac Me. Basically, we gathered people in
four hamlets Ha Son 1, Ha Son 2, Phia Ven, and Na Pau and explained to them the
benefits of joining these groups. Water user groups comprise of dedicated
individuals of a commune that provide services to their communities, and in
return, the communities provide the groups with money to carry out these
services. The aim of this project is to build a strong reputation of these groups among community members, so that they are trusted to complete tasks for the
community with dedication and quality. Once this trust is established, the
water user groups can ask for more money and become sustainable, allowing
WARECOD and its partner Oxfam Quebec to step back.
These groups set regulations for the better use of the land
and ensure that the communities are running at the best possible quality.
WARECOD provides support to these groups by training them in proposal writing,
so that a more formal interaction can be created between the communities and
their local authorities when asking for something they need, and even provide
them with the aptitude to reach out to other NGO’s themselves to seek funding
for their projects (most NGO’s have special funds for such situations). WARECOD
also trains the members of these groups to plan the activities required to
implement a project and budget their funding to ensure all activities are
financed, but above all the aim is to empower these people and give them
ownership over improving their communities.
We are often told that giving ownership is the best way to
empower people and thus bring about development. It is the same message
portrayed by the old, yet wise saying “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to
fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime." Providing people with
knowledge and encouraging them to take responsibility for what they value gives
them ownership over those things, be
they homes, communities, or even countries. And if one has ownership over
something, their desire to preserve, protect, and enhance it is increased. Helping
with this project has certainly been a great learning opportunity and provided
some insight as to how NGO’s can help people help themselves.
Some pictures:
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| Sailing along the Gam River |
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| Gorgeous waterfalls we saw |
