Read some of the the most uplifting, life-changing stories from rural communities in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. World Neighbors-supported communities have fought against hunger, poverty and disease, and made changes in the lives of their families and communities forever.
Odira changed her family and community
Odira Dervilus, from Bayonnais, Haiti has improved the lives of her six children through the integrated training she has received from World Neighbors.
"Before I was in the women’s group, I didn't know how to manage something, but now I know techniques for planting trees, storing corn; every week I go to the health community center. That's where I learned how to pick leaves for tea, I got advice on preventing malnutrition, birth control, it spoke to the whole family. I get along well with my husband and we make decisions together. Inside the organization there is credit for women, and that credit activity allowed me to do commerce to help with the kids. I buy chickens which produce others that I sell. Awhile ago I borrowed money to pay the kids school without problem."
The change wasn't only in Odira's family, but for their entire community. The roads and paths were in bad shape with the mud making it difficult for people to walk.
"Today the locale's face has changed. I can walk around easily, I see plantains and cassava planted, springs are capped, and people have cisterns to water gardens and serve households."
Odira remembers a time when she was pregnant and only had three measures of corn to eat during her pregnancy and while nursing. “In that time the misery was hard, but now I have plantains, papaya, beans, corn and rice; I have beans to store."
Odira does not want her own children or the other children in her community to experience the difficult life she had. Through her participation in the group, she is making positive changes in the well-being of her community and she continues to want more improvements, “I would like to see the community have a hospital and a good market where people aren't sitting in the sun and on garbage."
Sikandar forfeits foreign job for farming
Sikandar Chaudhary from the village of Haripur in the Terai Region of Nepal, was fed up with using chemical fertilizers and pesticides on his farm.
"I used to waste at least NRs. 9,000 ($120 USD) every year on fertilizers, but still my agricultural yield was declining,” he remembers.
Whatever he grew in his fields wasn’t sufficient to feed his family for the entire year. He also couldn’t afford to send his children to school and his dream to renovate his old, small house remained unfulfilled.
He tried to travel to Malaysia for foreign employment, but he was unable to do so due to financial constraints. Sikandar had to give up a section of his land to the local merchant of his village when he couldn’t pay back the money he had borrowed.
When Sikandar joined a savings and credit group initiated in his village by World Neighbors partner RWUA, he received trainings on agro-forestry, livestock urine collection, vermi-composting among others. When Sikandar started agro-forestry on his land, he realized that he didn’t need to walk all the way to the forest to collect fodder for his animals anymore, allowing him to invest in more animals.
 He starting vermi-composting which gradually allowed him to reduce his use of chemical fertilizers in his fields, eventually discarding them altogether. He soon become a renowned producer of vermi-compost in the village and is making a profit by selling it. When he started to collect livestock urine and apply it on his farm, he discovered that it boosted his agricultural production even further.
Sikandar also started a vegetable garden purely for commercial purposes. Today, he grows cabbages, potatoes, tomatoes and other vegetables which he sells in the local market.
With his new sources of income, he has been able to provide his family with better health care, send his children to private schools, and renovated his house. With his sufficient income, Sikandar no longer feels that he has to go to a foreign land to find work. "Thanks to World Neighbors and RWUA, I have managed to make a decent living in my own country.”
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