This is really the base of all our work - where it all began!
The idea is simply to collect donations and then distribute them to community projects, that serve relief and development to the poor, enabling them to focus more on "developmental" as opposed to "survivalist" programs.
Collections include: Food (mostly from local supporting stores), clothing, household furniture/appliances, school supplies, building material, etc, etc, etc . . .
Community projects are identified and assessed according to predetermined criteria - basically projects should do more than just feeding and have some level of accountability. Their level of need is then assessed and donations are then distrubuted on an as-needed and as-available basis.
We currently currently have 23 projects on our list, but unfortunately due to the rise in food and fuel prices over the past few years, we have not been able to support them all.
This may be the ground level of our work but suffers the most from highs and lows and is the most difficult to fund as it is not very easy to determine the exact depth of impact and "level of return" which larger donors look for.
Having said that, it remains the most critical element in developmental work in poor communities including our own community development project, the Ubomi Obutsha Centre.
The pictures below tell the story . . .
"If we can alleviate the daily need for survival, people can begin to focus on developing their lives."
