Compassion programs in Bangladesh and Nepal

I know I sort of dropped off about blogging on my trip to South Asia last October, but there was one thing I wanted to be sure to tell you about.

I had the opportunity to visit a variety of compassionate ministry projects in action that are funded through your giving to Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (ncm.org). I'd read about a lot of these ministries but to see them on the ground and the real people who are positively affected was really cool.

For background, many of NCM's projects are run through local churches and volunteers or employees out of local churches. This means that the church is the center and the driver of any activity designed to lift people out of poverty. The church helps the people in its village and surrounding villages with no strings attached -- no one is forced to go to church and they don't have to be a Christian or convert. In fact, many of the people who are participants in the projects are adherents to other religions. At the same time, spiritual teaching may sometimes be offered in conjunction with a project, but it's not forced on anyone. These projects are conducted entirely on the motive of love for fellow man and a desire to improve their lives holistically -- relationally, physically, spiritually and emotionally.

First of all, there is something called a compost project. I saw several of these in rural villages in the south of Bangladesh. Local churches teach people how to dig a square-shaped hole in the ground and then fill the pits with the dung from the many cows that are present in the village. The material turns into compost that can be used as fertilizer to make their crops more abundant and healthy.

Here's a picture of a woman with her compost pit.

Another type of project is a fish pond. Since meat from cows and chickens is probably very expensive and limited, people in Bangladesh eat a lot of fish. NCM projects enable people to dig ponds and fill them with fish, which multiply and become plentiful. It's easy enough to cast nets or fish with a stick and string and hook to harvest the fish and sell them for a profit which enables the owners to buy things they need. They can also eat them for a source of inexpensive protein.

In one project, a family is growing mahogany trees, a very expensive type of tree because the wood is very precious around the world for building furniture and knick knacks. This is a long-term project because the trees will have to grow for many years before they can be harvested.

A seed project is when NCM provides a small scale farming family with seeds or seedlings which they can plant and nurture until they're ready to harvest. From the harvest the family will collect new seeds, as well as sell some of the vegetables for project and eat the rest of the harvest. This creates long-term sustainable living for a family, who may share the new seeds with neighbors who can then reproduce the project on their own land. Here's a property in Nepal where many of the crops are from such a seed project.

The last project, which may be my favorite because I am a big fan of entrepreneurism: Self-help groups. Groups of women and teenage girls band together to save small bits of cash that they have and pool their savings as a group until they have enough to pay out a loan to one of the group members. The one receiving the loan uses it to buy materials to start a small business. With the profits from the business, the woman pays back to the loan to the group, who are still saving, and in turn they give out more loans to group members. Together, they work toward raising themselves and their families out of poverty.

The woman in this picture used her loan to buy a sewing machine and materials to make clothes which she can then sell as her own small business.

The man in this picture started a small snack shop with the loan his wife took out from the group, and together they are building their small business through his wife's entrepreneurism. Although some of the men in the village were derisive of a woman getting into business, this man said he was really proud of his wife for her hard work and business-mind and how she was providing for their family. He defended her from some of the men's criticism, which I thought was really cool.

Another major initiative of NCM is to establish child development centers (CDC). These are small educational centers where village children can come to learn spiritual truth, but also basic hygiene, and to be educated if they cannot go to a regular school -- so they might learn math, reading, English, and other basic skills. They sing songs and also play together and maybe get a hot meal or snack. Some of these CDCs are supplemental to the education the children are already getting, so they might get up at 5:30 a.m. and go to the CDC from 6 to 7 before school, or they might go to the CDC after school. Many of the children are able to participate in CDCs because of people like you who sponsor them for about $25 a month. We visited several CDCs and got to see how happy and energetic the children were.

All in all, I was very impressed with meeting all the individuals who are participating in these NCM projects. The biggest thing I noticed was how full of hope they were. They believed that by doing their part in these projects, they could improve their lives and provide for their families in better ways. They could see a way up from their previous circumstances. I have always respected how NCM operates and the vision that it has, as well as the care it takes to do only good and not harm in the way it conducts its social enterprises. But my respect only deepened after seeing the projects and the people for myself.

I also really enjoyed the chance to just chat (through a translator) with the women in the self-help groups, who had loads of questions. We asked each other what we like to eat in our own cultures, what our husbands are like, and just normal things about daily life. They were simply charming and I was sorry that I couldn't spend a few days with them, instead of a few hours.