wfn.org | Sustainable Options for Poor Communities

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
E-mail: news@ncccusa.org; Web: www.ncccusa.org

NCC4/21/99  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

See Main Story: "Searching for New Options for Latin 
America's Poor"

DEVELOPMENT CASE STUDY: BOLIVIAN VILLAGE'S LESSON FOR NGOS
By Paul Jeffrey*

 TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Church-related development 
experts meeting here April 6-12 heard a series of case 
studies, including one on how lessons learned in one 
Bolivian village changed a non-governmental organization's 
working relationship with the poor.

 Victor Ortu¤o, a development specialist with the NGO 
Tukuypaj, told participants how his organization began a 
project in the village of Sapanani in 1993. The project 
trained villagers how to raise trout in artificial lagoons 
that community members constructed. Ortu¤o said trout fetch 
a high price in local markets, and the community could have 
realized a significant profit on their investment. "Yet 
against all our mercantilist expectations, which normally 
prevail in this type of project, the villagers made the 
decision to consume the trout themselves," reported Ortu¤o. 
"They decided that rather then sell it they would feed it to 
their families."

 Ortu¤o said it was the women in the community who made 
the decision. "They are the ones who care for the children, 
who wanted something other than carbohydrates in their 
children's diets," he said. "So they set up a feeding center 
for school kids which got most of the harvested trout."

 Ortu¤o said the experience in Sapanani helped his 
organization rethink its approach to development. "This was 
a sound project that identified and utilized local 
resources, that needed few outside materials, that the 
community was capable of carrying out," Ortu¤o said. "But 
they turned out to have a different conception of how they 
could benefit. We had thought of projects as successful when 
there was an economic return, yet when projects really 
originate from the grassroots they are often different, as 
the poor aren't as interested in making money as in 
improving the quality of life for their families and their 
children. 

 "The people of Sapanani helped us develop a new 
perspective on development. The error of many organizations 
is that we define development from our own point of view 
without really hearing what people at the grassroots are 
saying to us."

 The Sapanani project was self-sufficient in less than 
three years, and Tukuypaj has started similar trout-raising 
projects in eight other communities nearby. All are 
successful, largely because of the lessons learned in 
Sapanani. "We've realized that we can break out of the 
traditional dependency model we too often have maintained as 
institutions," Ortu¤o said. "In this and other projects 
we've come to learn that the poor can achieve in a 
relatively short time the successful management of effective 
programs. Our role is to foment that, which we can do well 
if our main priority is the life of the people in the 
communities, not the survival of the institutions where we 
work."

 The April 6-12 gathering, sponsored by Church World 
Service - the relief, development and refugee assistance 
ministry of the (U.S.) National Council of Churches -- 
brought together 26 people from 11 countries throughout the 
region. They shared their own experiences, visited several 
projects in rural Honduras, and plotted new strategies they 
hope will help improve the lives of the poor whom they 
serve.

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* Paul Jeffrey is a United Methodist missionary in Central 
America.
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