By Karen Alford
I recently facilitated a townhall meeting in a pilot village for the community health program we want to start. We are using Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) methodology, which means we trust them to know what is best for their village and to come up with the best solutions. It is a very empowering method. We invited the villagers to make a list of all the health problems in their village. They then voted on the top three issues they felt were important to address right now. Then we divided them into groups and facilitated discussion on the causes and solutions for these issues. All the ideas came from the villagers themselves. We then discussed what resources within the village itself could be used to implement these solutions and which ones would require outside assistance. It was exciting to see how enthusiastic they were and how excited themselves to come up with the solutions.