An entire village is transformed as families are lifted out of poverty

Deborah, a Raising Families’ church volunteer, shares about the transformation her community has experienced.

Ekukhanyeni has always been an area where the community wanted to help itself. The greatest challenge was that we did know how to do this. We had no understanding of the hidden resources that God had placed within our community and only saw ourselves as very poor and destitute.

Most of the community ladies have never gone to school, and the men who have attended school usually drop-out due to a lack funds from their parents. We are challenged by HIV in our area, and our schools suffer a lot. We have many orphans and child led homes. There is a big lack of health care facilities especially for the children.

It wasn’t until our community experienced the impact of Raising Families that we realised the potential within ourselves. There is now a great awareness of most of the resources we have in our community. People are now starting to utilize these resources and are now taking more pride in their livestock and land. We have learned so much already through Raising Families and we now encourage our youth to take school and opportunities to make a living seriously.

Through our church, we have begun to do a lot of self-help projects, which we use to teach the poor and the destitute. This help that we give has done a lot in the spiritual growth of many people who used to view church as a waste of time. Now, people are curious and they come to our church to see how families are being helped.

We have been given the opportunity to learn from many specialists who have taught us how to manage our resources well. We started a fish project and a piggery that is doing very well. Many members of the community have come to see with disbelief what can be achieved when you allow God to help you apply your mind to something. The ministry of agriculture sends people to our house to see how to raise pigs and rear fish.

I never dreamed that this would ever happen. Families who have been lifted out of poverty are pouring their resources into helping one another. Our community is growing stronger each day as more and more families are moving out of poverty.