Living Development

What does this look like to you?  A small tin building in the middle of a rainforest?  That's what it looks like to me, too.  But what happens inside this building is what counts.  Lives are changed within these sheet metal walls.  It's here that a group of people - mostly women - meet to discuss their futures.  They share ideas, they cultivate dreams, they band together.  This is a safe place for these women, a place where they can share their opinions - something that was unheard of two decades ago in the male-dominated culture of Bangladesh.

It's in this small tin building that a community is being built, families are being uplifted, lives are being transformed.  Microfinance takes place inside.  Borrowers meet with their bank representative, they ask questions, they discuss practices that are working and those that aren't.  They invest in their own futures by saving.

This building may not look like much, but it's where people are being empowered to take responsibility for their own futures.  In the middle of the rainforest, deep back in the community, this tin shack may not scream "economic powerhouse," but inside are the voices that matter most, the men and women who are developing ideas to transform their families and their communities.

This is where development occurs...not in Western-designed towers or food banks or white collar meetings, but in the field.  This is where the voices that matter most can be found...living development, not just discussing it.

*This piece was originally published on the Cornerstone blog - 7/16/12.