Training for Transformation/ Action for health and development (TfT / ASADECO) Democratic Republic of Congo

1. What people believe (worldview) profoundly influences health and development. Assumptions:

2. The world is physical and spiritual. Each dimension has an important influence on health and behavior.

3. Beliefs are rooted in culture, and significantly influence behavior « ideas have consequences »

4. A relationship with the biblical God, and knowing God, produce value and behavior changes in a society, changes which favor health and development.

Nuts and bolts

Beginning: Explore the community with the community. Who are we? How do we define our needs? What resources are ours?

A group of volunteers: people who care about their community

Training: begins with the Word. Who is God? What are God’s characteristics. Do I have a relationship with God? How does God want me to live – in my family, in my community, in my environment?

Surveying the community: a “snapshot” of who we are.

Analysing the data and observations …. To decide on priorities and resources available for a solution.

Childhood malnutrition - a priority problem in one community  Training about nutrition follows as actions within the community are planned.

 For solutions to be sustainable, they must have 4 cardinal points:  Of the community  By the community  For the community  In the community Seeking community based solutions

Breastfeeding: Do it exclusively for 6 months and increase a baby’s survival by 18%. Free, natural, local. Get the word out!

Kitchen gardens: easily grown, locally adapted, nutritious vegetables, enhance food sustainability for poor people. Children in families with a small garden plot eat better.

Moringa: the tree of life. Even in the city, everyone can plant a moringa tree in the yard.

Malaria compromises the nutritional status of young children. Insecticide impregnated bed nets protect children. A community initiative to obtain, promote, and distribute bed nets at cost.

Weight is an easily obtained, sensitive indicator of the nutritional status of children under 5 years of age.

Community volunteers learn to weigh neighborhood children monthly. Is their weight increasing? Stable? Or decreasing?

Follow up home visits, where children are not thriving, offer the opportunity for building relationships, prayer, nutritional counsel, and sharing Good News.

Neighbors visiting neighbors reach the very heart of the city with the good news of Jesus Christ and lives are transformed.

Thank you! For your gifts and your prayers: To support these projects: Give to ECO # AIDS Crisis Overseas