Subsequent to the successful setup of Community Development Clubs (CDCs) in 15 chosen villages as project sites of the Community and Economic Development for Livelihood Improvement Project (CEDLIP), the monthly meetings in each club have been organized in regular basis. Content of these meetings ranges from introducing the new project to all club members to provoking discussion on a variety of thematic topics concerning living. Most urgent matters which are often raised in opinions involve water and hygiene sanitation such as lack of clean water, latrine, water tank, cattle shed replacement, etc. Local people are recognizing their traditional practices might create huge impacts on their health and quality of life, and that learning to make better conditions will enormously benefit the next generations. The meetings of CDCs stir up more thoughts and ignite actions among community members.
Also, club members participating in monthly meetings are encouraged to improve the situation of public goods through collaborative works. Local people start seeing the need to upgrade broken or severely damaged infrastructure and the fact that they are the actors who can actively solve the issue. The ADRA project aims at this objective, to demolish the mentality of dependency that often remains in a majority of ethnic minority people.
Last month – June of 2015, 15 Community Development Clubs brought Community Initiatives into the discussion of their members. The management boards of the clubs led the sharing and ensured all voices are heard. Before the meetings, 44 members of these management boards participated in specialized training session on identifying community needs and writing the initiative proposals. In the coming time, the CDC leaders would work on the proposal for their village and submit to the CEDLIP project. The initiative proposal which is approved by the project will receive a grant of 25 million VND. With the contribution in cash and in kind of the people, the village will start to implement the initiative at the earliest.
