For many people around the world, poverty is not only a financial state of being but also a trap. Thankfully, your support of ADRA is helping people escape from that trap. This is the case with Charlse in Uganda.

While participating in ADRA’s TOGETHER project, Charlse was challenged with this proposition: “Change must start with you!” This idea was presented to him as part of TOGETHER’s “Community-led Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (CoLMEAL) methodology. This methodology enables local communities to identify and address their own problems with their own sustainable solutions.

Charlse took what he learned from these sessions and implemented the strategy he learned in his own household. His family made a list of all their problems, determining that the root of each problem was poverty itself. They strategized a way to begin working their way out, and settled on using the land around the home for farming. Armed with skills learned from ADRA”s CoLMEAL program, the family began growing cassava and millet for their own consumption, and sunflowers for sale.

The change of perspective from growing food merely to survive to growing food commercially has made a huge difference. One child in the family upgraded to attending a better boarding school, while another child who had dropped out entirely has been re-enrolled. Thanks in part to your support, the family is now working towards buying cows, an ox plow, and even a motorcycle for running business errands. The family has a new perspective on their situation that is helping them escape the trap of poverty.

Your support for ADRA has not only helped Charlse and his family in Uganda, but numerous other people in Cambodia, Kenya, and the Philippines. Thank you for making a difference!