Description

What are the real needs and priorities for the community?

To be willing to help a community by developping and financing a social project is a really nice initiative. However, it is very important to consult the future beneficiaries first : what do they really need ?

Too many times, institutions or organisations willing to help get into projects that are important to them, or that seem to be good. And then, sometimes, they realize that it doesn’t match. The people who were suppose to be the beneficiaries don’t use or do not support the project… Why throw away the available ressources for this or that project when it could have been a lot more important to finance first another one, or to have ran this one a bit differently so it can be more useful and operational on the long term.

An example to illustrate

• An organisation finance the water supply in a village to avoid women to walk half an hour to get water to the well. It seems a great idea ! Yes, but… the organisation realize later that the women are still going to the well to get water ! After long exchanges, they finally discover the reason : women like being alone (without the men) to get water to the well, outside of the village. It could have been better to know that earlier… hence the importance of consulting the community first.

If you are willing to engage yourself in a real sustainable policy, don’t only develop projects that seem good to you. It is very important to ask the community what are the most important needs and then choose from this. You will be even more useful for the community, and they will support your project a lot more.

A very sweet example of such a tourism initiative respecting this way of thinking is La Mariposa Spanish School & Eco-Hotel in Nicaragua.