From Lindsey: This is a guest post from my friend Daniel C. White, part of the Food for the Hungry team currently with me in Bangladesh. I wanted him to tell you a little bit about who we are and what we’re doing here. Who? I’m Daniel C White, and I am a part of the Food for the Hungry Artist & Speakers Program out of Nashville, TN. I’m currently writing from Dhaka, Bangladesh, where I sit in a room full of some pretty amazing people that are currently processing what they’ve seen so far this week as they begin to write. We’re all writing about our experiences here in Bangladesh online and the work of FH in Bangladesh and the need around the world. These fine people that I walk with half way across the globe are the FH Bloggers (follow our journey on twitter #fhbloggers). History As I sat down this week with my fellow bloggers at a local school in Bangladesh for a quick devotion, we learned we were sitting in a small room with one of the lowest caste groups in the area. This caste derived from southern India, dated back to the years of Ghandi. They were called the “Dolits” or “The Untouchables.” These were the lowest of the low, living in the middle of the city of Dhaka in what we would call a slum. These are the most vulnerable. We began to read through scripture with a hand-full of teachers of the school, most which have been students at the school themselves. Not only that, but four of the young men and the Head Master were also sponsored children from years past through FH. Without the inspiration and finances that child sponsorship brings, we would not have been able to build the school in the middle of this slum. The Work The unique story that caught my eye on this morning was that FH typically works in communities where we partner and walk with the community leaders by helping with all aspects of community development. Our goal at at FH is to always graduate the program within 10 – 12 years and to leave the people we’re walking with fully self-sustainable so they can walk on their own. This community is truly unique. Food for the Hungry has been working here since 1981. This picture to the left shows what it looked like at that time when development models looked very different. So our work here looks a little different than in newer communities where we walk alongside community leaders to help with all aspects of development including health, livelihood, education, and disaster relief. We hope to empower and then exit a community in about 10 years. Here we initially focused primarily on education, running a school for the “untouchable” kids. The big success with the work in this community is that this year FH will be handing over the school and the work fully to the Dolit community, as they are ready [...]
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