Sustainability depends on the entire community being involved.

In a recent development we met with the community in Sicambeni and discussed the way forward as a joint project and not something that we, as volunteers, could make a decision about unilaterally.

There was a consensus about the positive results of the joint project so far and there were also some crucial questions asked by community members that we were able to answer and build further ties between volunteers and community members.

One of these was the question of where the community centre will be built, to which I answered that the community must decide on the site and then we’ll build it together.

There were some other moments of community and volunteer bonding when we were granted the use of some of the natural resources including the dam.

The end result of a small meeting like this is a giant leap forward with everybody involved aware of what others are doing, what has been achieved so far and where the community as a whole is heading towards.

This crucial concept of including everyone concerned within community decision making is paramount and something we are going to keep building on.