Some Challenges of World Renew's Work with Communities in Asia

Dear Friends: Sometimes missionary newsletters make it sound like it’s all success. In this letter, I’d like to share with you some of the challenges we—and the communities we work with—face in Asia.

Challenge: Stunting in Children – One of the most heart-touching challenges may be the stunting of children. In India, Bangladesh, and Laos when we measure the height and weight of children and compare that to standard growth charts, we find that 30 to 40 percent of children under five years are stunted. Recently we have learned that this stunting occurs mostly before the children complete their second year of life, and that a lot of it happens when there is inadequate food after weaning. The most difficult part of addressing this challenge is that most moms and dads are not even aware that there is a problem—it’s one that’s hidden to them. So, CRWRC begins working with these families to build awareness and find options. One of the more promising approaches is to find moms whose kids are among the 60 percent who are not stunted and convince them to share the practices they use that are growing healthier kids within the same communities. Another option could be to incorporate high protein crops that can provide post-weaning food in the way that grain amaranth has done in Uganda and Kenya.

Challenge: Worn Out Soil and Many People to Feed – The warm climate and good rainfall in a lot of Asia support a lot of people, but CRWRC’s work here is not with the many who benefit from them. Rather, CRWRC works with those whose lands are wearing out and their weary soil has become part of their poverty. Many families run out of crops to eat only five or six months after the harvest and then have to find outside work to survive. One of the options we are working on with the farmers is to copy one of the ways that soils are restored in nature—nitrogen-fixing legumes. It does not work as fast as chemical fertilizer and takes some extra labor, but it does work and it’s a sustainable practice. I’m glad that we now have farmers in Bangladesh, Laos, and Cambodia who are trying out different legume cover crop species to test the “fit” with their ways of farming.

Challenge: Education – In every country, it’s a sad fact that the children of the poor get the poorest education. In Laos, CRWRC is working with communities to meet that challenge in places where there have never been any schools at all. We are joining with these communities to build very basic primary schools. The teachers have to be willing to live and teach in tough conditions at low pay, with almost no educational materials. But we see these teachers going even further, being willing to teach those kids who are too old to start primary school, in the early morning or late nights. We see parents supporting their girls and boys by encouraging them to be brave to learn.

In Bangladesh, we see communities where parents have gained strength from the self-reliant saving-lending groups CRWRC helped them to organize. Now, some have joined parents together to create their own schools and hire their own teachers, to make sure they actually teach well—because they were weary of their children getting a poor education just because they were poor!

I feel that the Lord put us here to work on these challenges. If these are challenges you and perhaps your friends feel compelled to support—please join with us in prayer and financial support.

Grace and Peace,