Meet

Meet Yotum Kalumba

Yotum Kalumba

Village headman, MAKULENJE HAMLET, Malawi

For 10 years, Yotum Kalumba has been headman of a hamlet of about 50 households in rural Malawi. While he has only a 5th-grade education, he hopes to keep his five children
in school as long as possible.

In part because of Yotum’s efforts, our Chadika Community Development Project was recognized in 2011 for being a model of fiscal responsibility and transparency. Through a holistic program that includes cooperative food gardens, home-based care training, and youth group-based education, Chadika aims to be self-sustaining in a matter of years.

How F2F is Different

Girls on Norry Train

The core members of a vocational craft training program for HIV+ people take a moment to enjoy a short ride on the bamboo Norry train outside of Battambang, Cambodia

At F2F, our goal is not to superimpose our own ideas about what makes a good life onto other people. We try to make sure we’re really listening to the people we work with.

Just as importantly, we constantly question what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and how our projects will prepare the communities we are working in for the future.

Our goal is to help each impoverished community we work in become a place where their residents really want to live their lives. A place where our help and advice is no longer needed. And this may not mean it becomes a place more like our own communities. This we always try to remember.

By working with our hearts and ears open, we’ve learned key lessons on how we believe charity works best:

Smaller Grants = Bigger Payoffs

Money flowing into places where people have no money can lead to jealousy, mistrust, and corruption. Smaller grants can make it easier for communities to achieve the goal of sustainability and then wean themselves off charity.

Trust is More Precious Than Money

Trust is the cornerstone of success for programs aimed at nurturing fundamental change. And because trust is fragile, we know we must not make promises that we can’t keep.

 Education May Need to Be Step Two

It’s not feasible to build a school in every village. Education is a vehicle for learning, much like cars are vehicles for travel. Before you introduce cars, you need roads. Before you bring education, you must prepare the community to handle grants and take ownership for their projects.