Message from the Board

Welcome to our third newsletter and annual report. Once again, we share stories of what families and children have accomplished with our partners in East Africa and Southeast Asia during the last quarter.

We will peek at our framework, which will be the lens we look through as we plan 2017, and we will introduce the new software tools that Michael and Sam have been preparing.  Both tools will help increase our efficiency and effectiveness when collaborating with our partners to assist families and children.

The stories that can be read at http://betterlives.org/blog/ tell of successes at the following stages along the path to food and income to self-reliance:

Accessing Resources – Communities implementing water systems in Tanzania near Mt. Kilimanjaro and in Uganda near Kampala tell stories from overcoming electrical outage and damage to an installation, to the benefits of maintaining a book keeping ledger. Read more…

Applying Knowledge – Our partner in Uganda tells of how young Isaac applied the knowledge he observed to start a vegetable garden of his own.  A young man with initiative!  Read more …

Strengthening Health – Our partner’s employee Elias in Tanzania’s Ngara district is building a home for his family so that their future children will grow up healthy. Read more …

Earning Income – In Cambodia’s western city of Battambang we learn how a family fattened pigs for the country’s second largest religious holiday of the year called Pchun Ben. The income earned was invested in their three children’s school fees, and materials to build a cow shed. Read more …

Improving Home – In Cambodia near the World Heritage site of Angkor Wat we read of a family renting-to-own their home with land that supports a vegetable garden and livestock. Read more …

Enhancing Education – In Western Tanzania’s Ngara district, students at Mukibogoye Primary School are close to completing the second phase of implementing their grow-your-own school breakfast program. Read more …

These successes represent stages on the path to self-reliance, which is part of our framework that can be read at www.betterlives.org/framework.  It describes what we do and why in the form of our Mission, Core Values and Methodology.  In summary, our Framework comprises:

Our Mission – to help families achieve sustainable food and income self-reliance so that their children can grow up healthy, educated and trained to earn an income that will support happy families of their own.

Our Core Values – are grouped as Support, Spirit, Skill and Success. Values help family members consider what to prioritize when making important decisions today that will impact their future.

Our Methodology –
– Our Approach is collaborative and holistic so that the families can sustain solutions for self-reliance.
– Path to Self-Reliance has six stages leading to food and income self-reliance.
– Sustainable Solutions deliver predictable value that can be continuously improved and sustained.

We will be using software tools to plan, implement, track and report the training and assistance that our partners will be providing to families, schools and children.  Michael has been focusing on implementing Salesforce.com and Taroworks, which together will enable us to deliver training and track the effectiveness of mentoring, and families’ progress along the Path to Self-Reliance.

Sam has been streamlining our Web site making it even more easy and enjoyable for you to read about families’ progress along their Path to Self-Reliance.

We are very grateful to everyone who has supported our partners’ efforts this year.  The WFCF private foundation funds all our administrative costs, so every donated cent goes directly to implementing solutions for self-reliance in the field.

For the Holiday Season we have added a Gift Card feature to our website. If you are inclined to help families move towards food and income self-reliance, Gift Cards give you the opportunity to share that experience with a loved one. Any donation made on behalf of a friend during this giving season will be very much appreciated by us, our local partners and the families and children who will benefit.

We wish you a very happy holidays and coming year.  Thank you.

Better Lives Gift Cards are at http://betterlives.org/holiday-gifting/

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