Outreach’s expansion into Nepal has brought 10 new members into the Outreach family. Each is highly qualified, fully committed, and superhumanly motivated to apply The Outreach Process in communities throughout their home country.
The following quotes from the Nepal staff were collected at the conclusion of their first intensive round of training to become what we call “HDFs”, or Human Development Facilitators. “HDF” is our internal shorthand term for the position to which we frequently refer to as “field staff” or just “facilitators” in our public-facing materials for the sake of clarity.
HDFs are an absolutely essential component of The Outreach Process. None of what we do would work at all without every one of our dedicated HDFs immersing themselves in our partner communities to raise residents’ consciousness about their ability to lift themselves out of poverty, then work alongside them as teammates, turning goals into plans, and plans into action.
If you’re anything like us here at Outreach HQ, what follows will make you swoon.
Thoughts on the Outreach Process
Reshab: “[The Outreach Process] is totally different than other nonprofits’ approach. Outreach’s approach is quite different… it’s deeper.”
Sanu: “I am pleased to have an opportunity to participate in training [to apply The Outreach Process] in Nepal. I’ve learned how empowering it is for communities, and know that to reduce poverty, I will need to work hard and be patient.”
Niru: I’ve gained an awareness of the difference between facilitation and leadership. I’m a facilitator, and our community partners are the leaders of their own success.
Riddina: “Before training [on The Outreach Process], I thought our roles with Outreach Nepal would be to conduct surveys and train people in poor communities. I’ve since learned that it’s the community members themselves — their participation that solves issues, and that our role is to act as facilitators for that participation. When the people participate, their results are sustainable.”
Milan: “We’re not different from people in these communities, so it’s important not to keep ourselves separate. We need to eat with them, work alongside them, and understand them through our respect for and acceptance of their culture. We need to truly know them as people as we remain patient, committed, and always mindful of our mission.”
Shanti: “Our team, working as one, has the collective ability to achieve all our goals and objectives. It’s this shared effort that makes [The Outreach Process] possible, effective, and sustainable.”
Sanu:“Issues related to poverty cause people to suffer. Those issues have causes. Dialogue between members of Outreach Nepal and our community partners identifies and analyzes issues and their causes, and an exchange of knowledge and experiences between both sides leads to solutions.”
Riddina: “This work is not about us, so when we enter a community, we need to leave things like status, educational level, and pride behind, focusing on our objectives and treating community partners with great respect and patience.”
Reshab: “I used to think like other nonprofits — that hand-outs make people happy. Now I know that what I can give is my time, attention and energy, with a goal of release from poverty, instead of relief from poverty.”
Lumanti: “I’ve changed a lot since I started training to work with Outreach Nepal. I used to evaluate the outer appearance of things, the surface level, but now I see the depth of problems, as well as the level of personal investment required to solve them.”
See? Lovely, amazing people, everywhere you look. We’re so excited to have them as members of the Outreach family, and can’t wait to share more news of their efforts with you in the coming months and years.
For now, you can get up to speed on how Outreach and Nepal got acquainted, and the exciting things we’re planning together by going here to read our feature article in this year’s Annual Report.
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