08/02/2026
When our Community Development staff, consisting of two agronomists and two agriculture technicians, goes out to rural communities to supervise our volunteer community promoters or our Goat Program supervisors, they often encounter unexpected situations. Such was the case last week when they hiked high up into the mountains to a community called Comcombre. This is not one of the communities where we have our community promoters working, but it is adjacent to a promoter community. So, it’s one that we chose for expansion of our Water and Sanitation community education program. On Tuesday, our team went to Comcombre to assist the promoters with a large community educational session. They had chosen to present two topics: “How water is contaminated” and “Prevent the spread of germs by using good hygiene”. Little did they know how timely these subjects were for the community. But, they quickly found out after the presentation, as several people stood up to ask questions. It appears that, due to a recent drought, the usual water sources have dried up and a small spring came up to the surface in the middle of someone’s field. But the farmer didn’t want people coming onto his land to get water so he put up a fence to keep people out. This made them upset because they need the water to drink. They asked our team the question, “to whom does a water source belong? The person on whose land it is or the population?” The team answered that things like water and roads are the property of the government and everyone has a right to them. But, when it’s on someone’s land, like this, people need to respect the rights of the landowner and not destroy his field. So, they gave advice to mark out a path up to the source so people could get to the water, but make sure they avoid going into his fields where crops are planted.
In addition, there were some children who were playing in water above the water spring where people were gathering water to drink. Some of them yelled at the children to stay away. But, their parents got mad at those who yelled at the kids. The poster regarding water contamination proved the point that playing in water further upstream from a water source contaminates it for everyone. So, the people were justified in telling the children not to play in the water above the source. As such, the team’s visit was very timely and helped resolve significant conflicts in the community so people felt that it was extremely valuable for them. We’re grateful for our wise Community Development staff and our promoters
