One Can Make a Difference

This book is about the process of rural development in the Less Developed Countries (LDCs) in the world. The first section describes the realities of world poverty, to make concrete what is now generally abstract, to bring these realities of sickness and disease, illiteracy and fatalism, malnutrition and passivity, violence and political instability to the Western World's consciousness. The second section presents a three stage process of rural development, with a set of six case studies which outline how single individuals have sought to implement programs and projects to benefit the rural areas of their respective countries, and finally to outline a set of lessons learned about how such people have been able to 'Make a Difference.' The third section introduces to the reader the process by which one might become a rural development facilitator (RDF). The fourth section presents field-tested programs, strategies, approaches and action step interventions in various activities of the five dimensions of rural development in health, literacy, income generation, environment protection, and local culture enhancenment. Further attention is given to the fact that the rural development facilitators that will make a difference must have the commitment, the cultural sensitivity, the social awareness, and field experience needed to help people help themselves, but also the specific information, knowledge, and competency in areas of interest and relevancy to villagers themselves. One of the interesting dilemmas of this work of village development is finding a balance between the acquiring experience and the necessary training and skills.