What We Do

WCDP works with communities to help them find solutions to the problems they are facing. We do not presume to know the most important community development project for that community, but work with them to make that determination on their own.

We only work in communities where we have been invited and where there is an established community based organization (CBO) organized for the development of the community.

Key aspects of WCDP that set us apart from other development organizations include:

1. WCDP provides assistance only. We do not direct the communities to do a specific project, but encourage them to create a vision for their community, and consider the dreams of the individual members of the community and how those dreams can be used to benefit the individual and their community. We provide support for both the individual dreams and the realization of the community vision.

2. WCDP is dedicated to comprehensive, multi-sectoral development. While most organizations focus on one narrow sector, such as education, health care, infrastructure, business development or food resource development, WCDP incorporates all of these aspects into their programs. For example, the community may want to establish a primary school in their community. WCDP will work with them and encourage them to think beyond a simple school building and consider adding a student health clinic, a computer lab, biogas collection to provide fuel for cooking student meals, demonstration farms that provide food for the schools and serve as education and research centers for the community, libraries that serve the school and the community, vocational education services for adult learning, solar power that can service the school and the community, water sources for the school and the community, and more.

3. WCDP demands full community support and participation. By working with an established local CBO, WCDP knows that the community is already organized and enthusiastic about their own development. WCDP requires full participation of the communty in all aspects. This includes the community visioning, planning, and implementation as well as contributing materials, labor and financial support to the development of their community. Through this process, the community develops a strong sense of ownership and accountability to the success of their program. WCDP encourages the benefitting commuity to contribute 10% of the value of their project. WCDP, with the assistance of contributions from idonors and grants, provides the remaining 90%.

4. WCDP also requires the community to provide a description of how they will provide for the long term sustainabiity of the projects we assist them with. If it is a school, how they will pay for teacher and staff salaries, provide food for the students, costs of maintaining school grounds and equipment. If they have a water pump, how will they fund the upkeep of this equipment. We work with the communities to explore opportunities to do this, but encourage them to provide some initial ideas. We find that the communities generally know best how to achieve these goals.