Aspirations

As you read these blog posts you get my perspective of our attempt to create sustainable jobs among low-income communities.  But what do others think?

About thirty villagers participate directly in the dried fruit enterprise, which we have developed in stages over the past five years.  Recently, my field manager interviewed several of them to solicit feedback about our efforts.  Here are some of their comments:

Partiyem, age 37, married female - "The wages give me money for my children's school."   "I hope that production continues so that more people can work."

Gunawan, age 26, single male - "I'm glad that I can have daily work."  "I hope that we can process more types of fruit."

Yatini, age 39, married female - "I'm glad to get money that meets our daily needs."  "I'd like to work here every day throughout the year, not just during mango season."

Jemu, age 48, married male - "I'm glad that this program helps the community by creating jobs and by generating favor from the local Agricultural office."  "I hope we can make the production run throughout the year."

These are the testimonies of those who have become beneficiaries of our particular approach to build people to build a nation.  All of these people earn income that is less than $120 per month.  All of them have participated with us for more than three years and have seen their income double during the time that we are in production.  And all of them hope that our fruit drying enterprise results in sustainability, expansion and broadened impact.  

What's in a bag of Java Bite dried mangos? . . . aspirations for a better life!