Asali’s Approach: What is Community-Driven Development?
The driving force behind the founding of Asali, and a tenet that we continue to hold to, is the Community-Driven Development approach. People often ask, “What is community-driven development?” It is a simple enough concept, but can often make or break the ability of an NGO to achieve sustainability and true change. Globalgiving.org defines Community-Driven Development as “a grassroots approach to development in which the locus of power is shifted to community groups to make decisions around how development resources are allocated.” At Asali, our partnerships are fostered based on this model, with some hallmarks of our vision being:
Identifying organizations with sustainable, youth-focused community development programming
Supporting local leadership to establish true collaboration and trust-based partnerships
Allowing community members to identify their needs and collaborate on/participate in solutions
This model is in contrast to more prescriptive, foreign-led nonprofit work which can be exploitative, fail to empower local people, or lack the community buy-in required to ensure the success of any project.
Organizations that are community-driven often lack resources and must shift their focus and the work that they are doing to fit what their international funders want to support. Donations can be restricted to specific causes, decided on by donors thousands of miles away. If you think of your own community or the place where you grew up, who do you believe knows the needs of that community best? To us, it will always be the people who live there, understand the culture, and know the subtleties and intricacies of their own homes. At Asali, we’re so proud of the partnership we’ve built with Simba’s Footprints. The Simba’s team has taken their vision to the next level in improving the lives of so many children and families in their Majengo community.
Recently we have begun the process of evaluating opportunities for new partnerships and can’t wait to connect with more local leaders and support their visions.
A Graduate Without Borders
We are so proud of one of Asali’s co-founders, Sophie Zeif. Check out this article from the MGH Institute of Health Professions! Read the full article, A Graduate Without Borders here.
Monthly donor program: We want to extend a special thank you to our monthly donors! As a donor-funded organization, having consistent support is invaluable. It ensures the long-term success of our partners, helps us better budget for our activities, and builds accurate yearly operating budgets for Asali and our partners. So, whether it's five dollars or 25, we ask you to consider becoming a monthly donor!
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Love and Honey,
The Asali Bees (Margot, Sophie, Amy, Pam, Charlotte and Margaret)