GLOBAL CITIZEN’S FORUM, Toronto, 2017

Village of Love is having a big impact under very challenging circumstances. What is the secret of their effectiveness in lifting women and children out of extreme poverty?

The recent Global Citizen’s Forum in Toronto, brought together NGO’s from several continents to explore leadership in reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) to eliminate poverty by 2030. The Forum heard from Leonora how Village of Love is contributing to the first five SDG’S: No poverty. No hunger. Health & wellbeing. Quality education. Empowerment of women.  Through Village of Love, women are becoming skilled entrepreneurs who can provide for their children, food, medicine and school.

One man asked, “How do you manage something so difficult, to work with women in a slum community?”

Leonora responded, “You have to understand the dynamics of community. You need to know how to let the women take the lead, take ownership. When the project is theirs, they sustain it themselves.”

Leonora truly understands how to build community, from the family up. Nothing that Village of Love does is on their own. The women themselves are clustered into groups of fifteen (broken into 3 groups of five). Wisdom and resources of other organisations are made full use of, from the Kenyan government down to local NGO’s and CBO’s.

The strength of Village of Love is that they do not work alone! A refreshing approach, in a world that is becoming increasingly fragmented.