The River Code

The River Code-

Women for Change uses this philosophy to help rural communities. It a basic philosophy, that has significantly improved lives for over 600 000 people in the rural areas of Zambia.

When WFC approaches communities that need help, they will sit down with leadership, and discuss how Women for Change can provide skills to help the people in rural communities.

They sit with the chiefs and explain the River Code, WFC shows them a picture, it’s a picture with someone carrying someone on their back, and then the other picture, it shows two people helping each other. These two scenarios both have the obstacle to cross the river.

Women for Change says we will not carry you across the river, but we will HELP YOU HELP YOURSELF to get across that river. It is then up to the community to decide if they want the help with tools for sustainability or to continue to receive “Hand-outs” or food rations.

It’s a simple and easy concept, but small rural communities have denied Women for Change’s help. Other communities have embraced Women for Change’s gift of capacity building.

Ill share one little success story with you. Communities that once were starving, now have grain storage structures to store food. A surplus of food; That is Amazing!

People in the rural villages already know that receiving hand-outs from the government only creates a dependency trap. They are in some of the most remote places in the World, and even they know that getting money from the government isn’t sustainable.

Now the question is, how do we apply this thinking to a young generation of youth on income support in our own first nation communities?

This is why I moved to Zambia; to find the answers. This is why I have absorbed myself in a culture 15 000 km away from my Momma and my Daddio, all my brothers and sisters, my boyfriend, my cat, my best friends, my whole entire support system and every familiar face.

 I see the bigger picture and want to encourage people in First Nations communities to really live. Not to wake up and have to deal with life but to live life. I want to see First Nations change their lifestyle during the course of my lifetime. I want Indigenous people to really live and enjoy life and not struggle from one welfare cheque to the next.

I am not asking you to follow my dream, but to follow yours whatever it may be. Mine was to travel the world and find new places to discover. Mine was to learn about Indigenous people world-wide and leave a light footprint everywhere I travelled.

I’ve left my hand prints at the school I helped build in Fiji, I have hiked up a mountain where the local people have never seen a foreigner, I moved to Zambia and have walked in the shoes in some of the poorest people. I have been on a safari. I have helped change the World <3

This is living for ME. I want to encourage you to live for YOU!