Mano River Union Countries
Mano River Union Rural Communities
Rural communities of Manor River Union Countries are endowed with a wealth of untapped resources, including land and touristic sceneries; forests of botanical values; mineral resources such as gold and diamonds; water ways and rains; and a rich potential of human resources.
The irony is in the fact that in spite of this vast resource potential in rural communities, they live in abject poverty and situations of deprivation and destitution largely due to bad public policies and fiscal indiscipline. . Rural people lack access to preventable health and educational information; exposed to poor and inadequate health and educational facilities, and are therefore vulnerable to all kinds of diseases. Interventions to transform their situations are virtually imposed on them and are not designed to deliver durable solutions. It is a matter of development from without the people due to political overplays. Across the region, communities are lift with dead projects undertaken by politicians..
The Opportunities
The opportunity in rural communities is the increase of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) undertaking diverse initiatives to realize social change outcomes and improve standards of living in rural communities. This reality validates that rural community peoples place high values on self-reliance, self-sufficiency, recognition of rights and the realization of fare share. They value the integrity of labor and honesty in partnership for the good of their communities and sustained family ties, thus the demands for transparent and accountable relationship between and among the haves and the have-not. The soul-tied sense of their land and the attending love of their towns and villages make them readily willing to act appropriately and in solidarity in the quest to preserve their communities and improve their lives in the now and for their posterity.
The plan
The Plan is to strengthen the capacity of Community Based Organizations through training in community development strategies, result based program and organization management, Land utilization and management; Advocacy strategies and provide them (CBOs) technical and financial support to work with community leaders and ensure effective and efficient service delivery in their respective communities
The Challenges
The challenge is twofold. In the first instance, rural communities in the MRU Countries (Liberia, Ivory Coast, Guinea and sierra Leone) which are the bedrocks impede sustainable development and causing people in rural communities to ravage in abject poverty and deprivation despite the enormous resources available in these communities.
These include the lacks of basic:
- information on the available economic and social opportunities and their rights to hold their Governments accountable over the access and use of their resources so as to realize desired social change and the right to participate at all levels of national development efforts, and
- Strategies, knowledge or skills to manage their natural resources and engage in sustainable development initiatives to reduce the poverty situations.
Response to rising demands to mitigate and/or eradicate war outcomes of poverty, social, Economic and political inequalities and associate abuses, including sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), and the virtual isolation of rural communities from budget and national development mainstreams:
Join The Fight
If you share our vision, why not help our mission?
We look out for International Volunteers willing to work locally to improve the lives of humanity on this part of the globe.
You can also become an affiliate partner of CEEFMRU should you share our vision. Together we can make this part of the world a better place.
