Havurah Shalom

It Takes a Village: A Tikkun Olam Committee Sponsored Event

Poverty, disease, malnutrition, increased infant and child mortality, decreased life expectancy, illiteracy, overcrowded schools, substandard housing, environmental degradation, child labor, crumbling infrastructure, lack of safe drinking water, etc., etc. Do the problems of the developing world seem overwhelming and hopeless? What can we realistically do to help address these problems? When there is so much that needs to be done in our own community, why should we devote time, money and effort to helping people who live on the other side of the world?

The Rafiki Village Project is a Portland-based non-profit that that is working to help Gijega Village—a community of about 2000 people in the Hanang District of Tanzania—address the above challenges. Rooted in the idea that the problems associated with poverty in the developing are less overwhelming when broken down to the village level, the Rafiki Village Project has partnered with the villagers to address their problems one project at a time.

Please join Havurah members David Newman and Laura Orgel for a presentation about the Rafiki Village Project. Learn about the history, geography and politics of Tanzania. Afterwards there will be a discussion about questions of economic justice, the problems facing Gijega and the developing world in general, the ethics and pitfalls of development work, and the meaning of Tikkun Olam. For questions, please contact David at david@rafikivp.org