ICDU has some big opportunities this year. Here are some things you can be praying about.

We may be able to help community kitchen transition into a restaurant. The goal would be to maintain both the internal structure that sustained the kitchen and the good will toward the community while enhancing business practices and service. For neighborhoods that are beyond the early stages of development, the kitchens become less effective and eventually cease to operate. Yet, the families of the women involved in the community kitchens continue to live in financial difficulty. Furthermore, the initiative and creativity represented by community kitchens is lost when they disappear, but there are still other community needs that require the same entrepreneurial spirit. For example, such a restaurant might develop an economical but healthy menu, in order to address malnutrition among neighborhood families that no longer need super-cheap plates of food but have yet to develop good eating habits.

We may be able to help Naranjal build a community center, which would include a new library location and a permanent ICDU presence in the area. It is customary for a community eventually to construct a local social (something like a civic center) for the purpose of neighborhood association meetings, parties, ceremonies, and the like. Many eventually expand with time to include a soccer court or park. If ICDU were to install a library at Naranjal, it would be necessary to purchase land and build. After asking the association leadership about that possibility, they proposed instead that we use part of the land allotted for their local. Being involved in the initial phase of building--which would not normally take place for years yet--allows ICDU the privilege of dreaming and planning for other opportunities as well.

We may have a chance to collaborate with Rotary Club medical professionals in service to communities that lack basic health care. This would be an important learning experience that would help us understand the real deficiencies in the social medical system, the real potential of short-term help, and the possibilities for long-term solutions.

We hope to make two new loans this year.