Dali: A Community Transformed

In a decaying classroom with crumbling walls, rocks instead of proper seats and hundreds of students crammed together, it’s hard enough for children in Dali to see their teacher, much less their future. The reality of the situation was unbearable: the people of Dali have few resources and capital to work with, and in turn, the children experience a sense of utter despair.

In a community of 6,000, there is no healthcare to be found. Drinking water is collected from polluted ponds or streams, then carried for miles on treacherous hikes. And even after all that work, unclean water is still a leading cause for death.

The town has one school that crams 2,700 children into 20 decaying classrooms where they can either sit on the dirt floor or rocks. The people have an immense desire to make change happen, but there seemed to be no way out of this vicious, ongoing cycle of poverty. Meanwhile, A Glimmer of Hope had been making big plans for this small town.

By providing Dali with the building blocks for a prosperous community, we are sure that a very real change can begin to take place. We’ve started with one of the most basic necessities – water. We have built 7 clean water points including spring protection developments, an advanced water well that includes a washing basin, cattle trough, reservoir, capped spring and distribution points with two to six faucets each.

A better community also starts with a solid education, so it was imperative to build a good learning environment for the children of Dali. We realize that along with the construction of 16 classrooms, comes a better education and more promising future to look forward to. And because health and sanitation had become such widespread problems, 14 latrines were built. We were even able to found a milestone, Dali’s first ever healthcare facility. This is where change starts and hope is restored.

With so many resources for health, education and living conditions in place, this once destitute town now has a springboard for a better future and optimism it could not have had otherwise. A Glimmer of Hope doesn’t exist just to help communities, but to transform them completely. And Dali is the perfect example of that.