Stories

Want to better understand what we do? Listen to Five & Two’s Interview with ABCD Institute co-founder Jon McKnight on the Tamarack Institute Podcast.

In this month’s issue of Faith Today, Five & Two director Jamie Munday wrote about a necessary fundamental shift in the direction of missions.

One woman in Burundi never lost hope after funding for a school dried up. In fact, the failed funding left the community in a better place.

Here is a little piece about how one community is applying the principles of CCD to lift themselves out of poverty.

The Centre de Sante la Charité is a health centre in the rural town of Gungu that serves over 15,000 inhabitants. The health of the general population is worrisome…

Hosted by global asset and strengths-based practitioners from around the world, with over 48 hours of rolling time events, this virtual (un)Conference will engage global groups with all levels of formal and informal experience to hold space and facilitate conversations about the questions that have been keeping you up at night about assets and strengths-based action.

We recently caught up with our network member, Jaya Thapa, from Rescue Network Nepal (RNN). RNN is a powerful example of the impact of community volunteers. It is difficult for poor and remote communities to access proper health care in Nepal…

Although Community-Centred Development -or ABCD -is known for its innovative and practical community development process, all of its methodologies and practices are built upon these time honoured foundational principles.

Our Executive Director, Jamie Munday was recently interviewed alongside renowned community organizer John McKnight, co-founder of the Asset Based Community Development Institute.

During a recent meeting, one of our partners made an interesting statement that resonated with all of us on the call. One of our partners said: ‘money is the last resort when it comes to community development’. We all paused for a moment…

Over the past year we have had great success with our online training and global meetings. To keep this momentum going, we are excited to announce that the next natural step for us is developing our own online training modules that correspond with our Five & Two Learning Pathway!

We recently caught up with one of our members, Khotso Mokotimi of Basotho Building Lesotho (BBL). He is a firm believer in ABCD (Asset Based Community Driven Development). He shared a compelling story with us about how effective development work is turning the tide…

Five & Two’s network spans the globe. We work across many different cultures and we are always intrigued by foreign languages and particularly words that do not translate into English…

We want to share news about our friends in the Philippines, E-Care (Episcopal Church Action for Renewal and Empowerment), and the creative development work that they are doing during these times…

One of our most powerful training sessions involves looking at the same community through two different lenses. The possibilities are astonishing when you build off of a positive perspective. Read on and you will be pleasantly surprised…

For a few years now, when discussing poverty and development, I have been heralding an approach which prioritizes assets over needs. There is this radical idea afoot, one which insists that for real sustainable development to take root, the vision and initiative must come from within the poor community itself.

Life happens outside in the Congo. Long visits with neighbours, friends and family combined with peanuts, bananas and maybe even a Coca-cola are seen under many a tree throughout the country.

Dr. Delphin Kapasa is founder of the “Good Shepherd” – a small health clinic and development agency in the Camp Luka slum of Kinshasa. As one of our Five&Two Network members, I recently called him to check in and see how they were responding to the Pandemic.

“Are people staying indoors and following the social distancing guidelines?” I asked him.

Laughter…

Breaking News from Lesotho - BBL Given Government Approval to Enact Nationwide Covid-19 Strategy

Lesotho is a landlocked country surrounded by a border of mountain ranges within South Africa. Five & Two Network member, ‘Basotho Building Lesotho’ (BBL) is located in the heart of this nation…

What happened to our name? While in the D.R. Congo, we were enamored by the way our Congolese brothers and sisters referred to us as ‘Cinq et Deux,’ “Five and Two” rather than “5N2.” It was so simple, yet beautiful how easily it rolled off their tongue in their own language. We could imagine the many names across our Network in the future - ‘Lima at Dalawa’ in Filipino, ‘Cinco y Dos’ in Spanish, ‘Tano na Mbili’ in Swahili, ‘Ha lae Song’ in Lao…

It is easy to get wrapped up in the fear and anxiety of this time. These are desperate times. This is also the reality of daily life for those across the world.

Using the same asset based community approach we apply to our work in developing countries, I decided to take a moment to look at all that we have rather than all that we don’t have. This is just the start of my list…

On our recent trip to Congo, we visited a community called Kenge, halfway between Kikwit and Kinshasa. Like many other communities in this area, the people of Kenge lacked access to adequate health care. The closest hospital was too far away and too expensive, leaving the people vulnerable to diarrhea, malaria, anemia, malnutrition, and respiratory infections.

Being stuck in traffic can be so irritating. It’s money, profit and work all being put on hold. For people in developing countries, it’s the difference between having food, medical care and shelter… or not.  

This Fall we’ve laid out an ambitious plan to visit most of our network Member organizations. Between Jamie, Murray and Daniella, we will be in Laos, Nepal, Philippines, DR Congo, Lesotho and Malawi all before Christmas.

Did you know that British Columbia’s new kindergarten – grade 12 curriculum includes a course on Social Justice?  Oh how I wish we had courses like that when I was a teenager. In fact, research shows that this next generation has a resounding focus on empathy, especially on marginalized people groups.

There is garbage everywhere on the streets of Mont-Ngafula, an extremely poor neighbourhood in Kinshasa, the capital city of the DR Congo. Known for its high crime rate and impassable roads, the neighborhood has been in decline for decades.