Unlocking the potential of families
In the heart of the Paraguayan Chaco lies Loma Plata, a city known for the extraordinary development of the dairy and livestock industry. Here the Stoplight is being implemented in four small communities through our partnership with the Asociación Civil Chortitzer (a local NGO). Our team travelled there for one week and sought to assist in the process of developing an action plan to tackle poverty deprivation through a mentorship program. Alongside with Chortitzer’s Stoplight Coordinator and their assigned mentor, we visited families two months after finishing the survey and prioritizing indicators. It was time to work on interventions.
We began our visits early in the morning. As Stoplight mentors, we were welcomed as more than social workers, but as friends who can help families feel more connected to one another. People talked about their lives with such eagerness that it made you wonder how long they’ve been holding onto their story, carefully saving it for a special occasion. Between tereré (a special Paraguayan tea) and hot dusty wind, people unraveled detail after detail of their own lives, challenges and dreams. They felt happy to be heard, confident in the prospect of working with their mentor to improve their life conditions, and hopeful by the idea of enjoying a life where all indicators are green.
We heard different stories in our short visit. From families working from early hours and well into the night to provide drinkable water to their community to a group of women struggling to keep the school cafeteria running. People knew their deprivations, and as the conversation kept flowing, we realized they also knew what needed to change in order to improve their situation.
We soon began drafting strategies with the families.
The Stoplight was the starting point for all projects, small or ambitious. We had to work fast in order to capture all their ideas for possible solutions and turn them into an action plan. People were mapping their own resources, researching for allies within their own communities, and establishing the next steps. When I realized all this knowledge was already within them, an unavoidable question rose: What prevented them from working on these issues before the Stoplight?
When analyzing the interaction between families and mentors, a subtle pattern became visible. With words and actions, an experienced mentor can make the families feel accompanied in their way out of poverty. Then it is not a lonely journey anymore, or an impossible-to-achieve task, but rather a joined effort to enjoy better life conditions. Families know that in times of doubt or struggle, a mentor can help them design another strategy to achieve their goals. This is the key to unlocking their potential.
Our experience in Loma Plata provided insight into how the Stoplight enables families to eliminate poverty, but also highlighted the role of the mentor. They are the link between the families, communities and organizations working in this project. They were trained to motivate, facilitate, mediate and guide people to identify strategies to solve their specific needs. In our search for deeper impact, we are aiming to strengthen this intervention model. In this way, Loma Plata won’t be an isolated instance, but another community that has been brought together by the Stoplight to identify and address their needs, family by family.
