At Common River, our goal is to empower communities to become self-reliant through programs that build on local strengths and cultural pride.  

 We facilitate the community to develop

Education, Health, Enterprise & Infrastructure programs.

Our approach is based on Positive Deviance, a model which finds solutions that lie within a community. It is about discovering what is working today and facilitating proactive change based on the constructive examples. Read more on the Positive Deviance Approach: CRPositive Deviance Approach

We work with the community to develop Education, Health, Enterprise & Infrastructure programs. The Program will be monitored and evaluated using indicators in our logframe. LOGFRAME

ON THE GROUND

A WORKING SCHOOL
• Grades K-4 primary school with 100 primary aged students
• School lunch program
• Female Literacy Classes for 150 women
• Sports fields for physical education: soccer, volleyball, basketball
• A Sidama Senior Council

A WORKING FARM
• A demonstration garden growing agricultural products, with a large variety of enset trees
• Beehives
• Animal husbandry with a herd of cows to supply food for the school lunch program.
• Bio-gas installment to fuel the kitchen from cow manure.

A WORKING ECO-LODGE
• Four traditional Sidama huts to accommodate up to 25 guests/volunteers
• Dining hut serving traditional Sidama meals and coffee ceremonies

A WORKING TEAM
• Our locally hired team is made up of a Program Manager, a school principal and faculty, cooks, cleaners, guards, and maintenance worker to serve our students, guests and volunteers. There are 18 local paid workers running the program on a day to day basis.