Green Living Movement  Beggie (in the middle) with her family and other small-scale farmers harvesting corn in their field in Chibobo village (Serenje, Zambia), the oldest of communities working with GLM. The story of Green Living Movement (GLM) started in Zambia. Since year 2000 it has grown into a story that inspires people in more countries than one. GLM is a link between passionate people in South and North who put their skills and knowledge into action. Each chapter of GLM, in Zambia, Swaziland and Finland, supports the other and most importantly; everyone involved shares the passion for environmental and social development through true participation and building the capacities of individuals, and communities. The heart of GLM will always be in Zambia. The organisation was founded by a group of environment and social development enthusiasts who were worried about the lack of environmental awareness and its linkage to poverty. GLM believes in a participatory and people centred approach. It has adopted the philosophy of a Chinese revolutionary, Dr James Yen as a guiding principle: “Unless you enter the den, you can not get the cubs. Go into the community, live humbly with the people as one of them, learn from them, plan with them, start with what they know and build on what they have.” Inspired by this philosophy, GLM creates partnerships with local communities and other development agents in the implementation of development interventions. It ensures that capacity and the knowledge base are built among local communities to enable them become managers of their own processes. GLM members and volunteers from many parts of the world spend substantial amount of time living, learning, sharing and planning with local communities. This approach is well framed in the guiding belief that the people who a development intervention is meant to benefit must be part of its entire cycle from project identification and planning to implementation and evaluation. |
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