People of Jongksha A village in East Khasi Hills District, Meghalaya know that their locality headman, Herod Lawai is always there to lead them to collective action and stand by in their needs. Herod is one of the farmer’s club members under FARM Northeast programme who exemplified his capacity and the leadership skills to bring change in the community towards collective action.

The need for livestock rearing, especially poultry and piggery was felt by the farmer’s club members to have additional income generation along with farm manure.

Herod Lawai led the community to the Block office to seek assistance under government scheme from the Block so that community members could start livestock rearing. Through Herod’s leadership, 6 households received the scheme during April 2018. “Herod truly deserves to be our leader as he motivates us to work for not only personal benefits but common goods as well”, says Irilian Rynjah.

Herod’s contributions in triggering community action didn’t stop here. He continued motivating the community to work for cleaning the locality. He led the community in making Jongksha A, one clean locality. Villagers under the leadership of Herod have constructed a compost bin and placed dustbins at different parts of the village to make their locality clean. Herod has emerged as a model for the children by motivating them for cleanliness. He sensitized the children about the cleanliness and they became the active agents of change for cleanliness in the locality.

Herod always gets the support from the community members and has worked together in unity to bring changes in their locality. According to Ms. Aibimis and Ms. Dkahipaya, members of the FARM team, the community’s hard work and willingness to work together has made Jongksha A locality, one of the cleanest localities among the project villages under the FARM Project. The team has plans to take this model to other project villages as well.