You may often have asked yourself as to whether your individual contribution to development in the field of health and nutrition makes or is making any difference. This, of course, depends. Alone, each of us is indeed helpless to change very much. Standing alone is a false ideal. We have thus plenty to learn from the lessons of mutuality or even of militancy.
Individual compassion is just less powerful than organized solidarity.
Or, to use an old adage, 'divided one begs, united one bargains'. To make these really count and add up to something, they need to be progressively channeled into new patterns of higher political meaning and impact. Activists are needed to lead the way in such a transition. This, because without continuity and follow-through actions, popular struggles will remain a heap of toothless words. Again if the answer is yes, new forms of progressive action and education are then needed in our line of development work and, to act effectively in the time before us, we need to first develop a widely shared strategy pointing in this direction.