The Jhai Foundation is about reconciliation. We believe reconciliation is the opposite of war. We focus on relationships. We started with the relationship of Bounthanh Phommasathit and her family and me. Bounthanh's family is from the Plain of Jars in Laos, per capita the most bombed place on Earth. I participated in that bombing directly. In each relationship we try to see the humanity in the other. We overcome our denial, tell our stories, mourn, make amends, as appropriate, and do what we can to strengthen our friendship. We always seek progress, not perfection, in our relationships - progress in the quality of our relationships. We like self-help. We insist on financial sustainability. We design for impact. We are most interested in relationships. We have demonstrated how, after such a devastating war, people from opposite sides can reconcile by working side-by-side. We call this the reconciliation process of development. We are now taking this very respectful way of doing things into rural villages through sustainable computer-aided efforts in the areas of health, education, and increased livelihood. The Reconciliation Method of Development Economic Development, for Jhai Foundation, means helping poor villagers: 1. Develop a 10 year vision 2. Implement their own six-month workplans We help our partners in villages build on assets identified by people in villages. In each case we facilitate planning and are a junior partner in the implementation phase. We wait for villagers, especially women, to make their voices heard. Almost invariably their priorities have been better health and education for their children and more income for their family. In most regards they want their traditional life to continue. It works for them. We try to work with them within these boundaries so that the work products produced are most likely to be sustainable by them. Our input is technical and sometimes financial. We help. We don't direct. And we write contracts where every "t" is crossed and every "i" is dotted. We are less concerned with the pristine nature of our model, than with how empowered people feel in the villages and how many get what they want by using what they have - and what we can bring to the table - to get what they need. People move towards their self-defined futures. We help by building on our nine years of successful effort in very poor rural villages. With villagers and local partners we build: 1. Community buy-in training modules and tools 2. Sustainable business development and training modules and tools that include the making of visions and rigorous work plans, cooperative resource development, accounting training, and ways for continuous quality control We start with relationships. We then develop projects based on cooperative visions. This logic of development is new. The results, so far, are striking. We have helped villages create many new businesses and a 51 village coffee cooperative. We have moved 10 tons of medical supplies. Jhai helps create change that is sustainable, because it is locally conceived and implemented to be that way, with minimal interference and direction from outsiders. And we always try to start slow, making sure everyone is on board, building momentum as we go. Our projects produce high impact because their communities own them. We work together, villagers, staff and volunteers, on everything from visions and fundraising to pushing furniture around and digging holes. We always hire locally, if possible, and help fund contracts, signed by local people, with local experts.