Virtues First strives not to impose a way of life that a culture would not choose for themselves. Instead, we work directly with communities to assist them in making the changes they would choose for themselves. In fact, we strive to ground ourselves in a greater understanding of how the people live and, from there, how they would like to improve their living conditions. For example, in the image (right) you see Indian women cooking in a traditional way in a small enclosure without a roof. And some well-meaning people might like to give them chairs or tables, not understanding that these women are not likely to use them (although they might try to sell them). And even if they did, the chair is likely to begin to weaken their back and knees (as is the case with most westerners over the age of 40) which can eventually make it difficult to squat; which is quite necessary in this culture for so many things, including going to the toilet. I could go on and on, but the main point is that changing the "old ways" is not necessarily changing to the better ways when put into context. Nevertheless, when it rains the women pictured above have to take their cooking indoors which obviously creates lots of smoke inside. This is not healthy for anyone! So in this case Virtues First may offer to put a covering over the cooking area - not enclosing it but just keeping the rain off of them and the food while they cook - while letting the smoke escape. So although you might want to build them a "better" more westernized kitchen (and bless your heart for offering) ultimately that sort of thing can get very culturally complicated and less cost effective in terms of actual needs.   --->