Note: CTT stands for Community Transformation Training. In order to simplify the text and reduce confusion, this program will be referred to throughout both the English and non-English materials as CTT. CTT is a program of International Health Resources.
The goal of the CTT model is to establish a development program that cares for the sick and needy. This plan is accomplished through the training of local people as community health workers. These community health workers will in turn serve their neighbors by teaching disease prevention and health promotion.
CTT includes water purification, sanitation, agriculture, nutrition, maternal and child care, home care and prevention of disease, as well as how to live a life that cares about and assists our neighbors. Community health workers may also treat basic diseases and assist in immunizations.
The intent of a CTT program is to raise up local nationals as volunteers who will be models and share the truths they have learned with their neighbors in the home setting. The program is designed to go to the people, being transferable, reproducible and ongoing after the training team leaves the area.
Community development is approached from the perspective that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. Therefore, if we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will truly be concerned with the whole person. We want to help people live a more meaningful, abundant life.
But if people are to reach out to their neighbors, they must be willing to do good to their neighbor and see their neighbor as having ultimate worth. For a change in behavior, a modification in knowledge and attitudes needs to take place. This involves a change in how people view themselves and relate to their neighbors. Therefore, CTT emphasizes human and moral values in order to foster a cooperative spirit among the people in the community.
We are taught from childhood that we should love our society. We should love our community. We should strive to understand others. We should not only do things for our own advantage but also to benefit other. Most of us would find it easy to help our own families, but we should be willing to help all people in our society. including those whom we don't know well or who may not understand or like us. We should serve all men.
We should serve the whole person. This involves not just meeting physical needs, but also emotional and intellectual needs. For true change to occur, we should not only personally deal with the health needs of others but also train others to go and do also. This is multiplication; that is, the process where each one continues to teach those who will go on to teach others.
