Many times a story gives us a clearer picture of an idea than trying to explain it. As United Way works to address the leading issues affecting our community, the "Ogre Story" provides a wonderful way to show how we are now approaching our work and making a greater difference with your investment of time and money.

Ogre Video

The Ogre Story
Click here to download the video.

By putting a stop to the source of problems in our community we're able to create lasting change in the conditions that afflict individuals and communities. The Ogre Story provides an allegorical illustration of United Way's focus on root causes.

The Ogre and the Village: A Modern Fairytale

Once upon a time, early one morning, a young fisherman left his home to make the short walk down to the river in hopes of a successful day's catch.

He stopped on the bank and pulled together his nets to begin work. When he turned back towards the river he saw a small object floating downstream towards him. As he squinted into the sunlight, he was unsure what it was and then suddenly realized that he was staring at a baby floating lazily on his back down the river.

Quickly the fisherman jumped into the river and grabbed the baby and took him back to shore where he cooed and began to play with the leaves of some trees growing near the bank. The fisherman was relieved as he stared at the baby who was just fine. He turned back to the river and to his surprise, he saw more babies up the river floating towards him. As he hopped into the river again, the fisherman yelled back to the village calling for help.

Soon dozens of villagers were at the river quickly pulling the babies from the water, bringing them to shore, and making sure all of them were just fine. While the babies were fine, more babies could be seen coming down the river.

As many of the villagers continued to get babies from the water, the young fisherman approached a few village leaders to ask them how they can do more to address the situation. One wise elder suggested that the five of them walk upstream to find out where the babies were coming from.

They set right off and hiked around the bend in the river in search of the source of the babies being placed in the water. After a little more than a mile, they came across a clearing on the bank where a large ogre stood pushing the babies to the middle of the river on large banana leaves.

Astonished, the villagers asked the ogre what he was doing. He looked up, shrugged his shoulders and said that he didn't have anything better to do and thought this would be fun. The wise elder invited the ogre back to the village to help build a new school. The ogre smiled at the idea of having something new to do [and leaving the forest where he didn't have any friends].

After a long day, the babies that had floated down the river were cared for and just fine, the town's construction team found a strong, new worker, and most importantly, no more babies ever floated down the river again.

The End.

The Moral of the Story

The village pulled together and mobilized to address the need. Everyone came down to the river to save the babies and, by doing so, they improved lives. Pulling the babies out of the water was critical. However, by going upstream - to stop the ogre from putting babies in the water and re-directing his energies - that we created lasting change that caused the problem to begin with. Partnering with others to deal with the ogres upstream is vital so we aren't pulling babies out of the water forever.