World Vision Magazine // Blog

The daughter of World Vision’s founder walks on a street honoring her father’s legacy.

Marilee Pierce Dunker at Dr. Bob Pierce's Road.

When I wrote our World Vision staff in India to say I was coming to visit Dr. Rochunga Pudaite in Manipur and then hoped to see some of our World Vision work, they immediately wrote back with a surprising declaration: “You must visit Tripura to see Bob Pierce Road.”

I was impressed. Somewhere in India there was a stretch of highway or perhaps a city street named after my father, and I was going to see it.

I flew to Agaratala, capital of the Indian state of Tripura, where I was met by two of our World Vision staff, Stevenson and Kanto.

“We will have to leave early in the morning if we are going to reach the road by noon,” Kanto told us. “It takes a long time to get there, and the people are very excited to meet you.”

He was right. It took nearly four hours to drive the treacherously narrow highway over the steep mountains to Raipassa, the village where Bob Pierce Road begins. I knew we were getting close when the land seemed to relax into rolling hills and valleys dotted with planted fields, fruit orchards, and grazing livestock.

We turned off the main road onto a smaller road, one of hundreds we had passed. “Is this it?” I asked.

“Not yet,” Kanto said, “but we are close.”

Marilee visits with children from the Ripassa Baptist Church and school near Bob Pierce Road.

We wound our way up a sloping hillside, and I spotted the Riapassa Baptist Church and school sitting on a rise to my right. As we got closer, I saw dozens of smiling people, many of them children in dark-blue school uniforms, waiting for us. I was so busy waving and smiling that I actually missed what I had come so far to see.

Once out of the car, we were surrounded by greetings and warm handshakes. A couple of children came forward with great ceremony to present me with a bunch of flowers and, of course, pictures were taken. Then Kanto said, “So, let us take you to the road.”

We walked back down to where we had veered toward the church. I could see the expectant smiles all around me as Kanto pointed toward a sign that had been nailed to a tree.

“Welcome to Dr. Bob Pierce’s Road” read the brightly colored sign. “Riapassa to Boratola. To God be the glory!”

I smiled through my tears as I looked down the lovely, tree-shaded lane that had been cut into the hillside. Sloping gently toward the valley below, Dr. Bob Pierce’s Road is two kilometers long and wide enough for a car. As we walked, Kanto told me the story. World Vision began development work in this area in the late 1990s, and today more than 1,700 children are enjoying the benefits of sponsorship: clean water, education, healthcare, and malaria nets.

For generations, Riapassa and Borotola villages had nothing but a narrow walking path to connect them. Winter rains would wash the path away, cutting them off for weeks at a time. In 2002 World Vision partnered with the local government to build a proper road, cutting into the hillside and laying brick to ensure that the rains would not wash the road away. The road is so stable that many people have built houses on either side.

Dr. Bob Pierce's Road in Tripura, India.

“So why did they call it Bob Pierce’s Road?” I asked.

“When a village is blessed in a significant way, the people believe that it must be honored with a name that is equally important,” Kanto explained. “This road was life-changing for them, and when the village leaders sat down to decide on what to call it, they asked us what the founder of World Vision’s name was. They wanted to honor the memory of the person who had caused so many good things to happen for their people.”

“You should see our road after a good rain,” one young woman proudly shared as we walked the road together. “The dust that is covering now washes away and you can see the brick. It sparkles in the sun. It is a beautiful road.”

My dad would agree.