Fighting Poverty with Education and Economic Development

News / Economic Development, education, Poverty

26Jul, 2010

Part of our mission at The Affero Project is to fight poverty, create jobs and transform lives by empowering the poor in developing countries. At times, we do this by partnering with organizations offering technical assistance and using innovative savings and microcredit programs. We support business training and holistic development strategies.

What is the need? The world has deep poverty amid plenty. 50% of the world’s population of 6 billion people survives on less than $2 a day. 20% of the world’s population survives on less than $1 a day. 20% of the world’s children never reach their fifth birthday. 50% of the world’s children suffer from some form of malnourishment.

When Helping Hurts. I posted “Not all poverty is created equal.” this weekend as my status on facebook. An interesting conversation followed. It seems that many folks recognize that many times in our attempts to alleviate poverty, we hurt the poor and ourselves.

One friend commented on my post pointing to a resource written in part by Brian Fikkert.

Good Intentions Are Not Enough. We need to address faulty assumptions about the causes of poverty. Many times our assumptions lead to strategies that do considerable harm to poor people as well as to themselves. “When Helping Hurts“ addresses these assumptions and offers several principles and strategies for poverty alleviation. It unpacks the distinctions between relief, rehabilitation, and development. The authors explain the difference between asset-based and needs-based strategies. Effective development is not done to people or for people but with people.

Is microenterprise development a proven solution? Microenterprise development is a very efficient way to help the poor in developing countries. Watch this quick video to catch a glimpse of this great work being done by organizations like Five Talents. With just a small amount of money, enterprising individuals can begin to break out of poverty. Providing poor entrepreneurs with capital and training to start and expand small businesses creates income for healthcare, education and food on the table.

77 participants trained in Ghana, West Africa

What type of jobs are we talking about? The majority of businesses are in food production and sales, street vending, brick manufacturing, shoe making, carpentry, auto repair, beauty salons, office services and tailoring. These businesses provide a lifeline for families overcoming poverty.

With your help more enterprising poor will receive funding, consulting, or training. Will you join us and share with others how we can partner with people in the some of the poorest countries in the world? With your monthly giving, we can support great organizations financing thousands of $50 to $300 loans to poor entrepreneurs in countries like Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

How many lives do you see being impacted in this third world market?

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FAQ

Q: Is The Affero Project a 501c3 organization?

A: Yes, The Affero project is a non-profit 501c3 organization and therefore all gifts and donations are tax deductible.

Q: What does Affero mean?

A: Affero is a Latin word meaning to "bring about", "to proclaim", "to empower". We want to empower the giver to do more with their money than ever dreamed possible, empower the organizations we partner with by funding their projects, and to empower people and communities all around the world where the work is being done.

Q: Why the 12 categories?

A: The 12 categories line up with the United Nations Millenium Development Goals, and then we added a few more we felt were also important.

Q: How does the voting process work?

A: Every community member votes once a month, however voting is weighted according to the amount you give. So, the person giving $10 a month, votes once, but their vote is weighed as 10 votes, or the person giving $35 a month, their vote is weighted as 35 votes.

Q: How do I submit an organization for possible funding?

A: In the footer click the "Nominate an Org" tab. We cant wait to hear your ideas.

Q: why should I donate through The Affrero Project versus giving directly to the various organizations?

A: We actually encourage people to also give directly to the organizations they are passionate about. What The Affero Project does however is allow someone who is passionate about ALL these causes, to give what they can on a monthly basis, then combine their money with everyone else in the community and together fund every category throughout the year. With The Affero Project you’re able to spread your money further and impact the world in a greater way through the power of cooperative giving. Our dream is to be able to release hundreds of thousands of dollars each month to innovative and effective development work being done all around the world, through thousands of people giving their small change.

Q: How does Affero generate funds to operate?

A: The Affero Project was able to launch because of the generous donations and gifts from individuals and foundations. To help us continue our mission to educate, inspire and equip people to help end global poverty and injustice worldwide The Affero Project operates on a 10% split of funds donated. These funds are used for our events, marketing, curriculm development, video and administration. Your giving not only enables communities all around the world, but it also helps us do what we do. This 10% will be reduced as The Affero Project grows. Our desire is to see the maximum amount of funds possible released to our partners and projects around the world while also being able to create quality resources, curriculm, seminars, and events to continue to grow our community and donor base.

(Last Updated February 8, 2010)

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