The Affero Blog
You Are An Influencer
By Marc Krejci in News
What makes an influencer? This short documentary explores what it means to be an influencer and how trends and creativity become contagious today in music, fashion and entertainment. The film attempts to understand the essence of influence, what makes a person influential without taking a statistical or metric approach.
While much of the video is focused on pop-culture influence, there was a quote in this video clip that I thought was particularly relevant to us:
“It’s not about one individual. It’s about a brand embracing a culture.”
As an organization, we embrace your influence. You, the individual as a part of this community, is empowering and driving the Affero movement forward. You are the change maker. We embrace the culture we are all creating together as part of this organization. So speak up. Speak out. Make an impact on your peers. Share what you’re learning. And together we can all help end global poverty and injustice worldwide!
What better way could there be to use your influence?
Intangible Thirst
By Steven McLaughlin in Articles
I feel as if I have used this space to write ad nauseum about the grave ills in the world that not only discomfort our fellow human beings, but lead also to their demise. I hope this post is less of that and more helping to lead to a better understanding of why what you do on a monthly basis through your gift is important.
For example, of course you know that people are hungry, children need schooling and people need houses to live in. These are not grandiose theorems that are hotly debated amongst the nation’s leading scholars; rather, they are realities that you know to exist via your own experiences in life. Maybe you have an inkling of what it feels like when your stomach grumbles or you have a headache and find it difficult to think straight because you missed lunch. There’s a probability that you have felt the wind’s sting on a blustery day when a bus was missed or a car broke down. At some point you may even have experienced what it’s like to feel as if you could not advance further beyond in your career field due to a lack of education. These things seem like common sense because the experiences are just that; common.
When it comes to the importance of clean water, I think that we tend to brush it off as “someone else’s problem.” A struggle that is neither relevant to your current state in life, nor small enough that you can personally give clean water to someone in need.
Sure we can spend our time tutoring a student at a local school, or buy a sandwich for the person standing by the side of the highway with a beat up cardboard sign that’s been scrawled upon with a sharpie impeding you to help out any way you can. These are tangible things you can do in order to alleviate someone else’s pain.
You can’t exactly fly to Sub-Sahara Africa with a few gallons of water to help ensure that people are drinking from a water source that is separate from the water source that hundreds of others are using as a source to clean themselves.
Even helping get clean water to areas that are nearby doesn’t always lead to a solution as to why there isn’t access to clean water in the first place. Rare is the opportunity that one has to build a new waterworks system in a city that’s been devastated by a hurricane, tsunami, or just plain lack of maintenance.
I think these are the reasons that clean water tends to be pushed to the back of our minds when it comes to issues to tackle, we can’t fix it easily and therefore it lacks a tangible solution.
However starting in the 1960s, the William Ashe and his family took outings into Baja, Mexico, to help orphanages, camps, and churches install new water systems. These outings, the relationships that were build and the need that was discovered became the foundations of what we know today as Lifewater International.
Lifewater International is an organization which seeks to provide tangible solutions to an issue that is beyond the grasp of many of us. That is why Affero has proudly partnered with them to support their vision of reducing and eventually eliminating the desperate need for clean water to the parts and people of the world that lack the resources to provide clean water for themselves.
Check them out and consider what you can do for to help provide clean water for those in need.
-Steve
Sustainability :: [definition]
By Barak Bruerd in Articles
Our definition of poverty deeply influences the way we define our solutions.
In the same way, our definition of success greatly influences our perception of the end goal of that solution. This in turn effects the way we measure it, when we decide exit a community, and how. Traditional success definitions focus heavily on outputs – i.e. quantitative results – such as number of wells drilled, people impacted, communities reached, goats distributed, loan repayment rates, etc. While these effectively measure what we’ve been doing in communities it says nothing about how the community is impacted.
Let me give an example that’s a little closer to home. Suppose I have a friend who’s struggling to be healthy. I respond with buying him a book on nutrition along with a 12-set DVD workout program, lecturing him on the benefits of diet and exercise. By many NGO standards I just “empowered” my friend with valuable knowledge and resources. Maybe I distributed the same materials and gave the same lecture to a weekend stream of people exiting the drive-through at McDonalds. Many NGOs would report that as having “impacted hundreds of people.” Have I? How do we know whether any of the recipients of my project were interested? If they were, how many went home and actually did the program? And for those that finished, how many managed to sustain that new lifestyle? Research has shown that of people who try weight loss programs, 80% or more are unable to sustain a 10% loss of for more than 1 year. Most of us wouldn’t consider that a particularly acceptable success rate.
Does that translate into the non-profit world? Lets look at water – UNICEF conducted a survey of 22 countries in sub-saharan Africa and discovered that on average 25% – 50% of wells were non-functioning. If we were to define success as the number of wells successfully drilled we could pat ourselves on the back and move on. But we’d be overlooking that fact literally millions of people are walking past failed wells and drinking from the original, contaminated water sources. Not only is that poor stewardship of donor funding, but even more important, it fails to meet the needs of Africans and further reinforces powerlessness and fatalism.
So how should we define success? It may not surprise you, but there many good ways to define success. I will give you my favorite one – the one I hold up as the ultimate standard. Success is about enabling people to solve their own problems. This goes way beyond “teach a man to fish” which is simply a one-time transfer of a basic skill. Instead, it positions people to define their own problems, discover possible solutions, and achieve lasting change for themselves. If you can achieve that kind of success, then the road to eradicating poverty will have gotten a lot shorter.
Announcing October’s Winner
By Lucas Parry in News
Dear Affero Members,
Another month has passed and we’re excited to announce the winner for October! Blood:Water Mission has taken the month by storm and we’ll be sending them $762 to help towards supporting 3 HIV/AIDS clinics. Last year 17,580 people were tested for HIV and treated with over 22,000 people served through the clinics, impacting families, communities and changing lives. This year will see even more people helped and treated!
So a HUGE thank you goes out to YOU for contributing and helping us change the lives of over 20,000 people this month. Visit Blood:Water Mission’s page on our website http://afferoproject.com/organizations/bloodwater-mission/ to learn more about the clinics were supporting.
Remember, its not one person doing something great that will change the world. Its many people doing small things with great love.
Changing lives together!
Lucas Parry
Global Justice Links From This Week
By Marc Krejci in News
- Microfinance + Property Rights
Microfinance institutions have been hailed for the trusting relationships they have forged with the poor across the world. How can these networks be utilized? Some believe they could serve as an important tool in helping the poor understand their property rights, and access secure land title. Abby Callard reports.
Global Justice Links From This Week
By Marc Krejci in News
- Kraft uses social media to tackle hunger
Major brands have a long history of promoting social causes, such as Method’s partnership with Goodwill to facilitate clothing donations. Kraft, however, recently launched an effort that taps multiple brands and multiple social media to involve consumers in fighting hunger.
ECHO WINS SEPTEMBER!
By Lucas Parry in News
Dear Affero members,
We’ve come to the end of September and we’re excited to announce that ECHO has taken first place. We’ll be sending them $770 this week!
ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) works in 180 countries fighting world hunger through agricultural training finding sustainable farming solutions for families growing food under difficult conditions.
Malnutrition is the largest single contributor to disease and over 1 billion people were undernourished in 2009. Our donation this month will provide scholarships to development workers from Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Uganda and other countries who otherwise could not afford to attend the ECHO national symposium to be held in Tanzania, 2011. These national workers would not otherwise have access to the life-saving information and networking that can help them better serve the poor that they are working among.
Entire communities benefit when health, nutrition and agriculture are improved, therefore it’s hard to measure the scope of impact our donations will bring through this one opportunity to ‘train the trainers’. THANK YOU for your gifts this month and another HUGE THANK YOU for voting for ECHO. We’re proud to support such a wonderful organization!
For more information on Echo visit their website at www.echonet.org.
Together we’re impacting the world!
Lucas Parry
Announcing “Race The Trace”
By Marc Krejci in News
Ever since beginning my journey to become an ultrarunner, I have always wanted to raise awareness and support for a cause I passionately believed in. Running can be an extremely isolated sport, but when you focus beyond yourself to support a worthy cause, that accomplishment suddenly becomes greater than any one individual could have ever accomplished alone.
There are a ton of great organizations out there to raise money for, but I’ve never come across anything that I care deeply about in order to rally behind with all of my heart, soul and mind. That is, until now…
Today, I’m extremely excited to announce a venture we’re calling “Race The Trace“, an attempt to be the first person(s) in recorded history to run the entire 444 miles of the Natchez Trace Parkway to raise support and awareness for the Affero Project.
Clean Water and Sanitation as a Business
By Rob Harvey in Articles,News
What if your next cup of water was going to make you or your children sick? Imagine being scared of your own bathroom or being forced to go outside to relieve yourself. What would it be like to walk past broken pumps and overfilled latrines every day of your life?
Nearly 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and 2.5 billion do not have improved sanitation. The healthy and economic impacts are staggering. Around the world, dirty and diseased water leads to a cycle of sickness and poverty. Without safe water, communities struggle to teach their children, grow food, and earn a living. They can’t develop. Hope remains elusive. You can help change that by supporting programs run by organizations like Lifewater International or The Water Project. When a materially poor community or school receives a new water project, women no longer spend hours searching for a source of water. Children, especially girls, return to school. Water-borne illnesses are reduced. Hope is restored.
As our very own Barak recently posted, the United Nations declares water to be essential for full enjoyment of of life and all human rights. Yet governments struggle around the world to provide clean water and basic sanitation. There is a growing crisis. Who will help the majority world develop solutions these challenges?
This week I was talking with Mike Schneider, of GiveToWater.org. He was recapping these stats:
880 million people lack access to Clean Water. 5,000 children die every day from water related illness. 5.5 billion adult productive days are lost every year due to diarrheal diseases. 40 billion hours are lost every year due to time spent fetching water in sub-Saharan Africa. $15 – $20 can provide clean water for one person for at least 20 years.
More than 50,000 rural water points in Africa (36% of the total) are non-functional. In Sierra Leone the figure is 65% (UNICEF). A safe water source alone typically reduces water born disease by only about 25% or less (WHO). Even a short period of breakdown for a well can eliminate annual health benefits. The estimated cost of universal access to clean water is $42 billion – the estimated cost of repairing existing infrastructure is $350 billion. So the problem isn’t going to go away (WHO). In some countries 40% or more of government water and sanitation budgets are not spent – there are local resources lying unused (Wateraid).
Barak points us to pioneering work that creatively addresses the need to move beyond welfare and charity and towards true community development that fosters fully functional and enduring work. Water for People utilizes the power of the free market to address the world’s sanitation crisis. The key to sanitation as a business is to make ongoing sanitation services the goal, rather than the installation of the latrine. When sanitation services are profitable and businesses see everyone without a latrine as a potential customer, businesses—rather than development organizations—will expand latrine coverage to increase their profit margin. Thus many more people will have access to toilets than they would with typical programming.
Digging wells is the easy part. We know that solutions must last to make a long-term difference. We at The Affero Project celebrate the courageous organizations working with the enterprising poor and empowering local capacity to extend access to safe water, improved sanitation, hygiene education and the skills needed to pass these resources to future generations.
Global Justice Links From This Week
By Marc Krejci in News
- Why the U.S. Should Send Troops (and Spooks) to the Congo
They arrive in the night like monsters. In northeastern Congo, in a swath of thick forest the size of some European countries, the apocalyptic Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group is a constant, foreboding presence. The LRA’s fighters — many of them kidnapped teens — murder, abduct, rape and pillage while constantly eluding a half-heartedly pursuing Congolese army.
- Jacqueline Novogratz on the Pakistan floods and our shared humanity
Founder of Acumen Fund Jacqueline Novogratz recently visited Pakistan (along with TED Curator Chris Anderson) to offer what help she could and work with local friends on their relief efforts. On returning to New York, she gave a short talk at TED HQ and shared the stories of the Pakistani people she met along with a profoundly touching video created using her photographs against the music of Peter Gabriel.
- Seeding Progress in Developing Countries
Thirty years ago, if you asked development experts how to move people out of poverty, they would tell you, “Invest in agriculture.” Today, if you asked development experts how to move people out of poverty, they would tell you, “Invest in agriculture.” The problem, according to Rajiv Shah, USAID Administrator, who spoke at the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative on Tuesday, is we haven’t done it to the extent that we should have. And, he says, USAID is as guilty as anyone. As a result, many African countries are falling behind, food inflation has been hitting developing countries in extreme ways, and more people are sliding back into poverty.