Today, Mama Lucy writes on the subject of poverty in commemoration of Blog Action Day 2008. According to the site, “Today thousands of bloggers will unite to discuss a single issue – poverty. The day aims to raise awareness, initiate action and to shake the web!” Since many bloggers will likely be posting on the topic of poverty from an outsider’s perspective, I thought it would be interesting to supplement their coverage with the views of people, like Mama Lucy, who have been directly impacted by poverty and have lived their entire lives in one of the poorest countries in the world. What she has to say is powerful. She wrote:

What is Poverty?

• Lack of something which otherwise could be of great importance for you. For example: basic human needs, good sources of income, or ability to think well.
• Not having enough to meet basic needs.
• Having something but not in a good quality which is supposed to be.

According to my first and last definition, I don’t consider myself as a poor person. I’ve no good sources of income but I’ve the ability to think and utilise the little I’m having so as to bring change to my community.

When talking about poor people, others’ minds go straight to not having money, shelter, food or clothes. For me, it’s more than that. Anyone who has money but their thinking capacity is poor/low, is poorer than the one with no basic human needs. This is because, what you are having can easily perish if you’ll not know how to use it.

What I think some wazungu (foreigners) misunderstand about poverty (which is good for them to know) is:

• Lacking basic needs does not mean your thinking capacity must be low.
• They sometimes think that because Africans are living in poor countries, therefore they cannot think about themselves. They think that since they don’t have money, so they can’t be able to plan, implement, monitor and supervise anything even if given chance or supported.
• They should know that, even if a person/community is poor, the best way to help is to listen and give chance to the beneficiaries to know what really is their problem, and what they think is their priority. You may think they need good road first but their priority is school, hospital or water. If you’ll not give them chance, you’ll end up doing their last thing at first.
• Poverty cannot be eradicated by just the ideas of one side. Sharing ideas of both sides can help and bring changes easily.
• Not the ways which has eliminated poverty in another country or community can be applied to every part and bring success.

For me to be rich is good thing if, you’ll be rich and happy. I’ve seen some people who are very rich but not happy at all. That is nonsense to me.

Education is the key to life. If good Education could be offered to all children, from their early years up to colleges, with time, poverty could not be an issue anymore. EDUCATION HAS POWER! This is why I’m among the people who are trying to bring even a slight change to this sector.

I hate the effects of poverty. Some of them being:

• Diseases which mostly are caused by low standard of living, which has connection to Edudation too.
• Death at early ages
• No say to your properties. Those being just few I’ve mentioned.

Let’s join hands to fight POVERTY.

Regards,
Mama Lucy.

Posted: October 15th, 2008 under The Foundry, Updates from Mama.
Comments: 3

Today, Gidori (Gideon’s father), writes on the subject of poverty in commemoration of Blog Action Day 2008. According to the site, “Today thousands of bloggers will unite to discuss a single issue – poverty. The day aims to raise awareness, initiate action and to shake the web!” Since many bloggers will likely be posting on the topic of poverty from an outsider’s perspective, I thought it would be interesting to supplement their coverage with the views of people, like Gidori, who have been directly impacted by poverty and have lived their entire lives in one of the poorest countries in the world. What he has to say is powerful. He wrote:

When you look at the dictionary you will find the word poverty being explained as scarcity, shortage, deficiency, lack, and poor quality.

The main poverty for most Africans is in their mindset/worldview. That is how someone sees himself and the the world surrounded him/her. When someone says “I can’t do, I am weak, I am finished, I am being colonized, etc.”, the way people “spiritualize” their circumstances has contributed a lot to the poverty of this land. Lack of understanding and knowledge, contentment of who you are is another factor to poverty. When people are exposed to the other side of the world they may be surprised to see how poor they are and they may be awakened!

I am not poor, I could say. Since I am physically and mentally fit and I have a hope and determination for my good future. I can work with my hands and my mind to sustain me and my family. The level and standard of education I got did not fulfill what I wanted to become. Because of the poverty of my parents, I was not able to go further in my education as I desired. My father failed to pay for college fees which were high.

The continuity of poverty in Tanzania is affecting our children in the sense of poor infrastructure, poor education system, and poor income to many families.

In case Wazungu (foreigners) need to help, I would suggest they follow this kind of slogan:

“Give a man a fish and he has food for the day!” – Relief

“Teach a man to fish and he has food for a lifetime!” – Development

“Empower a man to think about fishing and his life will be changed forever!” – Transformation

When you talk about becoming “rich” I have to think of the levels of richness. I can consider myself to be rich by having my own house, motor bike, food and clothings for my family. Some people may say Gidori is rich and some may not see it that way. The villagers in Moivaro (my village) may see me as one of the rich people in the area, but when I go to Arusha town I may be seen as one of the poor people.

Life could be better and simpler for me and my children if poverty were not an issue. Local people are fighting poverty by working hard. The main problem is that there are no tools to simplify their work. I think if you could help in that area for providing those tools and knowledge, that would be great!

To hear more of Gidori’s perspectives on Africa, be sure to check out this interview.

Posted: October 15th, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: none

A couple weeks ago, I tweeted this:

If greed got us in, maybe generosity will get us out.

As I did, I was watching the Dow melt away nearly 800 points in a single day. For a minute, I must admit, I was a little panic-stricken. After all, after a year of working for free, my savings have nearly evaporated and I could really use what’s left to cover the tiny $600/month apartment I now split with a friend and buy kibble for Millie. When I get stressed, I eat, so I’ll need a little cash for some Chunky Monkey too if the situation spirals (get it? chunky monkey, a pun, in honor of my chubbiness and surname and a delicious flavor of Ben & Jerry’s – clever, eh?) .

As I thought more about what I’d written, I realized I might just be onto something – and I’ve been pitching the idea ever since. You can’t imagine how many folks have asked me about the perils of fundraising and nonprofit work during an economic downturn. Here’s my theory, though: Epic Change might be in the best possible business right now. In a market where consumers are jaded, in which they fear and mistrust Wall Street and consumer confidence is abysmal, perhaps aligning your business with good is the only strategy that really makes sense. In an economy that’s dominated by fear, hope seems to me quite likely to sell.

As I attended the first day of SoCap08 today, both the keynote speaker, Kevin Jones of Good Capital, and Karyn Barsa of Investors Circle separately mentioned a theory along these same lines, essentially saying that given that our economy is currently in collapse, perhaps the next logical step is to rebuild it with a focus on creating sustainable, socially responsible businesses. Aside from obvious social benefits of such an approach, the economic benefits may well be significant too. I met some very successful business leaders today (like Jeff Mendelsohn of NewLeaf Paper, Xavier Helgeson of Better World Books and Jim Fruchterman of Benetech) whose missions are socially conscious, and have recently read research like this from Harvard that suggests that consumers, when offered a choice, prefer dogooder goods even, remarkably, when they’re priced substantially higher than competitors without a cause.

Over 600 people, including several investors and venture capitalists, turned out for SoCap08 today – a conference that originally planned to max out at 250. I don’t think this is coincidence. I think it’s evidence of the direction the market is headed…away from greed and toward good. It’s about time.

What do you think?

Posted: October 14th, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: none