Today, October 15th, is Blog Action Day 2008, and the issue being tackled this year is poverty. Thousands of bloggers are writing about poverty today to raise awareness about this issue and hopefully incite others–as well as themselves–to take whatever steps they can to help eradicate the malaise of poverty which affects more than a billion human beings. The following was taken from “The World Bank” web site:
“Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water.”
Consider the following (Source):
- The World Bank estimates that more than a billion people live on less than US$1.00 (one dollar) per day.
- Each day, over 30,000 children die from malnutrition and preventable diseases such as malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia.
- 70% of the world’s poor are women.
- One in five children in the developing world does not have access to safe water, and one in seven has no access whatsoever to essential health services.
- A lack of food can stunt growth, slow thinking, sap energy, hinder fetal development and contribute to mental retardation.
Below you will find the story of a man who–through his ingenuity–is making an enormous contribution toward easing the suffering of the poor. I hope his story will inspire you to ask: “What can I do to help?” Then the second section of this article will help you create your own plan of action.
Muhammad Yunus – Banker to the Poor
Muhammad Yunus, managing director of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 is credited with inventing the practice of microcredit lending more than thirty years ago. Grameen’s strategy is to offer miniscule loans to very poor people on terms suitable to them, and teaching them a few sound financial principles, giving them the means to generate income and work their way out of poverty.
Back in 1974 he saw how people suffered for a tiny amount of money. Destitute basketweavers had to borrow from moneylenders, and the moneylenders took advantage of them. Yunus made a list of 42 people who needed just a little bit of money to get their business started and he lent them the money. The total amount of money they needed, between all of them, was $27.00. The government of Bangladesh was talking about investing billions of dollars in various programs, but these people didn’t need billions of dollars right away. They needed a tiny amount of money.
With this new found philosophy he went on to create the Grameen Foundation which to this day is helping to eradicate poverty from the bottom up, giving tiny loans, financial services and technology to the poor–mostly women–to start self-sustaining businesses to escape poverty. The year 2005 was declared “The Year of Microcredit” and there are over 100 million people now involved with microcredit programs.
His vision for the future is to make credit a human right so that each individual human being will have the opportunity to take out loans and implement his or her ideas so that they can create their own jobs, instead of waiting for someone to hire them. He hopes that this will lead to a world where not a single human being will suffer from the misery and indignity of poverty. He says that at the rate we’re heading, we’ll halve total poverty by 2015 and we’ll create a poverty museum in 2030.
Here is a quote from Muhammad Yunus:
“I have described poor people like a bonsai — that little tree that grows in a flower pot. I said you pick the best seed of the tallest tree in the forest, and plant it in a flower pot, and it will grow into a tiny tree. Is there anything wrong with the seed? Nothing is wrong with the seed.
It’s the best seed. Then why is it tiny? Because you planted it in a flower pot. You didn’t allow it to grow in the real soil. The poor people are the bonsai people. Society has not allowed them the real soil. If you allow them the real soil, real opportunities, they will grow as tall as everybody else.”
Create Your Own Action Plan Using This Ten Step Creativity Process
Follow the ten step creativity process below in order to create your own action plan to help eradicate poverty:
1. Observation of a need or difficulty: Choose who or what group of people you would like to help. Poverty and need may exist in your hometown, or perhaps an hour away. Maybe you would like to help the poor in another country or a specific group of people, such as destitute veterans, children with learning disabilities from low income families, and so on.
2. Analysis of the need: Women at a shelter might need clothes to go on job interviews, children from low income homes might need books for school, a country in the developing world might need medical supplies such as bandages and dressings, glasses and eye drops, over the counter pain relievers, dental care products, and so on.
3. Research and survey all available information: In order to come up with a creative solution you need to gather and study as much information on the situation as you can.
- Read about the genocide in Darfur.
- Research the lack of safe drinking water in many developing countries.
4. Apply creativity techniques such as analogies, branching out from a given concept, using a random word, classic brainstorming, and so on to help you generate ideas and possible solutions. You can also apply the three creative techniques I write about in this post: “Three Incredibly Effective Creativity Techniques”.
5. Allow time for incubation: go for a walk, take a nap, or work on something else.
6. Formulate all possible solutions.
7. Analyze these solutions for their advantages and disadvantages.
8. Choose the solution you’ve concluded will create the best results. How about sending bicycles to countries in Central America to allow people to pedal their way out of poverty?
9. Implement the solution you’ve chosen; give physical form to the idea.
- Hold the shoe drive.
- Write to institutions asking for donations to buy mosquito netting and ship them to countries in Africa so that families have protection from malaria and other diseases.
- Sponsor a child through Christian Children’s Fund or another organization.
10. Evaluate: Experiment to test out the chosen solution. Adjust, learn, and evaluate, repeating this same cycle as many times as necessary.
Conclusion
If you want to get started right away, go ahead and invest in an entrepreneur in the developing world by visiting www.kiva.com. You can also find a list of “88 Ways to Take Action Against Poverty Right Now” here.
The Nobel Committee had the following to say when they gave Muhammad Yunus the Nobel Peace Prize: “Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty”.
Editor’s Note: This article was featured on the Blog Action Day 2008 web site.
(“Half a Million Views Today”; courtesy of carf)
(“Bonsai Tree”; courtesy of trnelson)
Elsewhere in the blogosphere:
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