I don’t understand poverty.
Sure I’ve read hundreds of articles on its numerous antecedents and the so called poverty cycle. I’ve taken dozens of classes dedicated to both the theories and practicalities of diagnosing and intervening in poverty traps. I’m a disciple of liberation medicine and a supporter of sustainable development. I’m convinced that when it comes to foreign aid, community accompaniment is always preferable to colonization/paternalism. I’m a fan of Paul Farmer and Jeffrey Sachs and a skeptic of any global organization dedicated to eradicating poverty with the word “bank” in its name. I’m offended by structural violence. I’m inspired by lofty aspirations with catchy names like Millennial Development Goals. I often find myself wondering about the tipping points and freakonomics of the world we live in and the likelihood of actually recognizing a black swan some day.
I just don’t understand poverty.
I’m not talking about the wearing knock of crocks, eating exclusively off the value menu, or driving used cars type of poverty. I’m not even talking about welfare check cashing poverty. I’m talking about living on less than a dollar a day and twenty-one pound 5 year old children poverty. This type of poverty just shouldn’t be allowed to exist.
Why not? First, the root causes of poverty are well known. Second, the resources and technology to address this level of poverty exist. Third, with few exceptions effective interventions can easily be implemented and supported by individuals with little formal training and education in development work using skills already acquired and used on a daily basis. Finally, because whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, we have an obligation to do something about it.
Phoenix Hope International
Phoenix Hope International is a non profit organization that works in partnership with communities to build local capacity and strengthen families through beneficiary-driven solutions to local health, educational and economic needs. The organization seeks to operate primarily as a facilitator by providing technical guidance and access to knowledge, services, commodities, and financial resources in accordance with community needs.
The purpose of founding Phoenix Hope International was to create an organizational structure that could serve as a social incubator of sorts dedicated to what we are going to call the Seed Theory of community development. We are proposing that focused and effective economic, educational, and health based development, leveraging geo-spatial, cultural and political factors to maximize sustainability and spread, will outperform one size fits all policy and development projects.
The Seed Theory: Basics
The model can be conceptualized/simplified to the following activities:
Preparation/Selection phase = data collection/analysis (know the target population), objective
Plant Seed = intervention (a latrine, stove, etc)
Nurture = education and accompaniment, monitor growth, objective progress
Fruit = results, met objectives
Propagation = community buy in/acceptance, success begets success
You will forgive me if this seems a little juvenile. However, because it appeals to universal themes, this concept lends itself well to application across diverse cultural, educational and social stratum.
The Plan: Highlights
-Targeted community development which focuses on families in greatest need first in a trickle up approach.
-Maternal, child and infant (MCI) malnutrition used as surrogate marker for greatest need.
-Identify, train, support, utilize community health workers
-Outcome centered interventions (specific objectives of programs directly related to Millennial Development Goal (MDG) target measures).
-Award/incentive based participation with explicit monitoring/evaluation mechanisms
-EPI info suite (CDC) to be used as a platform for GIS, data collection, measuring outcomes/progress (think CDC obesity epidemic presentation)
-Graduated development acute-->maintenance--->prevention
-Supplement and enhance existing government/NGO programs (correlation!)
-Encourage/Support local decision making capacity (utililize women organizations where possible)
-Community demonstration projects (target community specific water, environment, and sanitation issues)
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