We Westerners tend to see poverty as a purely economic or resource issue
We equate poverty simply with people not having enough money, food, water and shelter. But our experience is that those that we view as poor tend not to describe poverty primarily in these terms but rather speak of powerlessness, humiliation, fear, shame and social isolation.
Therefore, addressing poverty is not simply a case of 'teaching a man to fish' - it's rather more complex than that. Watch the video below to get a sense of what we mean:
The problem of poverty is not just economic, but a result of damaged relationships and world-views. We believe that, as humans, we were designed to have four basic relationships. Each of these must be functioning well for us to be living a healthy and fulfilling life:
When you being to understand that poverty is caused by broken relationships, you also realise that all of us suffer poverty to some degree. It's just that not all of us suffer its economic effects. Bearing this in mind is critical as we consider how to respond to poverty: “until we embrace our mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people is likely to do more harm than good”.
An effective and compassionate approach to poverty must come from a starting point that acknowledges that we all suffer from poverty.
You can listen to our podcast 'It Ain't That Simple Mate!' to hear more about how we understand poverty and the issues we face in partnering with the poor:
Or, check out the video below for more of our thinking on exactly what poverty is:
An excellent resource on this subject is the book When Helping Hurts by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett (available from Amazon.com here).
Our summary of the principles found in this book ('Understanding Poverty – Causes and Responses') is available here.
Click here to view or download our Organisation Profile.
Our vision of seeing the poorest of the poor become spiritually and physically self-sustaining.
Our mission is to develop and resource partnerships with indigenous people who have a vision to transform their communities.
Our values are:
- We focus on the poorest of the poor
- We invest in strategic partnerships
- We are field-driven
- We emphasise sustainability
- We are committed to a low overhead structure
At least 90% (and often 100%) of the funds we receive go to our partners in the field.