Thursday Nov 14, 2024
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The goal is to empower people
This article discusses a strategy to eradicate poverty without relying on charity, aiming instead to promote dignity and self-sufficiency among the poor. Key aspects of the proposal include:
Objective: The goal is to empower people, reduce dependency on imports, improve communal harmony, and ensure the nation’s productivity. The approach emphasises reducing poverty sustainably and aims to accomplish this within two years through proper implementation.
Approach: Modelled after microfinance, the plan introduces a management company, a nonprofit NGO that assists beneficiaries with technical and financial guidance, especially in managing income, savings, and reinvestments to prevent financial instability. Role of donors: Donors, including corporations, NGOs, and international foundations, can fund the project as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. For a typical project, a donation of Rs. 100 million could support about 400 individuals with Rs. 200,000 each. Rs 20 million reserved for the management company’s operations, which comes under the donor company.
Profit model: The beneficiaries are expected to generate significant returns (approximately 200% profit per year), enabling the donation to effectively double in a year. The profit can be reinvested by the management company to help more people rather than being returned to the donor.
Sustainability and impact: This model seeks to alleviate donor fatigue by creating a self-sustaining cycle of reinvestment that continuously empowers more people rather than relying on repeat donations.
I leave you with this thought: “The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively” – Bob Marley
(The writer can be contacted at [email protected].)