“2.7 billion people live on under two dollars a day, 1.1 billion of whom live on less than one dollar a day. It is easy to assume that such poverty consists of a hand-to-mouth existence where people scrape together a dollar each day to be spent in its entirety, only to start the cycle again the next day.”
Hello SuperForest!
Today I am going to share with you a story that was brought to my attention recently. It has all the parts of a good story: a group of friends, an adventure, a goal, many challenges, and a dream that spurs them on.
Zach, Chris, Sean, and Ryan are four college students who want to make a difference. How? By sharing an experience that many in the world, unfortunately, experience as well, poverty. They remind us that so many people (that 1.1 billion mentioned above) live on less than one dollar a day, and that number is just an average. Some days there is no money, some days might feel like what Christmas feels to us. So, they decided to set out to Guatemala to live life as closely as possible as the local subsistence farmers in rural villages. Their final goal: create a documentary that, in their words,
will follow the development of 6-8 families/entrepreneurs in the town of Peña Blanca as they face the complexity of the financial reality that confronts them, using Portfolio’s of the Poor financial diaries as a model. While not compromising the integrity of our documentary, we also want to create a compelling story to which people living outside of poverty can relate.
They started by taking out a $300 micro-loan to pay for their nine week journey. A large part of their mission to study and try to understand the way of life for people who seemingly live on so little, at least monetarily. They used the aforementioned Portfolio’s of the Poor to support their ideas, using the book’s conclusions:
1. Money management is a crucial part of everyday life.
2. Poor households are plagued by the poor quality and low reliability of financial services.
The believe that one of the most important things to teach the modern western world is to understand the reality of poverty. How else can we begin to make an impact? They hope that their documentary will affect their fellow university students, “who have the potential to create the innovative solutions needed to combat world poverty.” Here is a quick introductory video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBv182TVWRU&feature=player_embedded
These four college students are doing something that I think, personally, is phenomenal: they are educating AND learning. So many organisations will set out to help our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate, but do it through monetary means only. By this I mean we donate some cash, and that organisation buys supplies and food, and then gives it out to those in need. Don’t get me wrong this is awesome, but is it enough? I don’t think so. I fear it is that good old western mentality of saying, “Well we did help them….” These four guys are doing something very different, something that I get very excited about. They are reaching out to people in need as people. They are not looking for a short term fix, but instead they are searching something more concrete, something more exciting. They are looking to learn how those in poverty discover and learn ways to manage their funds, studying “how the Grameen Bank, the world pioneer of microfinance, operates, including both challenges and benefits,” operates, giving valuable insight to how those in poverty strive to raise themselves out of their situation.. As they say themselves:
While it is true that the majority of income is spent on basics, especially food, the poor still have to budget their money to save for emergencies and large investments such as building a house, weddings for their children, and retirement.
They are going to learn about those in need, and then teach others that we, as they represent westerners, actually care on a personal level. As valuable as a food or supply drop can be to those who need it most, no matter how much they appreciate our western gifts, there is nothing equal to sharing a experience with another human being. To quite literally step into their shoes. That creates a great appreciation, a friendship, and an understanding. All of those things are invaluable, and are exactly what will change this world. I sincerely hope you go check their website after reading this to learn more. All four of them each have an individual blog, as well as one video blog. They are also looking to raise $100,000 for Fonkoze and Grameen Guatemala, Whole Planet Foundation’s microfinace partners in Haiti and Guatemala. Both are the largest micro-finance institutions in Haiti and Guatemala and they target the poorest of the poor.
All four are now back in the U.S. after their two month journey, so you can read up on all of their adventures and lessons learned right now! They are currently working on putting together their documentary.
I want to share one of their video blog entries with you that truly show you all that I have tried to express in words. There is also a whole environmental side to all of this that I could get into, but I will save it for some other time. In the mean time be amazed, and then go check out their site.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n8bFyiOEac
So now please click
HERE!
Thank you SuperForest! Have a wonderful day.
Love,
Mathew
Recent Comments