A Look Inside: Article Series
For the past month, I’ve shared blog posts about poverty alleviation—the story behind my writing, key vocabulary, important data points, and more. Last week, in honor of World Poverty Day, I shared an article explaining why how you give matters. Yet, despite those earlier posts, you may still be wondering: what can you do?
First, remember that you are not the focus. In chapter three of Uplift and Empower, I wrote, “this is not a book about helping you eradicate extreme poverty. Rather than seeking to ‘save the poor’, we should seek out opportunities to help people living in extreme poverty save themselves.”
Everyone must do their part to help alleviate poverty in their communities. However, the focus should be on the people you are helping, not where you fit in. I wrote Uplift and Empower because I want the future of poverty alleviation to be focused more on empowering individuals to help themselves and less on how compassionate individuals fit into the equation. I wanted to encourage a shift in mindsets. Rather than assuming that people from high-income countries need to “save the poor", the book encourages a new focus on helping people save themselves.
How does this new mindset look in practice? One example of this is prioritizing listening over teaching. Ask people how you can help them instead of imposing your ideas and solutions. If we lead with the assumption that everyone is capable of solving their problems when given the right resources and opportunities, we can move forward in a more positive direction.
In my webinar with Z Gamechangers, I gave a presentation and short workshop based on the ideas from the book. I divided individual approaches to poverty alleviation into three core steps:
1) Identifying your privileges
2) Focusing on your community
3) Taking action
You know the areas of your community that need help. You know, or can more easily research, what resources are available. Your time, your knowledge, and your connections are valuable—even more so than money in some contexts. Your local knowledge is priceless.
If you’re still stuck on where to start, UpliftandEmpower.com can help. This website is a resource guide that accompanies the book. While Uplift and Empower is the starting point for engaging in more meaningful poverty alleviation work, the website is the next step.
On the How Can You Help? page, I highlight the three dimensions of poverty: health, education, and living standards. Beyond highlighting them, I provide links to pages where you can find additional resources, volunteer information, and donation options.
Poverty alleviation doesn’t always have to be about signing big checks. Money is just one part of the puzzle. On a small scale, poverty alleviation requires investing more time. If you are willing to invest more of your time into addressing this social issue, you are already one step closer than before. So, how can you Uplift and Empower someone today?
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Short Excerpt From Part Four of Uplift and Empower:
When I interned in Hong Kong in 2018, I lived in a small apartment half the size of my current bedroom and shared the space with two other students. I could wash my hands in the sink while standing in the shower. Our kitchen was a small countertop with a stove that was really just a single, plug-in burner. We stored it away for extra room.
There was no closet, so we lived out of our suitcases. When we bought fresh produce, the heat in the room during the day was so strong all of our food would spoil by the time we returned from work in the evenings. To me, that felt like living in poverty.
For hundreds of thousands of people around the world, the fact I had an apartment, a sink, a plug-in burner, enough clothes to fill a suitcase, and enough money to buy fresh produce would feel like living in luxury.
Poverty is relative and incredibly complex. To form any solutions, we must first understand the problem...
