Filed under: Community Development, On Poverty, Peace Corps, Ultra-poor | Tags: Development, FONKOZE, Haiti, Peace Corps, Ultra-poor
The poorest of the poor are what fuel the West’s development aid to the Rest. They are the faces we see when we are asked to spare the equivalent of a cup of coffee to vaccinate a child or pay to send her to school; it’s this sector that galvanizes large multilateral efforts to alleviate poverty worldwide. Even amongst the “bottom billion,” it’s they that compose the lowest rung.
Yet even with all this attention, many don’t seem to understand the depths of deprivation and injustice that the poorest of the poor have endured and how it affects their psyche and hence our development projects.
The poorest are timid, they lack self-confidence and they lack self-esteem. Besides not having productive assets, besides not having land to harvest, besides not having a formal education, besides being consigned to a general lack of opportunity, they often carry broken spirits. History, both across generations and in an acutely personal sense, has mistreated them. (more…)
