I've just got back from Kenya doing some filming for a video we're making for the American non-profit organisation called The Reckoning, helping the poor by creating opportunities with small business loans and basic training.
I flew out to Nairobi a couple of weeks ago where I met up with Tim Karas and the rest of the team, and then did some filming in the famous Kibera slum, where over a million people live in abject poverty. Whilst basic sanitation and running water are lacking, the resolve, creativity and pride of it's residents is certainly not. We encountered a number of people who were just waiting for the opportunity to stand on their own two feet. To find a way out of poverty and to flourish - and they already had the business ideas that would get them there!
Later on we travelled to Kakamega where the local economy has been boosted by the number of Reckoning projects. Boda Boda drivers (Motorbike taxis), fisheries, farmers, grocers, brick makers, chicken farmers, carpenters.....you name it and there is a Reckoning project transforming the lives of people in the area.
The incredible thing is the unique approach to poverty that The Reckoning takes. Not satisfied with simply getting people to a stage where they are out of poverty and are self sustainable; the idea is to help people get so established that they have the resources to be generous to those around them. To create similar opportunities to those given to them.
The ultimate aim of The Reckoning is to not be there! Sound strange? Well, when the day comes that the poor have indeed solved the problems of poverty they will no longer rely on anyone to survive. Let's hope we see that day sooner rather than later.
For more information on The Reckoning visit www.thereckoning.org
- POSTED BY JAMES