Are you paying to perpetuate poverty

[Music]

think

of yourself at your absolute

worst what does it look like what does

feel like what would it look like

wrapped up

in a short story and a photo

what if without your consent a

well-meaning

organization is using that story and

photo of you

at your worst to raise money for their

mission

to help people like you

do you like being the poster child

for this organization i mean they’re

making

money off of your sad story

your sad photo

how do you feel about them trading your

dignity

for their financial gain do you think

that maybe there was

a better way to fundraise

what i’ve just described to you is our

current model of

poverty marketing one which perpetuates

poverty

but in this talk i would like to propose

a better model

one which will maintain dignity and

promote

progress we have an issue

as a human population we have the need

to create

an us versus them are we

versus they we

are able to help they

are helpless we have

resources they lack

what they need we are

educated they are uneducated

we separate ourselves because we have

the need to play

the savior so we created them that we

can

save with images and stories

that set them apart this technique of

using

sad photos and awful situations for

fundraising has become known as

poverty porn images of

children with distended bellies

homelessness

dirty faces and tattered clothes it’s

not the images themselves that are the

issue

the issue is the exploitation of the

lives of the poor in order to

generate dollars through sympathy and

pity at its core it sells

poverty while claiming to solve

poverty and as a fundraising technique

works we are completely mesmerized by

the distressing photos and awful

situations

it drives a knife of guilt into our

guts and opens our wallets

but this model requires a steady stream

of malnourished children inadequate

housing

detailed trauma and crippling disease in

order to maintain

a steady cash flow

it is not okay to fund service to the

poor

through the direct exploitation of the

poor

we have shifted from eliminating poverty

to commoditizing it and poverty

is not for sale when we

sell what is we perpetuate what is

instead of promoting what could be

i believe that we can either perpetuate

poverty or

promote progress and to explain i want

to use the common proverb when life

gives you lemons

make lemonade the lemons

are the real world issues the lemonade

is the progress made toward the solution

when we perpetuate poverty we

concentrate on the lemons

when we promote progress we concentrate

on the lemonade

to give a real life example let me tell

you about my dear friend salome

salome was my host father in el salvador

and i do

have his permission to use him as an

example i’ll give you two

very real stories about salome and i’ll

follow each with a financial ask

just like in a fundraising campaign so

here’s the first story

salome labors for 12 hours under the hot

sun every day to grow corn and beans to

feed his family

at best he can make five dollars a day

and after he walks the long three miles

back to his humble home

he doesn’t even have running water to

take a shower

the water only flows through the pipes

for a few minutes to a few hours

every two to six weeks and when it does

his family rushes to fill every bucket

every barrel every basin every container

they have

to tide them over for however long it

takes to get water again

and if that wasn’t bad enough the water

is infested with parasites

and salome suffers from extreme

digestive issues

a well and water filters will cost eight

thousand dollars

can you spare just twenty dollars to

help salome

now you might be thinking to yourself

sure 20 bucks no big deal great cause

but all i told you about were the sour

lemons

of salome’s poverty so the next time i

want to get you to donate

i’m going to need another sad story and

another

and another and this is exploiting

the poor for charity this

is perpetuating poverty

so here’s the second story salome is an

incredibly intelligent and innovative

man

because his running water is extremely

inconsistent

he used appropriate technology

techniques to collect rainwater on high

ground and

pipe it to lower ground using gravity so

that he and his family can have a

working

rain water shower now this does not

supply all of their water needs

and there is an issue of parasites in

the water

but salome is a well-respected

individual and he

sits on a council board that makes

decisions to impact and better the lives

of his community

and salome and the council have decided

that they would like to tackle this

water issue

with community input they have

determined that the most appropriate

long-term solution to their problem

is a communal well and water filters

the well and water filters will cost

eight thousand dollars

the community will pay for the upkeep

and maintenance of the well

would you like to be a financial sponsor

at twenty dollars

could you hear the difference in the two

stories

notice that they both talk about the

lemons

those are the real issues they both have

the same financial ask

but in one i perpetuated his poverty and

in the other

i promoted his progress we have a choice

in what we support and what we promote

it is so much harder to raise money with

dignity

it takes a big commitment but here are

some things we can do

first we need to change the way in which

we define

charitable success too often charitable

success is defined by

the number of people served or the

number of mouths fed or

the amount of clothes given away but all

this measures is how consistent

the need is it does not measure the

progress

toward the solution so we have to shift

our mindsets

to measure success as consistent

progress

instead of consistent need

next we need to stop the cycle of

perpetuating

poverty we know that the sad stories and

photos

pumped out by charitable organizing

campaigns raised hundreds

of thousands if not millions of dollars

and yet

year after year they continue to vomit