In 2015, humanity promised the world’s poor a better world, by 2030.
Today, humanity has not only gone completely silent on its goal of “ending poverty in all its forms everywhere by 2030”, but also, global poverty as a cause, right now, is nothing but a perpetual problem that has no foreseeable end in sight — as it has always been.
And it’s all because humanity really believes the world’s ultra poor in the global south, shouldn’t have any business ending extreme poverty, and that this must instead be done for them by the right people [or the most legit people] from the global north.
Across history, humanity has left people like us on the sidelines of the global fight against poverty.
And today, only 1%of the ALL the money that is intended to end global poverty, is what goes directly to the extreme poor in the global south.
This has not only ensured that nearly all existing solutions to ending global poverty remain exclusively top-bottom, and largely short-lived, but also, it has meant that, in many of the truly impoverished remote rural areas of the world, there is simply nothing whatsoever that is happening to end extreme poverty. And it’s been that way for decades.
These communities are the MAJORITY.
Entire communities are always dead silent; people are starving, with no trace of anything in place to end extreme poverty.
The other 99% of global antipoverty funding, meanwhile, remains in the hands of people, i.e., the development sector, aka western charities, whose solutions only reach very, very few poor communities, and only by pure chance.
Yet, as one writer says here, these people’s own solutions even in those few poor communities that are lucky enough to be reached, “disappear almost immediately after the departure” of their proponents.
All because these solutions are purely long-distance, top-bottom, and often one-off.
The toughest part, however, is that: for those of us who are directly battling abject poverty, these people (i.e., the development sector), until their own solutions reach your village by random chance — which rarely happens, and which rarely leaves any impact — getting a chance to work together with these people on anything, or getting them to lend you a voice on poverty in any way, is nothing short of a miracle.
But their own solutions, which could have brought them together with people like us, only reach a few random poor communities, and in most cases, these solutions often turn out to be very short-lived.
Problem?
Humanity as a whole is convinced this is the way to go. That’s, humanity is really convinced that the best way to end global poverty, is for people like us to sit and wait for the right people [or the most legit people] from the global north, to come and move us from poverty.
Making sure the world’s extreme poor have no friends of our own.
Humanity has not only ensured that virtually no single penny of global antipoverty funding reaches those of us who are directly living in abject poverty here in the global south.
But also, the world, with a little helping from the international media, has since the beginning of time instructed every human on earth that:
‘if you are to help the world’s extreme poor escape extreme poverty, the safest way to do so is by placing your support very, very far away from the poor themselves, and by being very careful not to work with them directly’ — under the premise that the poor, especially those us here in Africa, are somehow wannabe fraudsters…
… and that only the most legit people, which by default means those from the west, are the ones who must be at the helm of ending extreme poverty, and are the ones everyone must throw their support behind.
These things have said over and over, and in fact, the international media, presently, views the world’s ultra poor only through that lens.
For example, here is what was said after the 2010 Haiti earthquake:
“Don’t send money overseas. Even though Haiti is a foreign disaster, don’t send a donation to a foreign bank account. Experts say this is never legit” – Forbes.
“Within 24 hours of the Haitian earthquake, scammers were at work trying to profit from the disaster” –CS Monitor. “Be ware of bogus online help for Haiti” –NBC News. “Be careful about those impulse donations” – ABC News. “If you want to help, you can find a list of legitimate charities seeking donations here.” –Scambusters. “How to help Haiti earthquake victims: donate only to vetted charities… Charity Navigator has compiled a list…” – Fast Company.
In other words, the world has historically instructed every person on earth to strictly place their support for ending global poverty, only in the hands of the same people who barely work with the extreme poor.
So much so that, for ordinary poor Africans like me, even if you contacted someone in the global north and asked them only for a tweet about your cause, they will simply cringe, and decline a tweet right away — often without even taking a minute to learn about your cause.
Not because they are apathetic, but because they have simply been conditioned to think that way.
These are the things that make it simply impossible for global extreme poverty to ever, ever end.
Regardless, billions are still spent every year in the name of ending global poverty, in a way that rarely touches the ultra poor, and in a way that doesn’t make a dent in the lives of people like us in any way.
It is why I am asking the world to help the @UgandaFarm end extreme poverty in our region of Busoga, Uganda’s poorest region, by working together with us the UNHUMANLY way.
If you are reading this, please help spread word by creating a poster or a mural about this campaign, and placing it on a street near you.
When creating that poster or mural, please feel free to use any image of your choice. Just be sure to include the campaign link unhumanly.org.
Here is a sample poster that I have created only and only as a sample.