The Greater Impact Foundation is proud to announce that Raising The Village (RTV) has joined our excellent family of partners focused on finding viable solutions to the epidemic of poverty.
RTV partners with last-mile villages in sub-Saharan Africa to develop pathways out of extreme poverty towards economic self-sufficiency. And, since their own words speak more eloquently about their work then I ever could, I have shamelessly plagiarized from their own website www.raisingthevillage.org to share with you the great work that epitomizes their endeavor.
“Raising The Village works to end extreme poverty by eliminating immediate barriers of scarcity, nurturing income generation activities and building local capacity, while moving communities toward economic self-sufficiency.
[They] partner with some of the most remote and impoverished communities in Sub-Saharan Africa; these ‛last mile’ communities currently receive no government or international aid, and fall well below the threshold for microfinance opportunities.
The villages that [they] work with exist with household incomes of less than $1.00/day with some as low as $0.10/day. At these levels, they are subsisting without a safety net and are constantly pushed back further in poverty by circumstances such as illness, floods, poor harvest, and violent conflict.”
The mission as expressed on the RTV website is well framed, but the words alone do not fully articulate the incredible challenge the people who do this work face, it also does not fully frame the humanity of their work. Sometimes, if you cannot personally experience what life is like in these villages, or see the miraculous change that that work engenders, it is just better to show the heart of the story in pictures.
Fertile land, but difficult terrain, more than women's work, but that is who does it.
Villages so remote, some only accessible by water.
Dugout canoes, not optimal especially when the wind pics up.
RTV offered a solution, but only with the villager's buy in.
Serious people with unbelievable challenges. Look at the determination in everryone's eyes.