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How does it profit a child to come to school with an empty stomach? What about for a person falling sick due to poor household living conditions? Will I shock you when I confess that, AIDS, Malaria, Dysentery, Cholera are mostly diseases of the poor? I say categorically that a 'working’, well-paid person will educate their children in the best schools they can afford, go for better medication and sleep in sanitary conditions; life can be better without government welfare supplies. The point is - empower the family income sources [i]then[/i] save your welfare benefits and defense spending for other development projects.
It is true that; "Most wealthy people are self-starters." Many of my countrymen do not realize that their cries of poverty will never end until they build 'a working nation'. And a nation cannot work until its individual citizens take on the duty [i]themselves[/i] to work for a common good. When it comes to working for a common good, many people turn a deaf ear to the call because, to many, the government has been an instrument of oppression.
Working to make the government rich is a joke - any person in good wits will laugh at the idea. For one, government officials are corrupt and selfish. They don't care about the plight of their people. That's why people should be challenged to focus on uplifting their household incomes for their own benefit. It matters to them.
Instead of government hiring more people to run after tax defaulters, criminals, and rebels, it should hire people to offer consultancy services at local levels; to farmers, small-scale traders, self-developers, and job seekers. The government should hire adult education and continuing studies specialists for each village. They could move around household to household, teaching home economics, family finance management and other possible income generation projects for a household. Training at household levels will increase MDG awareness within each community and the spark the desire to break the circle of poverty.
The Solution
I have been in touch with friends, some in and some out of college. We want to make an experimental project with a focus on household oriented development. Our strategy is to use a door-to-door education/consultancy system, teaching income generation projects, finance management (banking, borrowing and saving), housing skills, adult-education opportunities, health monitoring, employment services, etc.
Our Method
1. We sit down with a household to talk about their present economic situation.
2. We inquire about what they think can be done, if nothing, we make suggestions.
3. We discuss plans together on how to bring their ideas to fruition.
4. We build a follow-up mechanism that doesn’t interfere with the household's self-reliance and independence.
We hope to recruit more like-minded people to this project and help break the ring of poverty. We have yet to start the first village experiment, from where we shall share the success of our project with others. We can also turn to our local authorities if we need their help and they are willing. Nevertheless, we are ready to sacrifice anything to bring our countrymen to where they should be.
I still stand strong writing MDGs can work best when well absorbed at household levels. There is no better way to reach households in my country than meeting the people concerned face to face. Where they are at home. Then together, we move to 2015.
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Writer Profile
Mike
Mike Ssegawa
ssegy2001@yahoo.com
A Journalist with Daily Monitor, Uganda. I have a passion for development, especially for the youth.
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