Teach A Man To Fish

Every vulnerable population, whether they are “deserving” or “non-deserving”, are still human beings and thus have the right to have at least some form of assistance, short term or long term. We don’t know how or why they got in to their situation, we just know that they are there and need our help not our judgment. Alex Karev in Grey’s Anatomy best describes this, “ I’m no underdog, like this guy here. He’s fighting for his life, paying for someone else’s mistakes. It doesn’t make him an underdog. He just has to work harder to overcome the cards he was dealt.”

The hard part is how to help them. In this situation, it is better to help them on the individual level not the population level. In my group this week, the Abolish Poverty Movement, our basic plan was to create a self-sustaining work force by providing both training and microloans.

The first aspect is mandatory schooling, whether it’s high school or some form of vocational school. This will keep juveniles off the street and away from negative influences, such as drugs and gangs, and will save money for the state that can be reinvested into them. Secondly, this will create a higher skilled and disciplined workforce that can allow the vulnerable population to start pulling themselves up by the bootstraps.

The second aspect is microloans, where small amounts of money, anywhere from $50 to $500, is given to people with the hope they will spend the money starting businesses or investing. Consequently, jobs are created and the money will be repaid. Several of these programs have been started in smaller nations and have had success so far.

As with all solutions, the problem is finding funding to pay for all of these programs. If this hurdle can be cleared, this can become the first step to helping the vulnerable become less vulnerable.