In order to address the issue of poverty alleviation, it is important to first define poverty. According to Webster Dictionary, poverty is defined as, “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions” (Webster & Perry, 1924). In response, the western solution to ending poverty includes providing food, education, and healthcare to the less fortunate.
Walker (2015), author of Multidimensional Poverty, defines multidimensional poverty as the consequences that people experience as a result of having limited resources. Consequences include social isolation, powerlessness, and psychological illnesses. A study by Corbett and Fikkert (2012), authors of When Helping Hurts, found that people in poverty tend to describe their situation in regard to how they are received socially and how they feel psychologically. They tend to refer to themselves as being powerless, hopeless, inferior, and humiliated. Therefore, poverty encompasses more than a lack of material things, so the solution to ending it can not only be centered around achieving a materialistic life.
At SEED. we are dedicated to welcoming a better way of life driven by empowerment. Rather than providing short term relief, SEED. strives to create long term solutions by empowering locals to provide solutions for the problems their own communities are experiencing. At SEED. we believe that through seeking out these community partners and supporting them financially, we can not only empower them to create solutions that will ultimately alleviate their own poverty but also help them create ripples of empowerment that will extend beyond them, locally and globally.