Poverty Alleviation through Charity

I am surprised to find that there is an alternative to poverty reduction through micro finance / micro lending. The program is run by The BOMA fund in Africa. Through three programs, the Rural Entrepreneur Access Project (REAP), Agents of Change, and Cows For Kids, BOMA helps groups in northern Kenya learn how to run businesses, become leaders, and start on the road to self-sufficiency. Executive Director of the BOMA fund, Kathleen Colson says that we focus on economic empowerment, primarily with women, through the Rural Entrepreneur Access Project, or REAP. That's our signature program of micro-enterprise development.We identify and train people within villages to work as business mentors. They must have strong community roots, work well with women, and have a sustainable income through some kind of business. They then organize small businesses around groups of five women and provide them with business skills training and a small grant of 150 dollars. The groups are mentored for two years. She says that I think that grants are the right way to go for an effective poverty alleviation program when you're dealing in areas where you have the truly ultra-poor who don't have experience or skills with business. It's not so much about the 150 dollar grant as it is about the business skills training program and helping people identify the discipline that's required in starting these very small businesses. Her theory of helping the poors is very much in line with Quranic injunctions. "They ask thee what they should spend (in charity). Say: Whatever ye spend that is good is for parents and kindred and orphans and those in want and for wayfarers. And whatever ye do that is good Allah knoweth it well". Aya 215 Sura Al-Baqara