As people take stock of the issues of poverty in Canada, in North America and throughout the world, we are at the point of admitting the truth: dollars don't do it. This is counter-intuitive; if people don't have enough money, then just give money, but that is not enough of an answer. After many years of government programs and international aid, poverty reduction has not happened and poverty elimination? Almost not at all.
Reading from the summary of a recent re-think by an American bank calling for community action, the Southern Bancorp situated in Arkansas and the Mississippi Delta, invested millions of dollars to mitigate poverty in these communities, but the effort failed to have a significant impact on reducing poverty. Sad AND true. We don't understand the complexities of this issue well and have spent years reducing it to a single definition.
On Sunday March 13th, So Fine Canada will be speaking with some guests who understand the issue and who can speak to the changes needed and some ways in which we can approach them. John Stapleton of Open Policy Ontario will be talking about 'Food Deserts' here in Canada. Janice Abbott of Atira Women's Resource Society will be discussing how her organization created social enterprises to assist them in their mission and Josh Rubin and Gabriel D’Amico-Mazza of Build Nutrition are hoping to impact poverty in developing countries through better health.
