ETP empowers poor communities to self-reliance through education, health, and micro loans programs. We work directly with the poor by teaching them how to fish for the rest of their lives versus feeding them for one day, empowering them to become self-reliant versus dependent on handouts; engaging them versus disenfranchising them, and empowering them to make informed decisions. We empower poor communities through the following programs:
1. Education Program
Recognizing that without education there is very little hope to break the vicious cycle of poverty, ETP places education at the center of his work.
GOALS:
Enhance the academic performance, literacy, and leadership skills of impoverished and academically weak students (K12), and illiterate children, youth, and adults.
Click here for details about ETP’s work in the field of education: pictures of the classrooms in Tonhon, school supplies, literacy in Haoussabougou.
2. Health Program
The lack of access to basic health services is both a cause and consequence of poverty. Sub Saharan Africans live forty years shorter than Americans. Swaziland has the shortest life expectancy in Africa, 34.1 years, followed by Zambia, Angola, Liberia, and Zimbabwe (The Seattle Times, August 12, 2007).
GOALS:
Provide community health education by training villagers women and men, as Community Health Agents, who in turn will train the rest of the village
Provide primary and preventative healthcare services by building village-clinics, upgrading existing health services by training medical staff, and/or donating medical supplies.
Click here for details about ETP’s work in healthcare: Pictures of bed nets in Ghana, Tonhon, Community health agents, transitional health, etc.
3. Micro loans Program
ETP believes that the poor people are not poor because they are lazy. We recognize that poverty is a multidimensional and complex phenomenon, and can no longer be defined as the lack of money.
The poor lack the proper tools to unleash their entrepreneurial spirit, that’s why ETP micro loans program aims at helping the poorest families in poor communities to help themselves overcome poverty through the supply of micro loans associated with financial and general literacy.
Our program targets women because they are the most vulnerable and poorest subpopulation, while being the backbone of humanity.
GOAL:
Provide the poorest women in poor communities with micro loans ($25-$200) integrated with general and financial literacy to break themselves the vicious cycle of poverty.
Method: Inspired by Mohamed Yunus and the Grameen model, ETP will use the group rotation model tailored to the community we serve. The collective responsibility of the group serves as collateral. ETP plans to launch its first micro loan pilot project in the summer of 2011.
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