SOCIO-ECONOMICAL DEVELOPMENT
U.N. DEVELOPMENT RANKING HIGHLIGHTS AFRICA'S PLIGHT
The annual U.N. ranking of the global rich and poor Thursday showed that AIDS was pushing African nations further into misery while the most of the World crept toward higher development. Of the 177 nations included in the U.N. Development Index, African nations occupied all but three of the last 30 places. According to report, which is based on 2002 data, a citizen of Sierra Leone can expect to live to just over 34 years. The world has never dealt with a poverty catastrophe to rival that of Africa . Still initiatives to solve or at least address the issue have been far less than hoped.
, Administrator of the US Agency of International Development declared: “...When you see faces of emaciated children on television, it's too late. You have failed. The time to act is now.”
Development issues 20 years ago were easier to address than today. To make things crucially more difficult AIDS epidemic has come at the wrong moment for the continent. With a certain level of HIV infection, there are decrements in the economic growth. The connection between the HIV/AIDS crisis and the growing famine is patent. The nexus of hunger and HIV, had made HIV/AIDS the number one developmental crisis of all time. Weakened and sickened people are significantly more vulnerable to the effects of famine. Many countries are losing their most productive citizens on a daily basis and are dealing with a ballooning AIDS orphans problem.
The mission of Helping Hands International is to help the destitute Third World community in their efforts to achieve general social and economic welfare to ensure their own future. Helping Hands International's model of Poverty Reduction Strategies is to create an institutional structure that allows people to organize themselves into decision-making bodies, because people affected are in the best position to determine their needs.
The model of social organization developed by Helping Hands International will support the effectiveness and sustainability of community-level institutions with training programs by providing the accurate management and technical skills needed to plan, implement and maintain local development activities. This model enable a combination of a set of common development principles with the readiness to respond to specific contexts and needs. Development is about philanthropy, volunteerism, self-help, education and social welfare. All are inter-related.
DEVELOPMENT AID IN THE THIRD WORLD NATIONS MUST NOT NECESSARILY FLOW THROUGH GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS THAT HAVE PROVED TO BE CORRUPT AND INEPT
The duty of the developing nations to undertake a broad range of political, economic, and legal reforms as a condition for aid from the rich nations under the pact for global development is logical. However such demands need to be qualified. Because similar conditions and strings have been used in the past to systematically deny the neediest nations international financial assistance.
Rather than adhering strictly to this pact conditionally, generous donors can and have to bypass corrupt leaders by channeling development aid directly to poor communities through the network of formidable and result-oriented non-governmental organizations.
Program Design
Helping Hands International has developed strategies to reach new heights in the service delivery system, by offering:
Technical Assistance and Various Training for Local Population and NGOs
Work Force Development Assistance
cooperatives of women based on microcredit
Increased Agricultural Productivity
Productive Infrastructure Development
Rural Savings and Credit
Emergency Disaster Relief Assistance
Material Resources in Combinations Appropriate to Meet Specific Needs Such As:Malnutrition and Starvation Caused by Drought and Primitive Farming Practices
Incurable Diseases Caused by Poor Hygiene and Limited Medical Care
Varied Social Maladies: Lack of Economic Standards, Illiteracy, Unemployment
Natural and Manmade Disasters: Wars, Environmental Destruction
Helping Hands International seeks to improve knowledge, policies and programs to increase women's control over productive assets, such land and their poverty, and improve their income-earning capabilities and opportunities. Helping Hands International's activity in this area includes:
How global economic trends, such as liberalized trade policies, affect women's paid and unpaid work, and their reproductive health and rights.
The effect that government budget decisions at the national and local levels have on women and men.
The factors shaping adolescent work experience and how programs respond to their needs for economic resources.
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