Creating Ladders of Opportunity for Unskilled Workers.
Just pause to give a thought for our less privileged fellow human beings.
Changes in the global economy have the potential to leave unskilled workers behind if they are not given opportunities to develop skills and engage in enterprise.
The current trends toward greater deregulation, privatization and integration of the global economy affect the labor market. In the developed world, unskilled workers find their jobs are slowly being replaced by new technology or outsourced to low income countries.
According to the UN International Labor Organization (ILO), lifting unskilled workers out of poverty will require “creating new cycles of opportunity and local wealth creation” that “respect the opinions of poor people.”
“People in poverty go through each day with the will to survive, but without the support and possibilities to move up the ladder of opportunity,” says the ILO Director-General, Juan Somavia. “Imagine where their efforts could take them if that ladder were in place. Our common responsibility is to help put it there.”
Let Us Help build ladders out of poverty. (My article on wikiHow copy pasted here.) titled..
"How to Fight Against Poverty in Developing Countries as an Individual"
Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love —Martin Luther King
Let's help Build Ladders out of Poverty for the less privileged fellow human beings.
Helping Build Ladders out of poverty means extending an arm of help, love and compassion to make people self reliant financially and psychologically. We just need to replace their ignorance with some skills set,which they will use to build ladders to self sustainability and prosperity. If you feel you need organizational and financial backing for this work. You will be waiting all your life in expectation of support but actually not doing anything. Only thing you need to start is "you". The rest will automatically fall in line.
This article is focused towards the people of the developing world in Asia, Africa and South America who constitute more than 80% of world’s population, and where the divide between the urban and the rural is huge in terms of education, economic sustainability, culture and thinking.
If you are in the urban or semi urban parts of these continents, it means you are endowed with some skills that is making you self sustainable. Unknowing to you, you have some thing, that you can impart to not only reform people but also to empower them.
Simple argument is what makes you sustainable can also make to certain extent others also sustainable. Exceptions are always there.
Make an inventory of the skills you can contribute. The skills you can impart in rural areas depending on your expertise are:
⦁ Metal smithing
⦁ Plumbing
⦁ Carpentry
⦁ Simple accounts & admin work (like maintaining books, filing, muster, basic computer skills )
⦁ Earthenware and pottery
⦁ Cycle, Car & bike repair
⦁ Stitching & embroidery
⦁ Making, Preserving & packing food items (snacks, pickles, sauce, fruit drinks, meat,fish,eggs,etc.)
⦁ Nursing & Midwifery.
⦁ Weaving
⦁ Beehive, poultry, piggery,& animal husbandry
⦁ Computer literacy - Computer literacy is an ongoing program in many villages, community centers are not only equipped with computers, but also with internet also. All they need is individuals with skills who can do the imparting. Otherwise also village administration will be too happy to provide them.
All these skills will have application in their village itself, and products can be sold in the nearby rural areas. Apart from this, there are development agencies working on the projects in the rural areas, which would be happy to absorb locally available semiskilled work force. Every backward rural village in Asia & Africa has development projects financed by the local community, state government, national government, or international aid agencies.
Apart from these, there are many religious agencies which are also financing development projects. Employment opportunities are galore, but for want of skilled work force locally, outsiders are being recruited.
Find a way to reach the rural areas. If you are in Asia, or Africa, you just need to travel 100 to 150 miles to reach backward rural areas. There are community places like schools, or community centers. Which you can use for unpacking, overnight stay, bath and changeover needs.
Establish contact with the village head or the tribal head. These are the people who will be naturally interested in the welfare of the people in their village, and they are also in position to influence the villagers and organize the imparting programs. These people generally take care of the needs & comforts of the trainers also.
If you are training them to manufacture products, you need to train them to:
⦁ form cooperatives societies and collectively market their produce their wares in the urban and semi urban markets
⦁ eliminate middlemen
⦁ avoid internal competition.
Do not worry about financing to set up cottage industry. This is not your headache, once you impart the skills, there are local micro finance entities that will not only finance these people to set up cottage industry, they will also actively help in marketing the produce and collect their repayments.
Tips
The imparting can be done at individual level without the need of costly equipments, organization, or finance. This can also be done during spare time during weekends. If you are a student you can do it in vacations also.
You can start the work individually or form a small group of like-minded people with different skillets.
You need to select the place where imparting is needed most.
Once you go and achieve your objective, come back and write a “How to” article to enrich the already rich treasures of wikiHow.
Warnings
Compliance and support in the beginning will be very slow, You should not lose heart.
People in these backward places are slow and reluctant learners,you need to have patience with them.
I sincerely hope there are some take aways for the people intending to do CSR/Development for the needy.
Please feel free to share your views and experiences in the comments section on this page or on Linkedin or other social networks.
Let us help people addicted to work and earning.
Best Wishes
Shyam
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