Washington, DC — A name that many people associate with disaster relief has become a large humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. Now, its ambitious initiative to help communities worldwide have reliable access to safe water has made the cut in an American Express online competition. The company is inviting cardholders – including a wide variety of affiliate cards – to register their preferences in a vote that will narrow the field of applicants seeking one million U.S. dollars for development funding to five projects. Dr. Helene Gayle, Care President and CEO, talked to AllAfrica's Katy Gabel about the organization and the hope that American Express members will participate in the last two days of voting.
Many people have heard of Care in the context of disaster relief, but few know about day-to-day operations. What does Care do?
As you mentioned, our focus started on emergency and disaster relief coming out of providing food aid and other immediate aid for people who had been affected by World War II. After WWII, we were very involved with the reconstruction of Europe and providing assistance to people whose lives had been torn apart as a result of that. After that effort was over we began to work more in countries whose economies were still developing, initially on emergency and disaster relief. But, increasingly, our focus was on long-term, sustainable development and fighting poverty - trying to have a long-term impact on people's lives and building capacity of individuals and communities to change their lives for the better.
Care works in 66 countries around the world, with a focus on the poorest of the poor, those living in extreme poverty. in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and other transitional economies around the world. We help people with their basic human needs, whether it's access to clean and safe water, health services, helping to build capacity through providing economic opportunities, educational opportunities or improving the means of economic livelihood through things like agriculture.
We are also helping people change the environments that keep them from being empowered and from developing their full potential. The water project is part of this.
Explain what that is.
The Members Project is a project American Express started that allows them to use their corporate philanthropy in ways that improve the lives of poor people around the world [by inviting proposals and allowing American Express members to vote their choices online, leading to five projects that each receive one million dollars]. Our American Express Members Project will help increase the access to clean and safe water in poor communities. There are about one billion people in our world who don't have access to clean and safe water and about 2.5 billion people who don't have access to safe, sanitary, and hygienic conditions. So this issue of access to water and sanitation is a huge focus for us.
The 2006 UNDP Human Development Report "Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty, and the Global Water Crisis" highlighted how urgent water policy problems are. Was your project inspired by the report?
Well, not specifically, although we really welcome that report, because it highlights both the magnitude and the consequences of water issues. But it also helps to paint the picture that there is a lot that can be done to make a difference to improve people's access to clean and safe water. With changes in climate that are occurring around the world, this will continue to be a greater and greater problem. We put a high priority on water, because we know it is fundamental to basic human survival.
What will this water project specifically be doing?
We will be working in poor communities to improve water services and to look at sustainable funding for access to water. We also help communities to work on understanding how to use water in ways that conserve what is, in many places, a precious resource.
Describe the nature of the work on the ground - do you do any actual digging of boreholes, for example?
Yes - we do the whole gamut of things. But increasingly - because what we want to do is to help people develop the capacity to solve their own problems - we also work with communities around the management of water resources and financing of water resources.
We really look at the whole gamut – from the hardware of digging wells to what it takes to manage a water system for a community, so that once you leave, the people are actually able to maintain their water system and afford it.
You briefly mentioned engaging with policy - do you ever work with governments?
We do, because in many of the communities where we work, access to water is unequal. Part of that has to do with governments not being accountable for making the services available to their communities. So we work with governments to scale up programs that we know can work and can provide good models. We work with policy makers to make sure that what is often a scarce resource gets to people who need it the most, in the best way possible.
How crucial is this potential funding from American Express to the project?
It's critical. We rely on a variety of different types of donations - government funding, private funding, private individual contributions, corporate funding, and foundations. We work hard to be able to get the kind of resources that can make a difference to sustaining things that will help improve people's lives.
How much of your project is bringing publicity to water issues around the world?
We do that broadly. Advocacy is a large part of what we do at Care - trying to bring the issues of fighting global poverty to the forefront, whether it is water, access to health services, basic education, or financial services for the poor. We do a lot to make sure that people try to educate the public and policy makers about the things that can make the biggest difference in ending global poverty.
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How can people get involved?
People can go to our website, www.care.org, [where] we have a variety of ways that people can get involved. For instance, we have our Care Action Network, which is a network of volunteers that write letters or go and visit their policy makers or elected officials in Washington to make clear the issues that affect those living in poverty around the world. So you can become part of our Care Action Network. We have a new campaign. Sheila Johnson, business woman and philanthropist, has a new challenge called the "I Am Powerful" Challenge. She will match dollar-for-dollar up to four million dollars - anything that people contribute to her campaign. The website to make contributions is www.iampowerful.org. There are a variety of different ways to get involved. [On] our web site we talk about the ways to get involved - anything from informing their family and friends about the issues to getting more actively involved through campaigning on some of these issues.
And you're asking people to vote for Care's water project on the American Express Members Project website. That has to be right away, doesn't it? The deadline is soon.
22 July!
To vote for a development project, visit http://www.membersproject.com/home.action
