Why Blog About Poverty?

Yesterday I went into a bookstore and asked the clerk, "Do you have any books on poverty reduction in the developing world?"  It became a great discussion.  "Well, we have some books on Yunus, and some things by Jeffrey Sachs," he replied.   That wasn't what I was looking for.  Then he said, "I've read those, but I'm not sold on their approach..."

The young man mentioned that he is Catholic, and very interested in helping the poor.  He told me 3 times in the course of 15 minutes that it was his faith that pushed his inner compass towards grass roots help for the poor.  I mentioned using an approach that isn't governmental, and it isn't micro credit but rather an industry creation approach.  He shared some frustration that there isn't very much information available because this field is fairly new.  I asked him, "So, do you blog?  Do you go to YouTube.com?  Do most of the people you know do the same?  Of course he said, "Sure!"  Then maybe today this is one of the best venues to open up dialog about alternative approaches to poverty reduction.

Ian, thanks.  You got me off my butt and today I'm going to share ideas that people can comment on about what we're learning as we help the poor.