Inspiration Thursday: Empowerment Culture

“When we want to help the poor, we usually offer them charity. Most often we use charity to avoid recognizing the problem and finding the solution for it. Charity becomes a way to shrug off our responsibility. But charity is no solution to poverty. Charity only perpetuates poverty by taking the initiative away from the poor. Charity allows us to go ahead with our own lives without worrying about the lives of the poor. Charity appeases our consciences.”
― Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

 These words of Muhammad Yunus got me thinking and for many reasons, setting out to create a brand that empowers people, I find myself looking to satisfy what the true meaning of Empowerment will be for our part of the world. I have since found, that simply giving money or other material supply to the poor is not empowerment.
  
I believe when we decide to help the poor, we really have to choose either of two options, empowerment or charity. The easier option is charity. But it is also the one with the direst of consequences, namely dependency.

Our commitment to the poor and less privileged should be to empower them.  We must make it our goal to create lasting solutions by providing the educational, psychological, and economic support they require to improve their own status in life.

You can empower! Start. Do something with what you have, from where you are.  Do not wait until the government create conducive state policies, it may be too long before that happens

At the same time, do not chose the easy way out. Chose to make a true difference. Chose to empower.