ALL POSTS BY: Ryan Igleheart

There was an interesting commentary on CNN.com recently, written not by a reporter, but by the President of East Timor, who was recently critically wounded by a would-be assassin’s bullets. In José Ramos-Horta’s own words, he describes that he feels he has been given a second chance at life, a second chance to help the poor people of his country.

“I have been asked more than once how the assassination attempt has changed me. I would say that it has, primarily, reaffirmed my personal conviction and my ambition to lift people out of extreme poverty. Today, I have no other goal or ambition. The recent events have only served to reaffirm my lifelong commitment to helping the poor.”

Ramos-Horta sees the attempt on his life as a potential watershed event in the history of his country-an opportunity to turn the corner and . Factions have stopped fighting and that the political system has appeared to be more stabilized in his absence as he recovers in Australia.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/14/ramos.horta/index.html?eref=rss_world

José Ramos-Horta won the Nobel peace Prize in 1996 for his work on developing peaceful solutions in East Timor. A great social networking site that brings people together in support of poverty alleviation is The Community, found at http://www.thecommunity.com/ . Various initiatives include those attached to names like The Dalai Lama, Gorbachev, Carter, and Tutu. Anyone can join and voice their support for these types of efforts and solutions to poverty.

As a student in the Graduate Program in Economic Development, it is bold to make the statement that this one-day trip was arguably the best lesson I’ve had in economic development thus far. However, I stand by that statement with confidence.

The community of Tupelo is the best example that any developing community can use as a model for progress – a micro-pole with no natural resources, just good people, and solid commitment. The thing that struck me the most about Tupelo was the collective foresight that virtually each and every citizen of the big small town exhibited in their quest for success. There is no serious local government effort to galvanize all the efforts of the private citizens, only the ingenuity, hard work, and resourcefulness of the Community Development Foundation, which is run, shockingly, by only 22 employees. Their industry fostering capabilities have attracted industry giants from across the globe, such as Toyota, to what was once the poorest county in the country.

A most memorable time of the trip for me was during a meeting with some of the founders of the Community Development Foundation, when Henry Ford Jr., a local businessman said, the best way forward is to “Do good and do well.” This incorporates one of the most important lessons I have learned on this trip – that the best way to give is to create a job, which is the best welfare system.

Since Project Pyramid has returned from Bangladesh, we all have become hyper-tuned to media outlets reporting on the country and its people. NPR has reported a few stories on Bangladesh this month with the following depicting the advancements the country has made towards fighting tuberculosis. TB is a worldwide pandemic that kills nearly 1.5M people annually; yet it can be successfully treated through a daily, usually six-month medication regimen. Many individuals fail to complete their drug schedule for a variety of reasons (which can ultimately lead to drug-resistant strains appearing in communities), so many developing countries have implemented Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) in which community health workers distribute medication daily to TB patients. Patients usually put up a sum of money that will be returned once the treatment is completed, so there is an incentive for the patients to return to the community health worker day after day. This DOT model has made enormous strides towards improving health outcomes and curing people that otherwise would not have completed the full duration of TB treatment. During our trip out to the rural villages of Bangladesh we were able to see BRAC and its community health workers distribute a DOT session. This 6 minute NPR story describes BRAC’s and Bangladesh’s model for controlling TB.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88984787

Since returning to Nashville, I – along with my fellow travelers – have spent time reflecting on our experience in Bangladesh and thinking about how we can use this experience to make the future of Project Pyramid stronger. To build on the “poverty tourism” aspect that we’ve enjoyed thus far, how do we create real projects where we can make a real difference in the communities we visit? There have been some fantastic discussions about how we can create a permanent relationship with one of the villages we visited (namely, Asif’s village), and how we can make a lasting impression on that community through a special gift or project. And this, of course, leads to the question that ultimately lies behind everything that Project Pyramid stands for: how do we create sustainable business in a way that helps to alleviate poverty?

Our brainstorming sessions have resulted in many, many innovative and exciting ideas. Some possibilities that we are currently exploring are aimed at improving the local school, including starting a library, funding the construction of a new science lab, and even bringing in internet access. All of these ideas would be phenomenal gestures of goodwill – but sustainable business? Not so much. So we’ve further extended our discussions to look into projects that could be ongoing, from year-to-year, class-to-class. An opportunity for students to hit the ground running and contribute to a real project that is making a real difference. One of my favorite ideas at the moment (unfortunately I cannot take credit for this one) is potentially setting up our own micro-lending operation. The loans would be available to villagers looking to launch their own business, or even to expand or improve an existing business. Repaid loans would be returned to the primary fund, and any interest earned through this venture could be set aside to achieve larger capital projects – such as buying equipment that could help a farmer automate his work and become more productive, or perhaps building a science lab for the school.

Just a thought though, and always open to hearing other suggestions for innovative opportunities to make a difference.

Abby Smith, Owen Graduate School of Management

Before we left on our trip to Bangladesh The Tennessean had an article on our endeavor of Project Pyramid. Although the article itself was generous and warm in nature, the responses to this article on the newspaper’s website were not nearly as accepting or friendly in timbre. The majority of comments called us rich, white students who wanted to go do our liberal duty to give lip service to the Bengalis and feel a warm fuzzy feeling in response. Those comments cut deep when I read them and I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen- feeling a bit of fear of that actually happening in any kind of organization that involves the goal of poverty alleviation. I honestly wanted this trip to be more than just sightseeing, talking with some teachers and doctors and then coming home to my comfortable bed. Thankfully, the trip wasn’t that. We got to know people, began to understand their fears and struggles and got a sense of what life in Bangladesh is like. There were times when I felt we were getting quite preferential treatment, but those moments were balanced out when our guards acted as reminders that our safety would be greatly compromised if we didn’t have that treatment.

It is difficult to say what we accomplished on the trip, due to the nature of its design. Since we were there specifically for the purpose of information gathering and relationship building, there were no real concrete results. We hadn’t built any new houses, we didn’t help harvest any rice or sign any resolutions with companies. That nature of our trip makes the long-term implications of Project Pyramid so much more important. Because we are working towards a larger systematic treatment of this disease, not just a short-term fix for the symptom the work we are doing is not going to be drastic, sensational or exciting, at first. We will need prolonged faculty and student support for action and thoughtful dialogue. We will also need financial assistance from those interested in solving problems in this manner of partnerships and creative solutions. Those of you who are actually reading this blog probably fall into this category and we need your help and insights for our work. Help us prove those pessimistic critics who initially responded with fear and contrived results to our Tennessean article that we are not going to be limited to the failures of the past, but that we are attempting to build bridges with people across the world to brave new worlds where partnerships flourish through a shared interest.

Steve Mason, Divinity School