Overall Objectives
Supporting projects that will:
- Create employment
- Improve life skills
- Increase productivity
- Utilise local resources
- Embed Christian principles into the workspace
Principles and Objectives
The serious scale of poverty affecting a great cross section of the population in sub-Saharan Africa has been well publicized. Young and old, educated and illiterate, are trapped in a hopeless situation with nothing to cling to but their faith. The Apostle Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians that, ‘God shall supply all your need’, is a promise they hold on to; that promise, however, is often met through the compassionate response of those who are prepared to give a little of their ‘surplus’ to meet the basic needs of ‘the poor’. This Christian ethic of ‘equity’, taught in the New Testament, is one of SHAREAfrica’s founding principles.
The long history of humanitarian projects has shown that donating material goods creates a dependency which stifles growth and risks further disparity between rich and poor; often caused by the unfair distribution of resource. Investing in activities that will improve productivity and stimulate growth is a better way to achieve lasting improvement. However, the justification for such investment doesn’t stack up against the expectations of the market, since inflation, currency, and inefficient trading mechanisms, make ‘hard currency’ investments unattractive. Nevertheless the intangible values of environment protection, stable governance, human rights, are all important values which, unfortunately, are of little interest to most investors. Yet, without investment, supported by political and international will, the eradication extreme inequality will remain a far off dream. It is therefore, for the meantime, left to the efforts NGO’s and NFP’s to implement corrective measures as best they can.
The value chain involves seed farming, small scale farming (mainly legumes), and a food processing. By managing the inter dependency of each activity, the benefits all and protects the weak. The following images illustrate our objectives.
