I like investing in The Hunger Project because I’d love to see a world that’s self-sustainable, where we don’t have to apply band-aid solutions onto problems as they arise but we create an environment where every community can support itself – to be able to deal with issues as they arise.
The reason why I think The Hunger Project nails that so well is the focus on visiting issues from the ground up. Through education, microfinancing and many other programs, you can get to a point where the community can run it all themselves.
There are a lot of issues in the world and there are a lot of different causes that you can support. Creating more self-reliant, empowered communities is such a great way to have a larger impact in the grand scheme of things. It’s all about creating long-term resilience.
Sustainability is so important to focus on because if you look at every problem in the world, the quantity is so crazy, you can never really make a dent. Empowering communities to be able to support themselves in the long run means that you can make really solid, meaningful steps forward. You don’t have to keep revisiting issues. It’s more meaningful than any kind of one-off aid. It’s the ‘teach a man to fish’ versus the ‘give a man a fish’ mentality, which I think is universally understood to be a good way to go about things.
My role as a younger person is much more about creating awareness. With our generation these days, there’s so much going on – there’s new technology, everything is moving, and the world is changing so quickly that it’s very easy to lose sight and lose track of the core, fundamental issues that have existed for decades. Everyone knows that poverty is an issue but it’s more about understanding the steps people can take to help.
Elliott Watkins, has personally invested in The Hunger Project since 2014 and with his mother, Alison, father, Rod and sister, Grace, since 2013. Elliott also visited Ethiopia with The Hunger Project in 2009 with his father.