5 Ways that Outsiders can Support Local Leaders
By Jennifer Lentfer, IDEX Director of Communications and creator of how-matters.org
I started my career during the height of the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. The vast numbers of “AIDS orphans” had the news media and thus the international aid and philanthropy community in a tizzy at the turn of the century. With parents dying at such rates, leaving so many children behind, how were these countries ever going to have a future?
I lived and worked in southern Africa at the time, working for a large US-based international NGO. What is undeniable to me in this time was that most children were getting by not because of sweeping national-level policies or major internationally-funded programs.
Rather, I learned that those who survive and thrive do so because of the efforts of people who organize their communities to extend support and services. The 300+ grassroots organizations I’ve worked with were linked to local churches, schools, or clinics. They were made up of neighbors, and friends, and extended families who were, by and large, organized around one purpose—to fill the gap for children and families not being helped otherwise.