When visiting a small village of about 300 people in Namibia, we witnessed an enormous waste of outside charitable organization efforts in establishing a community center, vegetable garden, and water system. The infrastructure was created and eventually abandoned probably because projects were imposed upon local villages and not developed with their particular objectives in mind. Moreover, the local collectivity was not trained properly for continuity and the efforts and investment were ultimately lost.
Our Story
After discussing with active members of differing large and small foundations as well as with local Namibians, we discovered that there was a large discrepancy between the actual needs of these collectivities and the assumed needs addressed by well-intentioned people. Sometimes the needs are well identified, however, the projects implemented do not respect local traditions and ideas making it extremely difficult to provide continuity without constant dependency on outside resources. Therefore, local selfsufficiency is impossible. We determined that this is a reoccurring problem worldwide that can be solved by choosing to support researched local projects, providing locally attainable resources and implementing proper training for continuity for collectivities to reach their full potential and become completely self-sufficient.
We have been working alongside many businesses with innovative technologies willing to share and adapt their products and expertise with collectivities. The basic needs for self-sufficiency are similar to all collectivities: economic activities, water, food, energy, healthcare, education, connectivity, and exchange. Solutions readily exist and fortunately, businesses and individuals are willing to participate in helping address the global needs of the less fortunate. We are facilitators both locally and with our global partners to help implement environmentally and economically viable activities that are easily adaptable from one collectivity to the next. This platform empowers one village which can be multiplied to one thousand. Hence, the creation of The 1000 Villages Foundation.