A few moments ago at the CGI panel on "Infrastructure and Human Dignity" Ashoka Fellow Ingrid Munro was talking about the difference between simple charity and enabling someone to increase their sense of dignity.
Ingrid's organization, Jamii Bora, provides credit to the most marginalized populations in Kenya and she was saying: "when a former prostitute or thief say, 'look at me, I am now a tailor, I now have a small business, I now have four employees' that is dignity". And so she made the point that to provide someone with dignity is to provide them with the opportunity to build something for themselves by themselves, to be enterprising.
Similarly, in a parallel panel on "Infrastructure of Place", Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow Albina Ruiz was asked by the panelist if it was controversial that she enabled waste pickers to continue in that line of work. (Waste pickers make a living by sifting through trash and are usually seen as a problem by society and governments).
Instead, Albina said that city government should see waste pickers as a solution to waste management : "[waste pickers] are entrepreneurs, they are not sticking their hands out saying 'please help me,' so we're giving them credit".
Read more about Ingrid Munro; about Albina Ruiz.
