Credit: workman.com

Trickle Up lost a good friend this week.  Peter Workman, a generous donor since 2004, died of brain cancer at the age of 74.

We often tell the stories of Trickle Up participants but rarely share the stories of those who make our work possible.  So I want to take a moment to tell you about Peter, whom I first met in 2001 when his company published my wife’s book about philanthropy, “Rambam’s Ladder.”  When I joined Trickle Up, I was delighted to see that Peter had become a supporter via an introduction from our board member Alan Patricof.

Peter was an entrepreneur who founded the highly successful Workman Publishing Co.  Chances are that you may have read at least one of their books, such as “What To Expect When You are Expecting,” “Brain Quest,” a Sandra Boynton children’s book, “Water for Elephants” or one of their dozens or calendars or cookbooks.  It was always a treat to visit Peter at his office, both for the genuine interest he took in Trickle Up and his invitation to take as many books as I’d like.

Peter also was a man who cared deeply about justice and expanding opportunity for those who weren’t born into it.  Among the causes he supported were Goddard-Riverside Community Center, Prep for Prep, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU.  The cause that was closest to his heart was David Workman Grant Program at his alma mater Deerfield Academy.  In memory of his younger brother, Peter established the program to help students fund and implement their own humanitarian projects.

In October 2007, Peter invited me to come with him to Deerfield to meet with the students, talk about Trickle Up and perhaps inspire one or more to make service an important part of their lives.  It was a three-hour drive each way.  Peter sometimes came off as a bit of absent-minded professor, and I was a bit nervous about spending that much time with someone who had been only a casual acquaintance.  The ride turned out to be a most memorable day, which he extended towards the end of the trip as we approached City Island.  Unexpectedly, he pulled toward the exit lane and asked, “Want to stop for a lobster and a beer?” Even after hearing my presentation to his students and a lot of conversation during the ride to and from Deerfield, he spent most of our meal asking about Trickle Up and talking about public service.

You can read about Peter’s life at: http://www.workman.com/blog/2013/04/peter-workman-10191938-472013/

Trickle Up is fortunate to have people like Peter join us in our work.

“We’ve started using the river’s water for agriculture. The river has been there forever but we didn’t use it for our fields. Our Field Worker didn’t give us the river, but he did give us the knowledge to use it for cultivation.”

Saro Mandi

For women like Saro Mandi, who lives in Purulia District of West Bengal in India, change comes in small but meaningful increments. Her tiny plot of land once provided paddy for the family for 3 months; now with better irrigation she also grows a vegetable crop to sell for cash. A cash crop means she can invest in livestock to grow her asset base and save weekly. Weekly savings meetings bring her together with friends from her Self-Help Group–Cholagora Licher Sarna–ultrapoor women like Saro who are now making big changes in their community.

Incremental and meaningful change is the key to success in Trickle Up’s program. However, not everyone is successful, and variation in performance occurs both at the individual level and between self-help groups.  Understanding the reasons for variations in performance is critical to improving program design and implementation.

While individual circumstance and luck play a role, the quality of livelihood planning processes, relationships with field workers, and group dynamics all appear to be at least as important. A combination of factors are required to foster the virtuous cycles necessary for people in ultra-poverty to confront the multiple barriers they face in building sustainable livelihoods. These barriers include limited financial and productive assets along with weak social capital and limited technical skills. They also include the social and psychological legacy of livelihood strategies that are largely oriented to meeting survival needs, resulting in a low capacity to absorb risk and envisage a viable trajectory out of poverty.

When virtuous cycles are triggered participants, their fellow group members, and field workers are rewarded, building motivation and fostering close, supportive relationships and more positive outcomes. However, the opposite can also occur, and a lack of initial success can undermine motivation and de-incentivize engagement, particularly if livelihood planning processes fail to result in a full sense of ownership over activities.

“When a Single Path Diverges: Learning from Trickle Up’s Livelihood Program,”  by Jo Sanson and Jui Gupta and published by ACCESS Development Services for the Sitaram Rao Livelihoods India Case Study Compendium 2012, explores lessons from Trickle Up’s experience in Purulia through the experiences of two different groups of women: one that performed well and one that performed poorly.

Read the full case study: When a Single Path Diverges: Learning from Trickle Up’s Livelihood Program

Women receive weekly coaching support from Field Workers who help them think to the future, find new strategies for earning money and facilitate their progress out of poverty. Read this CGAP – Consultative Group to Assist the Poor blogpost by Janet Heisey for how we’re learning more about effective coaching.

On November 29th, 2012, Trickle Up hosted Coaching Matters: Unleashing Human Potential, a panel to help bring about new understanding of Trickle Up participants’ journeys out of ultrapoverty – with the help of their coaches.

The panelists included:

• John Starks, New York Knicks Guard, 1990-1998
• Reshmi Paul, Ph.D., Executive Coach & Leadership Consultant, ghSMART
• Janet Heisey, Director, Technical & Strategic Alliances, Trickle Up
• Bill Abrams, President, Trickle Up (Moderator)

From left to right: Trickle Up Development Officer Shira Beery, Knicks Legend John Starks, Trickle Up President Bill Abrams

As Knicks great John Starks said, “Coaches are vital… you may not be putting the coaching label on it, but every day we are coached by people around us.” He would not have made it in the NBA if mentors like his brother or Pat Riley hadn’t seen something in him that he didn’t recognize in himself, and that’s exactly why coaching is essential to Trickle Up’s work with ultrapoor women around the world. But coaching is a tough gig, and Reshmi Paul’s advice to Trickle Up is to “create a mechanism of training the trainers so you don’t lose knowledge” and to enable scalability. Both Reshmi and John said that, if a coach is working too hard, he’s not doing his job well; the mark of a great coach is someone who empowers others to “police themselves.”

When we first announced this panel, we got a few puzzled responses asking about the relevance of the New York Knicks or Fortune 500 CEOs to Trickle Up’s work helping women start on a pathway out of poverty. John and Reshmi, in conversation with our own Janet Heisey, found the common denominators.  One was the necessity for coaches to be persistent and patient. That reminded me of a Trickle Up participant in India who told us: “When dada [affectionate nickname for field worker] first approached, we were so shy that we would cover our heads and hide. But he was relentless and told us not to be afraid. Finally we gave in.”

According to the United Nations, over one billion people, or approximately 15% of the world’s population, live with some form of a disability.

Known as “the world’s largest minority”, people with disabilities often face a variety of barriers, from social exclusion in their communities to an inability to access economic opportunities. Not surprisingly, people with disabilities account for 20% of the population living in extreme poverty.

This is why this year’s theme for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities is “removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all”. Evidence shows that when barriers to their inclusion are removed and persons with disabilities are empowered to participate fully in everyday life, their entire community benefits. Barriers faced by persons with disabilities are, therefore, a detriment to society as a whole, and accessibility is necessary to achieve progress and development for all.

Trickle Up is proud of its commitment to include people with disabilities in our work. Most recently in October 2010, supported by USAID, we launched the Microenterprise Opportunities for People with Disabilities project in Guatemala to support and enable 320 people with disabilities to develop livelihood activities, learn how to best manage those activities and begin saving regularly. To this date, our project works to remove barriers that inhibit our participants from reaching their fullest potential. Prior to this in 2009, Trickle Up began the Stronger Voices, Sustainable Livelihoods project to support people with disabilities in Mali and won InterAction’s first Disability Inclusion Award. In 2011, 14%of Trickle Up participants are affected by disabilities. Learn more…

Magdalena Tambriz Cuc de Xolcaja is one of the 320 members in Guatemala that Trickle Up has helped to develop a sustainable livelihood, save money, learn new business skills and gain new-found confidence for their future.  For most of her 30 years, Magdalena was completely dependent on her family. As one of six children, she was kept indoors by her parents, who wanted to protect her from the stigma that goes with having a disability in her community. When Trickle Up began recruiting people with disabilities in her community to join our project, she was keen to seize the opportunity. In an interview with Trickle Up’s President Bill Abrams, Magdalena explained how her Trickle Up grant gave her the capital she needed to buy her materials for her weaving business. One day, she hopes to pursue her dream of starting a food cart business. Read her full story here…

Join us today, December 3^rd, as we recognize the incredible achievements of Magdalena and other people with disabilities around the world! 

This is a day when we at Trickle Up take time to reflect, recognize and celebrate the economic and social achievements of women and men past, present and future.

Featured Blogpost: French Fries Or Weaving: Choosing The “Right” Business

When I met Magdalena Tambriz Cuc de Xolcaja, she was sitting on the dirt floor of her home with a backstrap loom and a tableau of brilliant blue embroidery. Even in a country renowned for the skills of its weavers, Magdalena’s craftsmanship is a stand out.

So why does she really want to cook fried potatoes for a living?

Read more…

(This blog is part of a series in recognition of the UN’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Oct. 17)

Trickle Up has been featured in an article by Jayanta Mallick in the Hindu Business Line. As our regional office in Kolkota, India begins work on an ambitious expansion, Trickle Up’s Regional Representative Jui Gupta walks us through her plan of action: “We are going in for registration as a not-for-profit company under Section 25 of the Companies Act. We have also decided to take Government and private funds to expand our grassroots activity.”

“We believe the work we are doing is a responsibility of a welfare state & society at large”, Jui adds.

Trickle Up’s India program has served 12,000 ultrapoor women—the poorest of the poor— with training, a spark grant and savings group support in some eight districts in the eastern states of Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal since 2006.

Click here to read “Trickle Up preparing for Indian identity”

Here at Trickle Up, we strive to break the cycle of inter-generational poverty through empowering ultrapoor women to work towards and dream of a better future for their children.

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn are Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists and great friends of ours here at Trickle Up. Have you read their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide?

Well, it has now been turned into a documentary and premieres in 4 days! Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide was filmed in ten countries. It follows Kristof, WuDunn, and celebrity activists America Ferrera, Diane Lane, Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle Union, and Olivia Wilde on a journey to tell the stories of inspiring, courageous individuals. Across the globe, oppression is being confronted, and real meaningful solutions are being fashioned through health care, education, and economic empowerment for women and girls. Such problems as gender-based violence and maternal mortality, which needlessly claim one woman every 90 seconds, present to us the single most vital opportunity of our time: the opportunity to make a change. All over the world, women are seizing this opportunity—including Trickle Up participants!

In their book, Kristof and WuDunn show how a little support can transform the lives of women and girls all over the world. “Women are not the problem,” they write, “they are the solution”.  How so? Studies have indicated that when women hold assets or gain income, that money is more likely to be spent on nutrition, medicine and housing; consequently, their families are healthier. According to Half the Sky, for every dollar a woman earns, she invests 80 cents in her family; men are more likely to spend the majority on themselves. If a woman is given access to microfinance, livestock gifts and proper vocational training, she can begin to take charge of her own life and of her family’s income. The outcome? She becomes the solution to combating gender inequality.

Putting money in the hands of women can have a positive long-term effect on the whole family, which is why Trickle Up is committed to serving women who have traditionally had limited financial independence. In fact, 98% of our participants are women. And like the women interviewed by Kristof and WuDunn, Trickle Up participants are also lifting themselves from poverty and becoming role models for others in their communities.

Join Trickle Up in celebrating the national broadcast event of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide on PBS’ Independent Lens on October 1^st and 2^nd at 8PM EST (check your local listings). 

Jamuna Sardar, an alumna of Trickle Up’s program in India, 2007-2009.

Recently, we visited Jamuna Sardar, an alumna of our project in India, who started the Trickle Up program in 2007 and graduated in 2009. Born to an ultrapoor family, Jamuna is married with three children. Jamuna proved to be a big surprise for field workers. In the beginning, they were concerned because she seemed very quiet during trainings and home visits. She and her husband said that they had “a tremendous amount of shame” because they were so very poor. But she proved to be one of the best performers during the project. After graduating from the program, Jamuna had a different story to tell: “We have work cultivating, savings, and assets… we are better now, we have food at home, and the children are going to school.”

Despite her gains during the program, but as is common for those living in ultrapoverty, Jamuna was diagnosed with a potentially fatal illness that required surgery in 2009. With no insurance or welfare program to fall back on, she was forced to sell off most of the assets she had worked so hard for in order to pay for her treatment. She even took her children out of school. But these savings were still not enough and she had to take  out a loan of 8,000 rupees (approximately $175).

But when we visited Jamuna recently we were astounded to find that not only did she recover from her illness, she was also on the road to rebuilding what she had lost. After her health improved, Jamuna used some of the business savvy she gained from her training and a loan from her savings group to set up a fish pond on her land. Using the profits from her fishery, she not only repaid the loan for her surgery, but also diversified her livelihoods by setting up a stationery shop in her village. She has sent her children to school once again.

Jamuna Sardar & her family

Jamuna’s story of her recovery inspired us, but it is the exception to the norm for most families living in ultrapoverty. For ultrapoor families like Jamuna’s, the slightest shock to their lives, from illness or a bad harvest, can be devastating emotionally and economically, and can have a deep impact on future generations. After food expenditures, health crises are the biggest expense. The lack of a comprehensive public health care system or low-cost medical insurance facilities can force households to incur health care costs beyond their means. But unlike Jamuna, who had the benefit of good training, experience with livelihoods during the Trickle Up program and a natural dynamism that enabled her to rebuild what she lost, many ultrapoor families are pushed further into debt and must sell off what precious few assets they have, placing them back to square one. We’ve heard stories of participants who mortgaged their land to pay for health care, and are still paying off debts they incurred five years ago.

Bridging Human and Financial Capital

What Jamuna’s story highlights is the importance of ensuring livelihood training and support happens alongside health and wellness training in order to build “human capital”.  A healthy household can help ensure the sustainability of economic progress made. As we know, healthy households come from educating participants about good habits, nutrition and hygiene and ensuring participants are aware and taking advantage of their right to access government health services.

To do this, we work with our local partners in identifying and training health workers to visit partners each month to raise awareness about health issues, monitor the health status of family members and link participants and their families to government health services. This year, Trickle Up conducted a 10-day training workshop in Kolkata, India, for 14 such healthcare workers. Led by Dr. Kasturi Bakshi, a qualified medical practitioner who worked with Trickle Up to develop the training modules, the workshop included basic hygiene and sanitation, the importance of clean drinking water, information on common community diseases and their treatment, nutrition, first aid, healthcare for adolescent girls, maternal and child health, prenatal care and family planning. At its conclusion, the health workers—all of whom are women—returned to their villages and began planning their month-to-month household visits to participants. Trickle Up, along with our partner agencies, will monitor the health workers’ progress through the coming years.

For participants like Jamuna, health care workers (who they call ‘didi’—which means elder sister, a term of endearment among Indians) have been instrumental in building health awareness in the household. Through regular visits to savings groups, and to individual participants’ homes, the health care workers share and reinforce many of the messages that were taught in the workshop.

A slideshow of the health worker training and health workers in the field:

The Long-Term Benefits

On a recent trip in January, we met the members of Sri Jagannath, a savings group that Trickle Up supports in the state of Orissa in eastern India. They recounted that one day a pregnant woman in their village went into early labor and suffered complications. Some of the women speculated that she might not survive the birth. Instead of leaving her in the hands of the local “quack” doctor the Sri Jagannath group called their healthcare worker to come and help, and dipped into their collective savings they had built in the year since the group was established to pay to transport both the mother and the healthcare worker to the nearest health care facility. As a result, the doctors were able to save both the lives of both the mother and of her newborn baby.

A health worker consulting with a participant about her child’s health.

It generally just takes one positive example like this in any hamlet or small village for word to spread and for people to start accessing free government services instead of the local quacks. We’re finding that it’s not just the participants and their families who are benefiting from improved health care services. One of our health workers recently reported that other villagers were coming to the trainings and healthcare workshops, “I didn’t know that there was a man in attendance in the group I was teaching, until one day he came up to me and started going over everything I had taught. He attended the classes regularly and knew everything. What’s more, he wasn’t even related to any of the women in the group. He was a villager who was simply interested in learning more.” In another village in West Bengal, our partner agency Human Development Centre reported that in order to meet the increased demand for services by Trickle Up participants at the local government-run healthcare center, the government had to step in and upgrade the facility, ultimately benefiting all members of the local community.

The value of educating an individual, community or even governments on the benefits of proper health, nutrition and hygiene cannot be overstated. This is especially important when working with ultrapoor families, whose lives are as precarious as Jamuna’s once was. They require the combined efforts of livelihood development workers and health workers to bring about sustainable change. Recently, speaking of her new outlook on life, Jamuna said, “[If] you are educated, you eat better. Your environment is better, you speak better. We will give our daughters the same education [as our sons]. Then they can teach their daughters, too.”