"There are no silver bullets when it comes to global poverty so every drop in the bucket counts. Drops are how we fill buckets." That was the message of Nicholas Kristof Thursday night when he spoke first to a smaller group at DirectReleif and then a larger group at UCSB.
I've made no secret of the fact that Nick K. is my hero. When asked if you could meet anyone in the world who would it be? I say Nicholas Kristof. Last week, that wish came true. It was a brief meeting as he signed a few books for me (I was first in line) and got a nice photo taken (I plan to frame it) but, Nick did not let me down.
He was personable, humble and, in my opinion, the most knowledge human on the planet on global poverty. I was like a groupie hanging on his every word. Its hard to feel hopeful when so many people are starving, dying of ebola, living with fistula, or don't have access to education. Its hard to feel hopeful when you hear stories of NGO's doing more harm than good (which he addressed as not something he agrees with). But, hopeful was what Nick was all about.
He said several times "This is the generation that is going to end global poverty." He pointed out that as philanthropists we try too much for the high hanging fruit when there is so much low hanging fruit that can make a significant impact. For example, it's $300 to build a school, $100 for uniforms, but only $3.20 to de-worm a kid and worms are a significant road block in children attending school. How many times have you heard about building schools? A lot! How many times have you been asked to donate $3.20 to help de-worm a kid? Never! He talked about an eye condition where people live everyday in the pain equivalent to child birth, but yet the fix for this condition is $40, and a 2 hour surgery a nurse can do!
Nick's newest book, "A Path Appears," points us to much of this low hanging fruit that is often over looked, but yet is critical in creating opportunity. The Everyday message Nick gave was "Just because you can't help every kid doesn't mean you shouldn't help one kid."
TAKEAWAY:
Every drop helps and we are all capable of adding a drop to the bucket and we can't forget to tell our brains that or science tells us we won't keep giving, won't keep helping.
What will your next drop be?
