The need for Twinned Communities is twofold: 1. There are too many people in the world that live in moderate to extreme poverty while there are proven ways that this can be changed. 2. Donors rarely get to know about the real impacts their donations are making and thus an opportunity to create a long term relationship of growth does not materialize.
		Poverty Like most living in towns and cities in North America and Western Europe, we are very fortunate to have a standard of living that includes hot and cold running water, sewage systems, education, medical care and a social safety net to help those who fall through the cracks. Despite complaints we might have about any of these in our own lives, it takes little effort for any of us to realize how much better our standard of living is compared to others in the world. Consider the following: 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on under two dollars a day; 1.3 billion people have no access to clean water; 3 billion people have no access to sanitation; 2 billion people have no access to electricity; Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names; 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5. A little over two hundred years ago, everyone with the exception of a small handful of land owners was poor. In general, people had to farm for their own food, fetch their own water from a river or well, deal with their own waste, provide most of the education for their children, build their own homes and sew their own clothing. The question of poverty today is not so much ‘How did the poor get poor?’ as it is ‘How did the poor stay poor while the rest of the world prospered?’. An analysis of long-term trends shows the ratio of wealth between the richest and poorest countries was about: 3 to 1 in 1820 11 to 1 in 1913 35 to 1 in 1950 72 to 1 in 1992 For many countries, the industrial revolution was the turning point into an era of economic growth. Not all countries had the right combination of factors to leverage the benefits of industrialization. It is only with a sufficient quantity and combination of the conditions that facilitated the post-industrial revolution economic growth of some countries that the remaining countries can grow into their own era of economic and human prosperity. More aid is needed, and smarter aid is needed.		Donor Impact There are already many who provide foreign aid in some form. In many cases, projects have a limited feedback loop to report on the outcome of the use of the foreign aid. If one gave money to build an orphanage, one would hopefully (but not always) learn that the orphanage was built. It is unlikely however that one would ever learn how many children lived there each year for the next few years. One would most certainly not hear about a collaboration that followed a year later between the orphanage and a new literacy program; and then further the number of once homeless children that have now attained some locally significant level of education. Some of the large international NGO’s dedicate the staff and financial resources to try to communicate outcomes and maintain a relationship with its donors. For small organizations and small but significant individual projects, this feedback is one-time in nature at best. This lack of feedback has two serious flaws that need to be addressed. It deprives the donor of the knowledge that the donation was a good decision and some of the feelings that they have made a positive contribution to the world. This in turn creates an environment that tends toward reduced future giving more so than increased future giving. The kinds of initiatives that will come about through Twinned Communities for Prosperity already do occur in limited ways. However, because of what will become a long term relationship between communities, people in ‘donor communities’ will enjoy the satisfaction of seeing the longer term effects of their efforts and generosity. With that knowledge and the community relationship that stems from it, we believe that both communities will grow in their own way from the experience. News of progress on all projects, small and large, will be posted on the Twinned Communities for Prosperity website. Local media will be provided stories and photos documenting the shared successes. Those from the developed community that choose to travel to their twin community while on vacation, as a volunteer or as part of a project implementation team will bring back stories of how we have helped. Perhaps visits in both directions might be possible in some cases. This longer term relationship and the series of successes that result from it has the potential to further motivate all of us, and in doing so, generate new helpful initiatives that simply might not otherwise have germinated.