Relief or Development? It takes both

This last week a cyclone devastated parts of Mozambique and Zimbabwe. And we have all read about other emergencies during the last year. The needs there right now are for relief: food, medical supplies, and temporary shelter.

Imagine what it would be like to face a disaster if you had almost no savings. What if your whole family only had $5-10 in savings?

Short-Term Versus Long-Term Approaches

Five Talents serves the world’s most poor through development. Development is a long-term approach that equips community members to be self-sufficient and resilient, to be better prepared to make it through extremely difficult times when a storm, a drought, or even a war make it seem impossible to recover.

Even in the poorest places in the world, members of Five Talents savings groups start new businesses and increase their savings, which makes them more resilient.

So, like hand and glove, both development and relief are critical.

Dale Stanton-Hoyle
Executive Director