My name is Anthony, a farmer here in Namisita, a village in a remote part of Kamuli, in eastern Uganda.
I come from a pretty rugged background. And have had my own battle with ultra poverty. But the reason I have chosen not to sit back, is the fact that nearly every household in my region lives in extreme poverty.
Amidst this mess, though, one thing that I can’t really stop thinking about is: how humanity, or the global development sector in particular, decided that people like us, really, must simply sit and wait for the right people, or the most legit people, to come and move us from poverty.
As someone who has been in the crosshairs of ultra poverty my whole life, and as someone who has seen countless antipoverty interventions come and go, I firmly believe the only way global poverty can end, is by putting the world’s ultra poor, i.e., those of us at the very bottom of the pyramid, directly at the helm.
I have previously written about these things here, and also here.
I am also founder of the UCF, a nonprofit social enterprise that aims to end extreme poverty. If you haven’t already, see my own story here.