One idea sits underneath everything TVIA does. We focus on empowering communities by enhancing household incomes using the resources that are already available to them, in a way that is sustainable over the long term.
Why We Do Not Start With Handouts
It is easy to respond to poverty with donations alone. It is harder, and more lasting, to help a household use its own land, labor and skills more effectively. Handouts can meet an urgent need for a day. Better use of existing resources can change a household's income for years.
What This Looks Like in Agriculture
Through our Agriculture and Food Security program, we work with farming households to make better use of the land, tools and resources they already own, improving yields and food security without creating reliance on outside inputs that may not be available next season.
The Same Idea Applies Everywhere
This philosophy shapes our Economic Empowerment program too, where we support savings groups and livelihood skills built around what people are already doing to earn a living. It shapes our Health and Nutrition work, where we teach caregivers to build balanced meals from locally available foods. It is not a single program. It is how we think about every program.
If this approach to development speaks to you, we would love to hear from you.
