1. WHY DO WE
FAIL AT
HELPING
BY ROBIN LOW

2. DEFINE HELP
Help is any form of assistance.
-- Wikipedia

3. LIST SOME GOALS OF
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
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• To have sustainable impact on the
Eco-system

4. EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL
INTERVENTION
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• Government Subsidies
• Scholarships

5. LIST THE IMPACT THE
“HELP” GENERATED
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• Enable the poor to survive
• Making higher education affordable to
those who can’t afford

6. IS THE HELP ANY
HELP?
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• If not, why?

7. CASE 1
Robin’s Chicken Farms
• 200 chickens, chicken coops.
• Skills building, breeding, feeding,
transporting and selling eggs.
• Crop rotation

8. CASE 1: IMPACT
• Sold eggs increasing daily income
from $7 to $60
• Repaid back capital of $2000 in 3
months.

9. CASE 1: RESULTS
• After 9 months.
• All chickens are eaten, no chickens
remain.
• All villages back to what it was
before.

10. CASE 2
El Limon: The Global Village
• Internet introduced in 1997.
• VoIP, Wifi, WLAN in 2003.
• Internet Chat available in village.
• $$$ spent
• Telemedicine available

11. CASE 2: IMPACT
• Good social engineering project
• Village grew local capacity for
technicians
• Villagers learn how to code and
program for additional source of
income

12. CASE 2: RESULTS
• Village cannot afford commercial
technician
• Paying for connectivity is still a problem
(donation)
• Everyone under the age of 20 wants to
be a developer when they grow up
• Many young villager develop simple
technical skills to get online and use
VoIP

13. “Philanthropy dollar” can
only be used once, the
“social dollar” can be used
again and again.
-- Muhammad Yunus

15. LONG TERM VS
SHORT TERM
• Do you want sustainable long term
impact or focus on one off project?
• Will you run the project FOREVER?

16. WHY HELPING FAIL
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• No Respect
• No Capacity
• No Trust
• No Champion

17. Poor People are not Stupid
-- Muhammad Yunus

18. DANGERS OF SOCIAL
INTERVENTION
Making life decisions for those we are
helping
Is there “Over Helping?”

19. CURSE OF
EXCLUSION OF
LOCALS IN
DISASTER RELIEF
AND RECOVERY