This document discusses why social interventions aimed at helping often fail. It provides two case studies, one of a chicken farm project that initially succeeded but was not sustainable, and one of an internet connectivity project in a village that grew local skills but faced issues paying ongoing costs. The document argues that for help to be effective it must build local capacity, respect communities, and find local champions rather than make decisions for people, and that projects need a sustainable model rather than being a one-off intervention.

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