DEPENDENCE VS INTERDEPENDENCE
Some schools of thought argue that aid or charity is a problem. These schools of thought hold the view that aid not only disempowers people but turns them into lifelong beggars. Their beration attempts to assert that individuals can completely survive without any help or interdependence in general. At CCOPID, we choose to differ. We hold the view that aid or charity is one of the different ways of interdependence, and that aid is given for transformation notstagnation. Stagnation is an outcome of poorly managed aid. Well managed aid always has the potential to generate positive results. We strive to manage, very well, every penny received for the benefit and positive transformation of the selected less advantaged children, youth, and households in our communities of operation.
CYCLE OF CHANGE
Our change cycle comprises of three models, applied in sequence on a transition timeline of 7 years. These models are: the CHARITY MODEL (1st -03rd project year), the COST-SHARING MODEL (4th – 6th project year), and the SOCIAL ENTERPRISE MODEL (7th project year on wards). Each model is explained herein below:
1. The Charity Model: This model not only broadly alludes to the fact that there will always be people in need of help but also underpins the argument that at one time each of us was in need and received aid/assistance/help. In otherwords, this model simply encourages people to help those in need. On that backdrop, CCOPID applies the charity model in the first 3 years of every intervention or project. This means that 100% of resources required for any project in the first 3 years are secured through donations or grants. These resources help in building critical capacity to base on to progressively transition to the cost-sharing model. Starting off with the charity model is not a problem, but failing to transition from it is.
2) The Cost Sharing Model: This model involves more than one party contributing towards the costs of implementing a particular project or intervention. In this case, by the end of the 3rd year of every project, persons/communities targeted would have partially developed capacity tostart contributing to project costs at the beginning of the 4th year of the project. Project costs in first 3 years shall be covered solely using resources secured through donations and grants.
3) The Social Enterprise Model: By the end of the 6th year of every project/intervention, every project beneficiary would have developed full capacity to cover their costs without recourse to assistance in the form of scholarships, tools and equipment, healthcare, among others. This means that at the beginning of the 7th year of every project, all beneficiaries of a particular project are expected to fully cover costs associated to the service they are getting. Forexample those undergoing mainstream education shall be expected to pays fees. Any proceeds made will be ploughed back into the organisation as locally generated resources essential to keep enrolling new beneficiaries. In this way, the interventions/projects will be self-sustaining.
Our Approach
CAEVA Tenets for Development
To consider any of our interventions very successful, by the end of its implementation, it must have culminated into Human Development, Community Development, and Sustainable Development;
Human Development is underpinned by building capabilities of individuals through education, health improvement, income generation, among others, to overcome poverty, inequality, hunger, and other obstacles that individually hold people back from realising their full potential. Human Development allows individuals to lead a long and healthy life, to be educated, and to enjoy a decent standard of living.
Community Development, a process where individuals from the same locality come together to act on what’s important to them. Human development comes first before community development, in the sense that, individuals whose capabilities are build ably participate in community development as leaders, owners, beneficiaries, and sustainers of community development outcomes from an informed (skills/ knowledge) point of view.
Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Knowledge and skilfulness is essential to build forward individually and through community development, while maintaining that delicate balance that addresses present needs, without compromising ability of future generations to meet their own needs.