In a recent energy forum that I attended as a guest, I wasn’t quite sure whether there was going to be a correlation to charitable giving. As I sat among various people including former governors, senators and mayors, overall I found that one of their goals was to “share with others what we already know”. The focus of the forum was to solve energy problems in developing countries, specifically Africa with the underlying message being “help is needed”. There are various ways that people in remote areas can be brought out of darkness, solar lights, propane stoves, generators, and other forms of creating light and electricity. As with most things in life, all of these methods have dependencies, material cost and an environmental impact. Solar lights – what if my battery stops working? Propane stoves – what if it catches fire, how bad is it for the environment? Generators – how do I maintain it over time?
Essentially, they all require maintenance, a level of intelligence of how to use and obtain them and an initial capital investment. It appears that we need to take a side-step before we can move forward, we need to begin with education on how to maintain and sustain the devices being used for light and warmth and provide capital investment. To further define what I mean by capital investment, in the beginning it is required that people financially support education, to empower people with knowledge and understanding of the impact and scale of things like population, poverty, hunger, etc. A recent statistic from globalissues.org states that basic education for everyone globally would only cost $6 billion! Imagine the impact of GLOBAL education, besides people in the U.S. and Europe spend $17 Billion dollars on pet food a year! Together we can support bettering humanity through education which will, without doubt, brighten the future of humanity. We can support and ignite the missions of many nonprofits that have struggling for financial support. Help them better the future for our children and out children’s children. Basic education is important, and important to our future.
“Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.” – Peter F. Drucker