In 1980, about 70 percent of the global population found themselves struggling to exist.
In 2014, almost half of our planet, 43 percent, struggles under the type of extreme
poverty we see in our work each day in Haiti.
Poverty is a disease. Today, it affects nearly 3 billion people, making it roughly 90 times
the size of HIV, its next closest viral neighbor (today HIV affects 34 million globally,
still mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa). Like HIV, poverty is most often degenerative,
fatal, and brings with it a host of stigma that renders those affected outcasts in their
communities. Poverty is not an evolutionary accident or a mutation, but the result of
historically given and economically driven forces. That we have held up and perpetuated
this infrastructure proves that it is destructible and binds us to dismantling it. When
it comes to the treatment of poverty as a corrigible disease however, there is a still a
remarkable silence from the global community.
A search of the largest NGOs in America indicates that when it comes to the poor,
generosity is directed almost exclusively towards poverty's symptoms; hunger and
homelessness chief among them. Well meaning as we are, certainly: I'm afraid this
approach is the equivalent of ordering hospice care for a Stage One cancer patient.
We are so busy palliating those stricken by the disease, we have not stopped to
consider that we might yet end it. At Thread, we believe ending poverty isn't a project
for 100 or 200 years from now, but something society can accomplish before we have
grandchildren of our own. So what's it going to take?
We're fortunate to spend a great deal of time with the poor. The partnership that Thread
processes it's plastic through is called Ramase Lajan (founded by Bob Goodwin at
Executives Without Borders). We've spent days upon days talking with the over 1600
people who have access to income opportunities through this program, as well as with
friends at Haiti Recycling where our plastic is washed and ground, and with dozens of
Haitians we consider family in the slums of Cite Soleil and Menelas, Port-au-Prince.
It's been through conversations with the poor that we've begun to understand that
solutions present themselves when we allow ourselves to walk a mile in the shoes of
the people we serve. It is in this solidarity that we realize the things that unite us are
much more abundant than the things that divide us, and the difference between rich and
poor, or first world and third world, are actually limited only to the zeroes in our bank
accounts. There is only one world, there are only people, and we've learned that we all
want the same things: a decent job and a better life for our children than we ourselves
had. We hope you enjoy what follows here as an account of our impact so far.
Here's to new friendships, new fabric, and creating as much medicine as possible in 2014.
Ian Rosenberger
Founder and CEO