Love Thy Neighbour
Have you ever wondered what the command “Love your neighbour as you love yourself” really meant? Has it ever bothered you to know how your neighbour’s wellbeing indirectly affected you? Whether you can answer the above or not, the fact is we are all connected in one way or another.
We have been taught that the only
way of taking care of people around us is to give them food, clothing, sanitary
pads and all those immediate things that are not sustainable. I’d like to
believe giving is more than that.
I personally believe in giving intellectually, spiritually, psychologically and even sharing ideas as it has the ability to last a lifetime
In economics, there’s a concept
called Community Economic Development (CED), where a community works with
government and the private sector to build that community. In essence the
“community” aspect of CED means that the community dominates the economic
development process by contributing to sustained economic development as well
as gaining from it. In the CED equation, the community is considered the input
and output of the economic development. CED allows residents to mobilize and
build assets to improve their quality of life in a sustainable way.
Brazil has a number of sustainable community
banks aimed at socio-economic development. The primary objectives of these
banks are to provide access to banking services to residents who unable to
access them in traditional commercial banks, as well as to implement income
generating projects based on the solidarity economy system. These banks are funded
by public resources and well as community investment such as donations,
membership fees and other commercial services. There are also local currencies
which are equivalent to the real currency that are used to keep the money
circulating within the community.
Community Development Banks have improved poor communities by offering
jobs, skills, capital for new and existing business, higher education funds and
the list is endless.
The same notion could be
implemented in our communities, terms of creating community banks for accessing
capital to community members who wish to start sustainable businesses, or
education funding for underprivileged children who wish to study in university.
Most people in poor communities do not qualify for bank loans due to credit
risk or high monthly repayments, therefore communities should strive to help
each other in uplifting one another.
My point is as community members
we need to take care of each other by finding innovative ways of uplifting our
communities in a sustainable manner. For me loving my neighbour means doing good
for the next person in a way that will impact that person in the future and
generations to come.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_economic_development
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banco_Palmas
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