APPROACH

Working With a Difference

The core ideology of ASSIST’s approach is to empower the poor by creating self-sustaining People’s Organisations.

We are convinced that people should decide on their own development programmes, and that ASSIST should only act as a facilitator. The reality is that external support cannot last forever. Therefore, it is crucial to form, strengthen and motivate local People’s Organisations to carry through their development process independently, long after ASSIST has left the area.

To ensure sustainable development, the democratically elected leaders of these organisations receive training in all necessary aspects to take up responsibility for the activities initiated by ASSIST.

Over the past three decades, we have studied the root causes of continuous poverty of vulnerable communities. These meticulous analyses have enabled us to refine our response to poverty in a systematic manner.