Who Are the Ultra Poor?
If you’ve traveled in the developing world, you have probably encountered the ultra poor. In cities, they are the unskilled and the exploited classes, such as beggars or manual laborers, often hungry, homeless, and suffering from chronic illness. In the rural areas, they live by subsistence farming and on handouts, bound by tribal customs or stringent caste systems that inhibit their ability to move beyond their pre-ordained status. They suffer from extreme malnutrition, have no productive assets, and are forced into a transient lifestyle in search of work, often brutal manual labor. Working with two India-based organizations, Partners in Prosperity Society (PnP) and NEEDS, with a third partner to be identified this summer, Unitus is providing capital and consulting to help identify clients, create or refine outreach programs, and perhaps most importantly, track effectiveness. Getting ultra poor clients on a path to stability is a lengthy process and often starts by assisting with the
