Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!
11 January 2023
Post No. 282
The Week’s Contents
• Light Season’s Resources, Projects and Programmes
• Financial Stability Campaign 2023, In Focus: Finding Extra Income to Cover Basic Expenses
• Giving Hope to the Children in Need in the Eastern Part of the Democratic Republic of Congo
… And much more!
30 and 31 January 2023 are two days of opportunity for donors/funders who would like to give to conclude the festive giving periods at CENFACS. These are the days of uplifting, joy and happiness or simply feeling better for donors and funders who would like to invest in deserving causes like CENFACS’ noble ones of poverty reduction.
To donate or fund on 30 and 31 January 2023 as well as to share the Joy of Giving, please contact CENFACS on these days.
Key Messages
• Light Season’s Resources, Projects and Programmes
Last week, we listed projects and programmes to be carried out in January 2023. This week, we are unveiling more projects and programmes including resources. The last week’s listed projects and the ones to be unveiled below will all make our Light Season 2023.
In both last week’s and this week’s listings, there are two types of projects and programmes, which are:
a) Specifically designed projects and programmes (such as humanitarian appeals) to feature CENFACS’ Light Campaign/Advocacy, to bring and carry the message of hope through a Blaze of Hope
b) Seasonal projects and programmes that just fall within the Season of Light, which is from 21 December in the preceding year (e.g., 2022) to 21 March in the following year (e.g., 2023).
Under the Main Development section of this post, we have provided further details about the Light Season’s Resources, Projects and Programmes.
• Financial Stability Campaign 2023, In Focus: Finding Extra Income to Cover Basic Expenses
Our Financial Stability Campaign 2023 has three areas of focus, which are: a) finding extra income to cover basic expenses b) paying off debts c) saving for emergencies. This week, we are dealing with the first area of focus of our Financial Stability Campaign 2023.
• • Finding Extra Income to Cover Basic Expenses
Our first area of focus is on Finding Extra Income to Cover Basic Expenses for those who do not have enough income.
Indeed, many poor people, households and families do not have enough income to cover basic expenses. Basic expenses are a sum of money spent or to be spent on basic life-sustaining needs such as food, energy, accommodation, health, drink, transport, clothing, education, etc.
If their income is not enough, then these poor people, households and families are bound to find money somewhere else in order to cover the expenses for their basic life-sustaining needs. To find income, one may try to understand the meaning of income.
• • • What is an income?
In the context of our Financial Stability Campaign 2023, income can be understood in the way Christopher Pass et al (1) define it as
“Money received by individuals, firms and other organisations in the form of wages, salaries, rent, interest, commissions, fees and profit, together with grants, unemployment benefit, old age pensions, etc.” (pp. 276-277)
The same Christopher Pass et al explain that disposable income is
“The amount of income which a person has available after paying income tax, national insurance contributions and pension contributions. The amount of a person’s disposable income has an important effect on the ability to buy products” (p. 181).
We are going to use the two definitions during our campaign and when working with the community on financial stability matter.
• • • Where to find income
Income can come from various sources as its definition tells us. However, one of the problems that income poor households face is that their sources of income is not enough sufficient or diversified to enable them to cover their basic expenses. They do not have enough sources of income or enough income to meet their living expenses.
To enable them to increase and improve their sources of income or simply their income, we will be working with them on individual basis and on case-by-case about the ways of finding enough or extra income to meet the expenses of their basic life-sustaining needs. This is the first area of focus of our Financial Stability Campaign 2023.
To support this campaign, please contact CENFACS.
To ask for help or enquire about the first area of our focus, please do not hesitate to communicate with CENFACS as well.
• Giving Hope to the Children in Need in the Eastern Part of the Democratic Republic of Congo
Our Season of Giving and Sustaining Hope for a better future continues as we advocate for the reaching out to the children in need in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
As we explained in the last week’s post, our areas of work or need in 2023 include the Eastern side of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, almost 15.4 million children are in need, according the United Nations Children’s Fund (2). They are in need because of protracted crises and are bearing the brunt of an escalation in armed conflicts and recurrent disease outbreaks, from the point of view of the same United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
It makes sense to respond to UNICEF’s call and whoever appeals to help these children. 2023 could be different for these children if one steps up and responds to their genuine acute needs and to appeals made with and on their behalf by individuals and /or organisations, like UNICEF is doing.
We would like to ask assistance for those who are helping these children to finish the work they have already started.
In these toughest times, your support can contribute to break the cycle of humanitarian crises they are experiencing.
May we request to help us too help these crisis-impacted children living in crisis settings.
Please lend us your hand to reach them out via your giving.
Let us give hope to these poor children who badly need aid.
To support and or enquire about this appeal, please contact CENFACS.
Extra Messages
• Digital and Social Media Campaign (Level 6)
• Poverty Reduction Show in 2023
• Goal for the New Year and January Month
• Digital and Social Media Campaign
Level 6: Digital and Social Media Insights
The next level of our Digital and Social Media Campaign is about Insights.
Whenever we deal with the digital world and social media platforms, they provide some information, messages and data to understand, analyse, evaluate and report for our own needs. There are insights that one may need to understand. But, what is insight?
• • Defining insight
Our definition of insight comes from Chambers Combined Dictionary Thesaurus (3) which states that
“Insight is the ability to gain a relatively rapid, clear, and deep understanding of the real, often hidden , and usually complex nature of a situation, problem, etc.” (p. 663)
As Carolyn Sansom (4) puts it:
“Insight is analysed information”.
It is also what ‘datarobot.com’ (5) argues about, which is
“Insights are the output”.
This set of definitions will be used to deal with digital and social media insights, particularly in generating actionable insights. In other words, we are going to work with the members of our community so that they can better understand the real nature of data during their journey throughout the digital world and social media platforms. It will also be about the power that data is having on them.
Many households do this sort of exercises in trying to understand their lives without sometimes knowing they are carrying out data insights. To better undertake insights, it may require some skills.
• • Insight skills to reduce poverty
This level of working will be about using some skills to simplify complex data and information so that users can easily understand them and help them in the process of reducing poverty linked to the lack of understanding of what the digital and social media worlds are telling them as messages.
To enquire and or to support the level 6 of our Digital and Social Media Campaign, please contact CENFACS.
• Poverty Reduction Show in 2023
Showing that poverty reduction is happening despite the events like the cost-of-living is an extra message we would like to share with our users, Africa-based Sister Organisations and other stakeholders.
This 2023, we would like our local people and Africa-based Sister Organisations to show or showcase via a variety of evidences, testimonies, cases, films, videos, news and examples of poverty reduction that poverty reduction has happened and continues to happen despite the lingering effects of the coronavirus and the cost-of-living crisis.
Poverty reduction show can add value to stories of poverty reduction we normally run.
Through this showing exercise, we hope to build a better picture of these poverty reduction cases with features, similarities, differences, patterns and trends for learning and development experience about our system of poverty reduction. It is about proofing and acknowledging that poverty reduction does happen in real life.
To show or share your experience on how poverty reduction has happened to you or those you know despite the lingering effects of the coronavirus and the cost-of-living crisis, please contact and share it with CENFACS.
• Goal for the New Year and January Month
Our Goal for the New Year and January Month is to reduce poverty linked to food waste and over consumption.
Indeed, reducing food waste and loss can contribute to the reduction of poverty. Food wasted can be donated to help meet food demand and nutritional needs of the income-poor and food poor people. Likewise, cutting the excess use of renewable resources can assist in reducing poverty.
The above is our poverty reduction goal for the New Year and for January 2023, which we are asking to our audiences and supporters to help or promote. It is also a life or impact goal to navigate our way out of food crisis and climate crisis.
For those of our audiences and supporters who are very ambitious, they can even take this goal as their resolution for 2023.
Message in French (Message en français)
À paraître cet hiver
Le prochain numéro (le 78ème numéro) de FACS pour ce Nouvel An s’intitulera comme suit:
Promouvoir la culture assurantielle parmi les nécessiteux(ses) pour réduire la pauvreté en Afrique.
Résumé de ce prochain numéro de FACS –
D’une manière générale, dans les pays africains en développement, les parents et les personnes pauvres comptent sur leurs enfants et les membres de leur famille élargie ou communauté pour se protéger contre les dommages ou le vol de biens personnels, ainsi que contre la mort, la vie et les blessures accidentelles. Ce problème de dépendance à l’égard des enfants et de la communauté se retrouve également parmi les membres de la diaspora africaine.
Il y a des raisons qui poussent beaucoup de ces pauvres parents et personnes à agir de cette façon. Sans entrer dans ces raisons qui pourraient être légitimes pour certains d’entre eux, le numéro 78 de FACS portera sur les façons de travailler avec ces familles et personnes pauvres afin qu’elles puissent adopter la culture ou la voie de l’assurance, que cette assurance provienne d’une compagnie d’assurance ou d’un courtier / agent d’assurance ou de leur gouvernement aussi longtemps que la police d’assurance leur est disponible, accessible et abordable.
Travailler avec ces pauvres de cette manière peut améliorer leur façon dont ils perçoivent de nombreux sujets entourant l’assurance comme le revenu, le logement, l’emploi, la maladie, etc. contre les dommages et les risques. Notre travail avec eux portera sur la façon dont ils peuvent être actifs dans le traitement de toute couverture d’assurance censée les couvrir ainsi que pour réduire la pauvreté et les difficultés liées à l’absence de toute couverture d’assurance contre les dommages et les risques à rencontrer.
Frais d’assurance; ce n’est pas bon marché. Cependant, sans assurance, la vie pourrait être à haut risque. Même lorsque les gens sont pauvres, ils ont toujours besoin d’une assurance pour couvrir ce qu’ils font en tant qu’activités, eux-mêmes et quiconque ou ce qui est lié à eux. Il n’est pas surprenant que la Banque mondiale (6) affirme que
« L’assurance atténue les effets économiques d’événements tels que la maladie, le décès, l’invalidité, l’incendie, le vol et les catastrophes naturelles sur les individus, les ménages ou les entreprises. Ce faisant, l’assurance aide les gens à éviter la misère, à lisser leur consommation, à protéger leurs actifs et à poursuivre des activités économiques et des investissements à haut rendement ».
Le numéro 78 de FACS se basera sur la collaboration avec les personnes non assurées pour faire de l’utilisation des services d’assurance qui leur sont fournis devient une coutume ou un art de vivre. En d’autres termes, il est possible d’améliorer et de développer par la formation et l’éducation les idées et les pratiques de l’utilisation des services d’assurance dans le cadre de la vie quotidienne.
Le numéro 78 de FACS examinera les théories de l’assurance et la façon dont elles s’appliquent aux pauvres, en particulier ceux qui travaillent avec nous et nos organisations sœurs basées en Afrique. À cet égard, la culture de l’assurance parmi ceux qui en ont besoin sera abordée du point de vue de la micro-assurance, c’est-à-dire l’utilisation des services d’assurance par ceux qui en ont besoin ou les pauvres. Elle sera traitée du point de vue de l’utilisateur des services d’assurance plutôt que du point de vue du prestataire de services d’assurance. La question de la contribution abordable des assurés pauvres sera également soulevée.
Comme nous sommes maintenant en 2023, une culture assurantielle peut être l’une des résolutions que l’on pourrait prendre non seulement pour mieux démarrer et vivre en 2023, mais aussi pour réduire la pauvreté liée à l’absence de couverture des polices d’assurance. Ainsi, la protection des personnes dans le besoin contre les pertes financières résultant de dommages ou de vols de biens personnels, de décès et de blessures peut être incluse dans le processus de réduction de la pauvreté et de renforcement du développement durable.
Dans la pratique, on peut penser à tout dommage causé par des intempéries à la vie ou aux biens des pauvres. Sans aucune couverture d’assurance pour ce type d’événement de changement climatique, cela ne peut qu’exacerber la pauvreté si les victimes de ce temps mouvementé sont les pauvres. Cet événement pourrait même être très dommageable si les victimes perdaient leurs biens et qu’il y avait des tragédies.
Par exemple, à la mi-décembre 2022, Kinshasa (en République démocratique du Congo) a connu des pluies torrentielles avec une énorme inondation qui a fait environ 170 morts, selon les sources locales congolaises. Bien que l’on puisse souligner le manque de politique et de pratique d’urbanisation pour faire face à ce type de catastrophe naturelle dans l’une des mégapoles africaines; il n’en reste pas moins que de nombreuses victimes ou victimes de cette catastrophe environnementale n’ont pas de couverture d’assurance pour faire face à ces dommages naturels.
Plus de détails sur le 78e numéro de FACS seront donnés cet hiver. Cependant, pour ceux ou celles qui voudraient se renseigner à ce sujet avant qu’il n’apparaisse, n’hésitez pas à contacter le CENFACS.
Main Development
• Light Season’s Resources, Projects and Programmes
The following highlights the Light Season’s Resources, Projects and Programmes:
∝ What are Light Season’s Resources, Projects and Programmes?
∝ Types of Light Season’s Initiatives
∝ Basic Implementation Plan for the Light Season’s Initiatives.
We can now consider each of the three items.
• • What are Light Season’s Resources, Projects and Programmes?
They are a stock of assets (resources) together with a set of interdependent tasks (projects) and related activities (programme) designed to help meet the aim of poverty reduction either within the Lights Season and/or beyond it depending on the types of a given resource, project and programme. In other words, whether it is about resources or projects or even programmes, the unified aim is to help reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development.
• • Types of Light Season’s Initiatives
There are two types, which are:
(a) Specifically designed initiatives to bring message of hope or a Blaze of Hope
(b) Seasonal initiatives falling within the Season of Light.
• • • Specifically designed initiatives to bring message of hope or a Blaze of Hope
They include two waves of intervention or Blazes of Hope, which are:
(a) Appeals to deal with the unfinished business of previous destruction and disruption brought by the coronavirus, wars, natural disasters and recently the cost-of-living crisis
(b) Appeals linked to seasonally erupted events or effects from health disasters (like the coronavirus), armed conflicts, economic crises, climate change and natural disasters
For example, the Appeal to Give Hope to the Children in Need in the Eastern Part of the Democratic Republic of Congo is at the same time for unfinished business of humanitarian work and any potential eruption of insecurity crisis in the New Year. As the International Rescue Committee (7) puts it:
“Major disease outbreaks [in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo] – including measles, malaria and Ebola – continue to threaten an already weak health care system, putting many lives at risk”.
• • • Initiatives falling within the Season of Light
They consist of the following:
√ Consume to Reduce Poverty (Issue No. 11) with a Focus on the Reduction of Food Waste and Over Consumption
√ 2022 Year-end Financial Controls as Tools for Poverty Reduction
√ Financial Stability Campaign 2023
√ The Not-for-profit Investment Outlook of Africa in 2023
√ Nature Projects (New)
√ Nature-based Solutions to Poverty
√ Debt reduction advocacy
√ 3 Tiers or Levels of security
√ Climate actions.
The above initiatives are not the only ones for the Season of Light. During the season, we may cancel or reduce the scope of some initiatives if we realise that the problem they were supposed to resolve are no longer there. Likewise, we may add new or recurring initiatives depending on the events within the community we serve. The worksheet below provides some indication in terms of initiatives implementation plan.
• • Basic Implementation Plan for the Light Season’s Initiatives
As we go along the Light Season, the following implementation plan consisting of eleven initiatives will be effective.
11 initiatives to implement the Light Season 2023
There are three observations to make from the above implementation plan, which are:
a) Since new nature goals were agreed at the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (8), our Generation Global Goals Project (that is, African Children, Climate and Sustainable Development Goals) now includes the nature element in it
b) Nature Projects are our new initiative not only to feature the Season of Light, but also to volunteer for a sustainable use of natural resources while trying to reduce poverty
c) The next level of our Digital and Social Media Campaign (Level 6) is on Data Insights.
This initial implementation plan for the Light Season’s initiatives can change depending on the circumstances, events and conditions. If one notices that some of the initiatives inserted in the plan/worksheet are not listed under Types of Light Season’s Initiatives, this is not a big issue. What is important is the deliverables of those scheduled within the plan.
For those who would like to discuss any of these planned initiatives or any aspects of the plan; they can contact CENFACS.
To support and or enquire the Light Season’s Resources, Projects and Programmes for 2023, please contact CENFACS.
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• References
(1) Pass, C., Lowes, B., Pendleton, A. & Chadwick, L. (1991), Collins Dictionary of Business, HarperCollinsPublishers, Glasgow
(2) https://www.unicef.org/appeals/drc (Accessed in January 2023)
(3) Chambers Combined Dictionary Thesaurus (1997), Manser, M. & Thomson, M. (Editors), Chambers Harrap Publishers
(4) Carolyn Sansom at https://www.grantthornton.co.uk/insights/six-key-skills-for-turning-data-into-insight/ (accessed in November 2022)
(5) https://www.datarobot.com/blog/what-are-data-insights/ (accessed in November 2022)
(6) https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/90791146812024/insurance-for-the-poor (Accessed in January 2023)
(7) https://www.cbd.int/article/cop15-cbd-press-release-final-19dec2022 (Accessed in January 2023)
(8) https://www.rescue.org/article/top-10-crises-world-cant-ignore-2023 (Accessed in January 2023).
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• Help CENFACS keep the Poverty Relief work going this year
We do our work on a very small budget and on a voluntary basis. Making a donation will show us you value our work and support CENFACS’ work, which is currently offered as a free service.
One could also consider a recurring donation to CENFACS in the future.
Additionally, we would like to inform you that planned gifting is always an option for giving at CENFACS. Likewise, CENFACS accepts matching gifts from companies running a gift-matching programme.
Donate to support CENFACS!
FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ NOBLE CAUSES OF POVERTY REDUCTION.
JUST GO TO: Support Causes – (cenfacs.org.uk)
Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.
Thank you as well to those who made or make comments about our weekly posts.
We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support in 2023 and beyond.
With many thanks.
