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(Photo courtesy of KickStart)

The gap between the rich and the poor is growing every day. With each passing year, a smaller percentage of people control a larger portion of the world's wealth. In such an environment, the idea that poor people need to receive subsidized services and handouts is very common. It's particularly prevalent in developing countries like Kenya, one of the poorest countries in the world, with an annual per capita income of $390.

 

KickStart has adopted a model that aims to create a middle class by lifting the very poor people of Sub-Saharan Africa out of poverty. We realize that most poor people share this dream, but they lack the tools that would greatly increase their productivity and allow them to achieve it.

 

The market-based approach to ending poverty has worked ... for more than 35,000 farmers in Kenya and more than 61,000 globally.
 
I grew up in a village where my parents' dream was to give their children an education, so that one day their children would live better lives than they did. My mother always warned us as we grew up that if we did not work very hard, we would end up working as houseboys in rich people's homes and taking care of their children, while ours would have no one to watch them. She encouraged us to be the ones who were the employers.

 

Many parents I know never realized this dream, since they could not raise the necessary school fees that would help their children attain that desired position. The poor subsistence farmers could hardly afford to feed their kids. Many of my schoolmates could not make it to secondary school, even though they had the grades necessary to move on. Land, labor, and desire to progress were abundant, but their parents lacked the tools to increase their productivity.

 

Having come from such a background, I appreciate the need for tools that are targeted toward this group of people, which give them an efficient and productive way of directing their hard work.

 

I closely follow the poor farmers who are in a similar state but have invested their hard-earned money in a KickStart MoneyMaker pump. One such farmer is James Ndungu, who bought his first pump in early 2002.

 

The first time I met James, he had just harvested and sold for $560 the first crop of tomatoes he grew using the pump. James had never in his entire life made $560 in one year. When he got the money from his tomato crop, he decided to enjoy a holiday. For one week, he visited various places and bought souvenirs for his loved ones and friends.

 

Then he came back to his farm with an enthusiasm that he had never displayed before. I asked him what he thought of the pump. He replied, "If our government was good and sincere about economic growth, it would buy every Kenyan a MoneyMaker pump. I wish I had known this pump five years ago!"

 

After a year, James upgraded to our larger Super MoneyMaker pump. He had big dreams -- dreams he would never have had if he did not have the pump. Two years later, James could afford to loan his elder brother $2,100 to send his son to the United Kingdom to get a university education.

 

Last year, James finished building a stone-walled house and moved his family from the old mud-walled house where they lived. He keeps the old mud house as a reminder of how far he has come.

 

Now, James does not need any relief services or subsidies. He is an employer, and has moved from the liability side of the national accounts to the asset side. His pride and entrepreneurial spirit have been nurtured and put to appropriate use. The market-based approach to ending poverty has worked for James -- just as it has for more than 35,000 farmers in Kenya and more than 61,000 globally.