Richard Harrington MP was joined yesterday by Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development, at the headquarters of Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) on St Albans Road. Ms Greening and Mr Harrington spoke with representatives of ADRA about the fantastic work being done to tackle global poverty.
The Watford-based organization provides greatly needed support and assistance to some of the world’s poorest communities in the poverty-stricken regions of Burma. The programme is structured to provide a long term solution to impoverished communities by providing training, advice and skill sets, which will in turn lead to infrastructure, job creation and sustainable economic growth.
The Government Minister praised the efforts of ADRA and the work they are doing at a grassroots level, which is partly funded by the Department for International Development (DfID).
Ms Greening said: "It was really, really helpful because the global poverty action fund is all about going beyond working with the biggest NGOs in Britain. We are working with medium-sized NGOs such as ADRA and much smaller ones.
"So to get a chance to meet up and hear about their project that we have helped fund is fantastic, and also to hear about how they find working with DfID.”
In turn, Mr Harrington added: "It’s very different from the old type of top-down aid where wealth countries gave money to small countries and hoped that enough filtered through.
"This is actually funding a project at grass roots and it’s helping people to set up their own business, survive themselves and build an infrastructure.”