WEB SITE

I've been kicking around some ideas for a website that i want to accompany my research paper as a possible alternative that can be based on the people's priorities and needs of their own community, in hopes of giving them the power and the decision making authority.

CONCEPT: Communities will post requests and detailed plan of what they need or projects they want to accomplish. Those who visit they site can choose to donate to the community project, need, or service. The money would be distributed by the site directly to the community project coordinator. The coordinator would be a member of the community but also an 'employee'/'volunteer' of the site organization. The coordinator would have other members of the communities (also familiar and affiliated with the site) who will distribute the materials for projects or needs. The community will then rely on community volunteers to work on projects or distribute requested materials. This ensures community building and a help-your-self atmosphere giving them something they themselves have total control over and can be proud of. This approach I hope gets out of the top down mentality and the feeling of having no say in their own communities. It also provides an opportunity for the community to make well informed decisions about their own community (rather than experts who aren't familiar with the community, its customs, culture, traditions, relationships, etc), with the consultation of experts if they so desire, but always keeping the power of authority and decision making with the community members. Using this community building approach will also in theory work towards breaking down community tensions over race, culture, or socio-economic issues. This also helps move away from those organizations who bring people or experts in to build projects and distribute materials, just to leave a few weeks later never to be heard from again or experts who don't teach local communities the ins and outs of the new technology.

The main objective is to avoid top-down, interest based decision making such as with organizations like the IMF or WB. This even applies to large scale NGO's that have lost their grassroots foundation.

EXAMPLE: An example of a possible post is a community need for Malaria nets in a small village in the Congo, in hopes of curbing malaria infections. Another more complex example is the need for a clinic in rural area of Haiti with a further need of a doctor and nurse that can train locals to run the clinic. Also this same community may ask for supplies or used medical equipment to be donated, as well as medicines (TB and Aids are prevalent in Haiti).

Both are hypothetical.

So what would happen is people who visited the site would choose which request from a community that they wanted to donate to (the full amount of request or just part of it). The money would be funneled from the Site organization to the community coordinator or director and the project would be started as soon as funding went through. Updates on community progress and reports would be posted during the process and at the end of the project.

IN ADDITION:
Another idea I was throwing around that might be a good addition to the site is the possibility of micro-credit/loans or even donations to entrepreneurs in the third world. This could possibly help facilitate development in rural and even urban communities.