A farmer will produce fewer crops if he or she must also cook food, monitor the kids, do the laundry, and travel hours to the city and back to procure basic goods. But in a subsistence economy, every participant must supply all the needs of the family. The very inefficiency of this system is what prevents any one entrepreneur from starting the kind of specialized business that supports a robust trading economy. But with SAK crops and techniques, farmers will increase yields, cut costs, and start building surplus wealth. They'll also build a network of trusted neighbors and potential trading partners. Once this happens, the community can begin to diversify and specialize its economy.

The easiest way to begin is with simple service industries. If a particularly good cook begins a community dining hall, the neighborhood farmers can pay to eat there rather than wasting time and energy cooking their own food. Someone who loves kids might start a daycare center. His neighbors will be more productive at work because they don't have to fuss over their children. The same concept applies to a laundry service, a construction business, or a country store. When one community member moves into an occupation in which he has a competitive advantage, he releases his neighbor to focus more on her business. Both parties will produce a surplus that they can trade with one another, with the rest of the community, and eventually with the rest of the world.

As a burgeoning SAK community begins to build wealth from its improved agricultural practices, we'll educate residents on the benefits of specialization for producing surplus and building wealth. Once that community has proven accountable and committed, we'll encourage and train some residents to start their own businesses. Our Foundation will provide micro-financing to entrepreneurs who create viable business plans. This finance will follow the Grameen Bank model-only one community member will receive the first loan. For other members to receive loans, the first recipient must make his payments reliably. Thus, it is in the interest of the whole community that each new business succeeds.

In addition to these basic service industries, we'll look to provide focused training in two specific sectors: health and education. In conjunction with experts from the West as well as knowledgeable locals, we'll create training programs for low-skill health clinic workers. Because rural residents are so far from traditional hospitals, they often ignore minor health issues that, untreated, become major. Moreover, they don't receive the health education necessary to prevent disease. We'll train the trainers, helping clinic workers teach the concepts critical to preventative care. We'll give them access to the tools and medications they need to treat the basic health needs of their communities. By the same token, we'll work with educational organizations and local teachers to develop schools where we'll make the outrageous illiteracy rate that plagues rural Africa a thing of the past. Neither the clinic nor the school will be a charity; they will be tradable services that reward excellent care with faithful customers.

Go to the next phase, STYLE