Poverty Alleviation and Social Entrepreneurship
At the root of every major human rights or social justice issue are, in my opinion, two causes: poverty and a lack of education.
“Every human being is born into tho world fully equipped not only to take care of himself or herself, but also to contribute to the wellbeing of the world a a whole. Some get the chance to explore their potential, but many others never get the chance to unwrap the wonderful gifts they were born with. They die with those gifts unexplored, and the world remains deprived of their contribution…
…Poverty is an artificial, external imposition on a person. And since it is external, it can be removed,” Muhammed Yunus, Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs.
After having worked with traditional non-profits and NGOs for several years, I am now in the early stages of building and implementing innovative social entrepreneurship models as an alternative method of poverty alleviation. Working in India and Nepal, the small, yet dedicated ANCORA team has assessed a demand-driven business opportunity to empower women to rise above poverty.
Human Trafficking
I am also an advocate for the abolition of modern slavery, or trafficking in human beings. At Khusi Hona, I worked to create poverty alleviation and education programs to address the push factors of trafficking in India and Nepal. Giving men, women, boys and girls opportunities for education and skills training, we provided alternatives to illegal migration and forced sex work or indentured servitude.
While carrying out my Fulbright Scholarship in Moldova, I worked alongside Peace Corps volunteers and local activists to establish the annual human trafficking and safe migration awareness week, Festivalul Libertatii (Фестивал Свободы), or Festival of Freedom.
In college, I served as the Education Co-Chair for Carolina Against Slavery and Trafficking and worked to raise awareness on my campus and in the greater Triangle community about human trafficking both at home and abroad.
For two summers while in college, I worked for Abolishing Injustice in the 21st Century (A21 Campaign) in Kyiv, Ukraine. During my time in Kyiv, I helped translate A21’s promotional materials from English into Russian and also designed a communication strategy for informing Ukraine’s rural at-risk populations about the danger and prevalence of human trafficking (particularly for sex work) in Ukraine.
Check out A21’s website here:
Genocide Prevention
My first year at UNC, I joined STAND, a student-led anti-genocide coalition. After two years of serving on UNC STAND’s board as Chair of Events Planning, I became the Internal Coordinator and also served on STAND’s National Leadership Team as a Regional Outreach Coordinator.
STAND’s primary conflict regions include Sudan, Burma and the Democratic Republic of Congo. As student advocates, we worked to raise awareness in our communities as well as build relationships with our elected officials in order to take tangible action for resolving conflicts in these areas experiencing high rates of civilian-targeted violence.
Check out STAND’s website here:
Erin M. Murphy 