Part 3/10:
Gerena, now CEO of the Family Independence Initiative (FII), credits the frustration with traditional poverty alleviation strategies to its founder, Mauricio Lim Miller. Miller, dissatisfied with the inefficacy of existing social services, began examining how people historically escaped poverty before the advent of large-scale welfare programs. His investigation revealed that prior to these programs, communities relied heavily on mutual support and informal networks to lift themselves out of hardship.
This insight inspired the development of FII’s transformative model, which rests on the premise that the key to breaking cycles of poverty lies in empowering individuals and communities to leverage their own strengths.