| About Us |
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"If you really want to get involved in poverty reduction, don't go and do it from an office in New York or Geneva. Get out there, get your hands dirty and see what opportunities you can find." This is where it all started - this is what a Professor of Law at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) told Clary Castrission (aged 22) as a third year student in 2005. A short time later, 40K was created by Clary and co-founder Karyn Avery (aged 20) ...Read more
Our BoardIn February 2009, 40K recognised the need for better governance and created its first board. Hugh Anderson, who has had extensive corporate governance experience, assisted 40K's management in thinking about what skills the Foundation needed at this period of growth. ...Read more The current members of the board are: Hugh Anderson (Chairman) Clary Castrission (Founding Director and CEO) Hamish Griffin (CFO) Sam Blay (Director) Andrew Hipsley (Director) David Nathanson (Director) Les Szekely (Director)
FAQ'sWe have found that a there are a number of common questions that are asked about 40K such as what do we do, who are we helping and why. Answers to these questions and many more can be found here.
Audited FinancialsAt 40K we believe that transparency is very important, donors deserve to see where their money is going. Our financial year is the same as the calender year and the audited financial statements are uploaded as soon as they are avaliable ...Read more |
Poverty Mythbusters
| Overpopulation causes poverty: |
People always say that we have to bring the number of people on earth down to reduce poverty- this leads to practices like the ‘one child’ policy in China. But… 40K Home was once invited to inspect a rag-pickers community* outside Delhi (India’s capital city). In that community, couples commonly had 9 or 10 children each. Why? For starters, once the kids turn about 6, they are put to work by picking rubbish and earning just under $1/day. This means that if you have 9 or 10 kids, the family as a whole pulls in a bit of money. Secondly, because of the terrible hygiene in poverty-stricken areas, there is a good chance that a few kids will die before the age of 5. Lastly, with no social security benefits for old poor people in places like India, people have a lot of kids so that they can be looked after in their old age. This leads to a vicious cycle- the kids don’t attend school, and they can’t break out of that lifestyle. SO, if there wasn’t poverty, there wouldn’t be a need for massive families. Hence, reduce poverty, and you combat overpopulation. *A rag-pickers community is similar to slum, except much more depressing- it’s a community formed around a rubbish dump, and people spend their days picking through the rubbish looking for things like aluminium foil and blown light bulbs that they can sell to recycling companies. |