Research Institute

Research Institute

The 40K Home Foundation’s Research Institute is one of the exciting new initiatives that 40K has launched in 2009. The Research Institute constitutes the research arm of the 40K Home Foundation. The underlying rationale for this is our belief here at 40K that the more accurate our information is about the communities that we service, the better our ability to deliver the results these communities require.

It is in the pursuit of this goal that that the Research Institute reinforces the core values of science, adventure and interactivity of the 40K Home Foundation. How?

Science: The Research Institute is dedicated to upholding academic standards of our research into the issues facing our partner communities. Striving for the highest standards of professionalism the Research Institute wants its efforts to contribute to the corpus of understanding about the complex and multifaceted issue of development studies.

Adventure: The Research Institute’s scientific approach to research does not come at the cost of adventure. Although the Institute does the hard yards trawling through academic journals and the annals of libraries, our approach to research sees us out and about, meeting with leading academics and other NGO’s as well as continuing with on the ground research in India.

Interactivity: The Research Institute wants its research to be accessible to all of 40K’s supporters and not just the academic and NGO community. This means that the Research Institute will present its research in a way that appeals to the diverse community that supports us, from school children to professionals.

The current research initiative being undertaken by the Research Institute is an investigation into the lives of granite quarry workers in Bangalore India, the parents of whose children 40K Home Foundation and its Indian partner, the Lovedale Foundation, will be servicing with the new 4 storey eco-shelter and community learning centre.

We are also always on the lookout for volunteers so if the Research Institute sounds like something you would be interested in, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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.

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Poverty Mythbusters