Revised Post-Assessment Respond

Edison Enciso

Professor Bailey

English 120-016

16 Dec 2014

Revised Post-Assessment Respond

Summary/Respond to the article “Changing the Face of Poverty: Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation”

There are many non-profit organizations that look for economic help to finance different humanitarian programs, and they use distinct types of publicity.  Many non-profit organizations represent poverty with emotional images to get their objectives. However, the representation of poverty is a sensible problem that affects many families in the entire world and its representation has to be treated with special care if non-profit organizations want to get their aims. In “Changing the Face of Poverty: Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation,” writer Diana George particularly focus on the way the organization, Habitat for Humanity, stereotypes poverty in order to promote help to people who need house; however, its representation of  poverty goes against the aim of the organization that is to provide house to all needed people. This is because Habitat produces videos of poverty trying to convince American people what to do, and how to solve the poverty problem according its point of view that is “that we are all responsible for partnering with our neighbors throughout the world so that everyone might eventually have, at least, a simple decent place to live. Like the philosophy behind many nonprofits, Habitat ‘s is not mainstream notion” (47). Another reason is the apparent demonstration through the photos of urban poverty, which was denied by Bush Administration, and it was also confirmed for Heritage Foundation in 1998 (47). Also, the principal problem is to identify suitable applicants for home that are confused for the visual content of publicity videos; for example, when writer asked  Kim Puuri, a member of the affiliate’s Homeowner Selection Committee, about the video, Kim said “when I saw those pictures I usually think of Africa or a third world country and NOT the U.S…People viewing the videos and pictures see the condition of the people and feel that their own condition may not be that bad and feel they probably wouldn’t qualify” (50). Finally, George finds the representation of poverty that is the messages that focus poverty “as an individual problem that can be dealt with by volunteers on an individual basis,” when the description of poverty also has other characteristics that are not represented in the images of the nonprofit’s publicity videos (50).

The writer, in her article, describes us the messages of how Habitat for Humanity represents the poverty through images in which it is the model of poor family that needs a home in order to get applicants. However, representation of poverty of Habitat will not have a positive effect on American people. They will be confused with the image of poverty showed by Habitat because the characteristic of poverty is completely different to characteristics of poverty of people in the United States. In this country many people receive economic help from the government because they are considered in situation of poverty; however, they have electro domestics, place where to live, medical care and food.  If Habitat wants to get its aims, why does this organization not change the way of representing poverty in the United States? Although many organizations or companies use extreme situation in their visual publicity to attract attention of people, it can create confusion if the goal of publicity is not well directed. When we see publicity of the consequences of smoking cigarette, and the images show us sick people that are in extreme situation, this type of publicity attract our attention. However the aim of this publicity is to create awareness that if we smoke, we might die because of that. Instead of Habitat for Humanity, it has as objective to eliminate poverty housing, but the images in its videos of as Habitat represent the poverty go against its main goal, because many poor people are not adequately represented in the publicity videos creating confusion to potential applicants in order to get a house.

To think of “constructing poverty over poverty as an individual problem that can be dealt with volunteer an individual basis” (50), is an appreciation idealist because poverty is a problem social, economic and politic. To fight against poverty is not only provide houses to needed families and the attitude of people if not it requires other aspects such as education, work that can offer enough money to live quietly,  a good environment where to live and others.

In conclusion,, although I agree with the social work that this organization do, I disagree of how the representation of poverty on its videos and its way the organization pretend to convince us how to solve the problem of poverty. Creating confusion among potential applicants, Habitat is working against its aims.