If I Had a Water Buffalo: Empowering Others Through Sustainable Lending - Paperback

by Marilyn A. Fitzgerald (Author)

""If I Had a Water Buffalo"" poignantly explores the critical difference in outcomes when offering a hand up rather than giving a handout. A seemingly simple request for a water buffalo by an impoverished rice farmer proves to be the catalyst for Dr. Fitzgerald's global and unending journey in search of a better way to meet the needs of people less fortunate. Woven with both triumph and tragedies, encompassing undertakings in Indonesia, Eastern Europe, South America, and Bangladesh; ""If I Had a Water Buffalo"" artfully lays out why the approach to helping those in need must incorporate the personal empowerment of the beneficiaries over charity often creating harmful dependency.

Author Biography

Marilyn A. Fitzgerald, Ph.D., is first and foremost a compassionate individual drawn to the needs of the less fortunate across the globe. As a result of her extensive fieldwork and research at the grassroots' level of economic and community development, she has become a highly sought speaker, radio guest, and expert consultant in the areas of sustainability, stakeholder negotiations, microfinance and evaluation of project outcome maximization. Dr. Fitzgerald is a clinical psychologist in private practice and has also earned an MBA and president of Common Ground Solutions, LLC. consulting with various organizations.