From our conception of poverty, we think that people should never be considered poor, but that the environment that we, as a society, have created for the citizens to develop their life project should.
In Proyecto Propio we think that we cannot assign such a complex phenomenon as poverty to people, even if their material, cultural, geographical or personal conditions are extremely precarious.
Therefore, our working method focuses on the context as the factor where change should occur, so it is there where we intervene, and not in the individual who suffers from poverty.
Understanding poverty from this point of view allows us to involve Public Organizations and Private Enterprises, but not considering them as charitable entities but as responsible actors of the context where they act.
We consider that people involved in a territory are part of the context and consequently, co-responsible of the quality of life of families that live there. That is why we consider those actors key for the development of territories.
The context is poor, not the person
On the basis of this concept of poverty, a new concept for solidarity was developed too. We understand solidarity as an act of recognition of the other as a human being, with the context, the history and the dignity that that implies.
In that way, we believe that the first step for reaching solidarity is building a symmetrical relationship between human beings, snd this will only happen if we recognize each other as unique subjects that are part of a larger group that involves us all.
Solidarity is not an act of superiority, neither the idea that the one who practices it has knowledge of everything and can solve it all.