Our Methods

There are five ways in which Lifeline seeks to get the most “bang” out of the bucks it devotes to relieving human misery.

First, Lifeline focuses all of its attention on Africa and other lesser developed regions of the globe, where most of the population subsists on a dollar a day or less and where each additional dollar of assistance can make a vastly greater impact on improving the quality of life than it can here at home.

Second, Lifeline concentrates its humanitarian efforts on the most cost-effective forms of intervention available, that is, those that can have a profoundly positive impact on large numbers of individuals at an extremely low cost. For instance, at a cost of less than a dollar per beneficiary, Lifeline’s well-drilling program in Northern Uganda is providing a permanent source of clean drinking water for tens of thousands of vulnerable individuals.

Third, Lifeline makes every effort to identify, employ and promote technological developments that can vastly improve the effectiveness and reduce the cost of its humanitarian programs. For instance, Lifeline’s water program in Northern Uganda relies on a technologically advanced and highly portable rig that is specially designed for water well drilling. This rig has enabled Lifeline to reduce the cost of well drilling to as little as $1,500 per borehole—less than one fifth the amount budgeted by most other relief agencies. Similarly, in Uganda and Sudan, Lifeline is teaching women how to make a basic, but technologically ingenious, insulated clay stove, which, at a cost of less than a dollar a stove, reduces the amount of wood they must gather for cooking by as much at seventy to eighty percent.  

Fourth, Lifeline seeks to identify projects that promote self-sufficiency and, thereby, provide durable solutions to the problems confronting impoverished peoples in Africa and elsewhere. For example, while Lifeline’s stove program is addressing the immediate needs of those who have sought refuge in camps in Uganda and Sudan, that program is providing a skill that they can take with them when they go home and that will help them for the rest of their lives. 

Fifth, rather than employing expensive international personnel, Lifeline seeks wherever possible to staff its programs with local talent, who can be hired at less than a tenth of the cost, and with dedicated volunteers, who share the organization’s commitment to improving the lot of those less fortunate than themselves.