Since the 1940s, the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere has used the same overall strategy to get food to needy people: shipping it from the United States. 

Now, the international nonprofit plans to change its approach by overseeing community networks to “boost local support,” according to Jonathan Mitchell, the chief operating officer of CARE. 

Nonprofits at N.C. State sponsored an event at the University Club, which featured Mitchell and Abby Maxman, the vice president of International Programs and Operations for CARE, discussing the history of the organization, specific CARE programs in Bangladesh and Madagascar and its new strategy.

According to a CARE video played at the event, about half of every dollar meant for aid is used to transport food from the U.S. to remote locations, and the shipping for this vital aid can take as long as four months.

Instead, Mitchell and Maxman said CARE wants to send money to developing countries, where it will be used to buy supplies and food from vendors in that area. This will also stimulate that area’s economy and help 4 million more people.

A major step in accomplishing this goal will be training workers living in developing countries.

 “It’s no longer about us supplying poor countries with resources directly,” Mitchell said. “Now it’s about sharing knowledge and resources and working with these countries as a partner.”

Maxman said this strategy is revolutionary and is an attempt to influence the field of humanitarian non-profits.

“CARE’s goal is to move from boots on the ground to partnerships,” Maxman said. “We want a strategic reliance with the countries we work with.”

Maxman also discussed the CARE-run Jita program in Bangladesh, where 4,000 “ultra marginalized” women have been given the opportunity sell shampoo, soap and other domestic goods.

According to Maxman, corporations wanted to sell its products in developing countries but didn’t have the network to do so effectively. CARE partnered with these companies, and, as a result, thousands of women improved the financial situation for their families. One woman, Maxman said, increased her monthly income from $6.50 to $26.

Most importantly, however, that woman, and the others in the program, became accepted in their community both socially and economically. 

“The main problem at first was social acceptance,” the woman said, according to Maxman’s presentation. “Men didn’t think a woman should do this sort of work and they thought I was selling fake products, but now I’ve been accepted in the community.” 

Maxman said the men in the developing communities in Bangladesh recognized the women as social and economic equals and this reform could be expanded to similar countries, as well.  

Mitchell said CARE is currently a “top-down” organization with a hierarchical structure, and by 2020, it will be a global network supported by workers in the area that needs aid.

“CARE will no longer have a headquarters office in the US. when this plan is complete,” Mitchell said. “We will have some kind of coordinating entity in developing countries that need help, and CARE USA that will still play an incredible important role, but it’ll just be a network.”

Mitchell also discussed the evolution of CARE.

During the 1950s, CARE primarily supplied aid directly to countries in need and started expanding into more developing countries, Mitchell said. The nonprofit then started technical-based programs to train and educate people so they could “engage in their own development.”

CARE has since developed programs to empower women and expand rights while still providing aid.