What the poor want

While interviewing the women's savings groups in the Tharu villages of Western Nepal I made a short list of what they want. Here are the top things:

-Literacy classes
-The ability to send their children to school
-A water pump so they don't have to walk to the river everyday
-Toilets
-Trainings on skills that will help them generate more revenue
-Access to medicine when they get sick
-Awareness about sanitation
-Book-keeping classes

...So pretty much they want education, health, compensation for their hard work, and technology that will make their days less burdensome. Sounds reasonable to me.