What Poor People Need...

Water, seeds, manure for plants , charcoal tablets to prevent diarrhea and most infections/poisons, mosquito nets and one mobile phone per village in case of emergencies and also for education podcasting......initially

and very very small monetary loans.

and hopefully in the longterm extremely small treehouse type houses made of lightweight cost effective materials..with heated matts on the floors for winter..

do-able considering that more money was spent on usa defence each year than it would have cost to support initial such programs in the whole of africa