The philosophy of the holistic development model is instilled within how PTW operates
The philosophy of the holistic development model was defined and created by PTW’s founder in 2010 and instilled into the foundations of how PTW operates. The model is designed to ensure PTW is operating ethically and is conscious of the methods and impact our pillars of health, education and volunteering have on the world.
What does our Holistic Development Model Involve?
It underpins the philosophy that everything PTW does in the pursuit of improving health, education and volunteering, should have a net positive impact on all areas of global development. This model was created to ensure that PTW not only advocates positive change, but also leads by example. Our holistic development model has been one of the founding principles of PTW and has led the world in bringing innovation to the volunteering space. This new way of thinking has helped us succeed and rise to the challenge of making the impossible, possible.
- Initiatives to promote decent work and economic growth often come at the expense of climate action due to larger outputs of waste, pollution, and destruction to the environment
- Fundraising methods that include alcohol or unhealthy food campaigns have a direct conflict with good health and wellbeing practices
- Initiatives like selling bottles of water to raise money for implementing clean water infrastructure is contradictory because disposable bottles of water have a direct negative impact on clean water infrastructure costs and resourcing
- Driving campaigns by producing merchandise and branded products promotes poor habits for responsible consumption and production
Areas Of Holistic Development
See below various areas of global development and examples of how PTW is directly or indirectly addressing them through our actions
and efforts to improve health and education:
Poverty and Hunger
PTW provides free access to health and education support or services to communities living in poverty, empowering these communities to bring themselves out of poverty and hunger. For example, PTW’s grassroots projects work directly with children and families who experience poverty and support them in their specific health and education needs to overcome poverty.
Equality
PTW targets our efforts on communities that are vulnerable and disadvantaged. For example, our Magic Room project in New Delhi provides tutoring, mentoring and advice to young girls that live in the urban slum communities of India. These girls do not have the same opportunities as our children in India, or globally, due to their socioeconomic background, sex and culture.
Clean water and sanitation
When resourcing our grassroots projects for vulnerable and disadvantaged children in low-income countries, PTW look at the barriers to quality education and good health and wellbeing that the children we support are facing. This often includes clean water and sanitation. PTW often provides infrastructure and education to supply cleaner water and sanitation. For example, in the Wonderlab project in PTW’s Rescue Centre project in rural Kenya, we commissioned the development of more hygienic bathrooms for the children of the project and access to clean drinking water, leading to a reduction in the spread of illnesses such as gastroenteritis and other sanitation-based diseases.
Affordable and clean energy
When resourcing our grassroots projects for vulnerable and disadvantaged children in low-income countries, PTW remains conscious of the ability of the projects to be financially sustainable in the long-term, whilst also being environmentally sustainable. A major component of that is reducing electricity costs. Within our Rescue Centre project in rural Kenya, PTW commissioned the development of solar-powered lighting for all rooms and houses within the rescue centre. This lowered running costs and provided a clean energy alternative to the projects needs.
Decent work and economic growth
Part of PTW’s quality education includes mentoring the children of our grassroots projects on the process and transition from schooling to workforce, empowering them from an early stage to be valued members of the workforce. Aside from our projects, volunteering is shown by studies to improve the employability, skills and abilities of those who participate, helping to grow their local and national economies. We source resources for our projects from local communities and businesses, supporting them from the ground-up.
Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
The model of PTW itself is a testament to innovation. As an organization that does not pay any of its members, PTW has developed innovative ways of using technology and infrastructure to establish a long-term, sustainable, and global organization. Using digital technologies, we have created innovative ways of teaching and providing health support. Our own website provides easy access for the children in our projects to learn in a safe online environment. For projects that don’t have the basic infrastructure to connect, we have worked to provide access to the internet and donate the technological devices they need such as laptops, computers and tablets, as seen in our projects across rural Brazil.
Sustainable cities and communities
A key element of our projects is to utilise volunteers who live within the city or community which the project is based in. Therefore, the carbon footprint is minimized, and the community’s culture, language and identity can be maintained by volunteers that have a strong understanding of the needs and sensitivities of the community. For example, our volunteers in Rio De Janeiro are from the local community, meaning they speak the local language and understand the history and deeply-rooted social challenges that the children face. This empowers the people of the community to enact change in their own lives and within their own communities that is not dependent on external volunteers.
Climate Action
Our efforts in improving health, education through digital technologies have had a direct impact on the sustainability of cities reducing our carbon footprint. Utilising local volunteers also helps retain community knowledge and reduce environmental impacts. PTW also deliver health and education initiatives that promote sustainability of life on land and underwater. For example, our teachings highlighting the benefits of reducing meat intake for good health whilst also beneficial for the sustainability of global ecosystems and animal welfare.
Responsible Consumption and Production
PTW does not look towards the selling of products or merchandise to raise funds for our operations. This is to ensure we demonstrate how quality health and education can be achieved without overconsumption and overproduction. By keeping our education and publication resources digital, we are able reduce waste and the unnecessary production of paper. Within PTW grassroots projects, resources are carefully assessed for their needs and only purchased if required. Within PTW’s community engagement events, we run the events at low-to-no costs and utilise as few a resources as possible to exemplify that good health and quality education does not require significant amounts of money, production or consumption.
Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Through PTW’s community engagement events, we have provided interactive education on social issues such as race, culture, and inequalities. We have helped participants understand social issues that they were previously unaware of, and changed their views and perspectives, helping them interact more peacefully and harmoniously with their community and the world around them. PTW also believes in the need for non-violent and respectable dialogue on social issues, rather than pitting opposing views to ‘fight’ physically or ideologically against one another. As such, PTW delivers seminars and workshops that allows individuals and communities to discuss their differences and learn how to work together towards a more positive future.
Partnership for the Goals
PTW choose the partners we work with very carefully across our project areas. We partner with small ‘homegrown’ organizations founded within the community we are supporting. We partner and accept sponsorship only with those who believe in our goals and align with our views and values to ensure our cause is always being progressed.
Responsible Information
PTW follows the ethical principles of journalism and information reliability principles to ensure the content and resources we provide are: truthful, accurate, independent, fair, impartial, accountable and do no harm. All content production in PTW is expected to go through a rigorous process of review. PTW works with sources that provide evidence-based-practise, gold-standard guidelines, and validated through more than one source.