| Reaching the Unreached was founded with only one purpose and aim: to serve the poorest in our area by whatever means are needed and suitable and possible, according to the felt needs and priorities of the people. |
| Our whole immediate aim is to help the most destitute of the population in our area in as practical and as substantial a way as possible. We believe that we exist here for the sake of the poorest whether it be the environs around us or further afield geographically as well as in time. We do not wish this to be merely patching up or stop-gapping, although it will frequently have to be that. We want it to be something permanent and in a yeast-like way, affecting the whole area, many people and the future. We wish it to be gentle, unassuming and in keeping with the people for whom it is meant. |
| No need of the poor, whether of individuals or of communities, is to be overlooked or ignored, which means that RTU must be multi-faceted and as far as possible run an integrated development programme for the rural poor. |
| This means that RTU is concerned for our neighbours as people, as individuals, who have the right to a decent life and therefore a right to our assistance to a better life since we have more means than they have. We must always be careful that our facilities and the benefits of belonging to an established group do not lead us to selfishness as an institution and that we are ready to look out and reach out and share whatever we have. |
| This must include especially women and children, the old, the sick, the homeless, the unemployable, those in need of houses or water, etc. |
| Since we are trying to reach the poorest people who would be living from hand to mouth this must be done freely by a staff dedicated to this purpose. |
| It must mean that RTU must be peopled-centred and not project-centred, though the latter will be needed to serve the poor in substantial and in ongoing ways. |
| We must also over keep in mind that we are also part and parcel of the area in which we live and therefore have a duty to keep deeply involved and integrated in that area. We are otherwise foreigners. |
| It above all means that RTU strictly avoids becoming elitist except for the very poor and to serve them better. |
| RTU does not need nor should it be interested in creating an image for itself and must avoid any form of triumphalism or “trumpet blowing”. It believes that, “by their fruits they shall be known”. |
| RTU believes that the support it receives in any form from others whether it be finance, equipment or even fixed assets do in actual fact belong to the poor and that all staff receiving salaries do so thanks to those poor people, whom we are meant to serve. |
| This therefore means that all our sources of support in actual fact originate in Divine Providence and must be carefully administered. And that therefore the more we give to those in need the more we will receive to use for those in need. |
| We hope that all our staff will be imbued with the desire to better the lives of others in greater need and not simply be with us only for the sake of their own security and comfort. |
