If I Had A Water Buffalo

An expert in fighting global poverty shares lessons from her travels and outlines a path to help impoverished people achieve self-sufficiency.

Dr. Marilyn A. Fitzgerald has travelled the globe working to end world poverty through humanitarian aid and microfinance. With her unique opportunity to observe what works and what doesn’t, she set out to find a system that not only provides resources, but helps people thrive—a way that helps people build a foundation of dignity and self-determination.

If I Had a Water Buffalo details Fitzgerald’s journey of discovery from the remote villages and cities of Indonesia to Eastern Europe, South America, Bangladesh, and beyond. Fitzgerald begins her book by recounting the ongoing cycle of visiting international humanitarian projects and then returning home to solicit the funds and resources needed to support those projects. Then, during a trip to a village in Indonesia, a man’s request for a water buffalo inspired Fitzgerald to find a better way.

In If I Had a Water Buffalo, Fitzgerald shares the lessons she learned both in academia and in the world—lessons that can be adopted by businesses, institutions, schools, parents, and individuals seeking to help lift people around the world out of poverty.