i58:10 media

Really helping Haiti

My most recent trip to Haiti is serving to further sharpen my emerging thoughts on the issues of poverty and how to effectively help anyone ensnared in it.  With our a wealth and knowledge (and by “our” I mean the US but it applies to all developed countries) how do we avoid creating dependency and instead empower a developing people?  How do we retain the dignity of the individual and not run roughshod over their culture?

Haiti has had a problem even before the earthquake.  In fact, this problem is common throughout the developing world because I have seen it in my trips to Africa as well.  The problem seems to be us – the ones, like me, who like quick fixes, and easy answers.  After the earthquake Haiti clearly needed short term help.  But what about now?  Our “help” needs to be much less about giving things to those who are poor and much more about empowering them.  All we do is create a dependency when we do for Haitians what they should be empowered to do for themselves.  We can become the problem – and there are those who say we have!

As Americans we like to DO things.  We like to fix problems.  Haiti has a problem and we want to fix it, but in the process of fixing it are we doing the Haitian people any favors?  I guess the answer to that question depends on how we define “fix.”  Haitians are poor, and they are hungry and we don’t like to see that type of poverty flash across our TV screen or computer monitor, but, I am starting to conclude that our short term “fix it” mentality will never solve the underlying problem.

Here’s an example: While attending a Haitian church service this past Sunday a visiting pastor from “the west” stood before the congregation and said “We have come because we are called to help you. We will be coming back every month for the next 6 months and every time we come we will be running a program for you to help you recover from the earthquake.  We love you!”  Yes, he said “for you” not “with you.”  Did anyone ask the Haitians about this program?  Is it necessary?  Does it give them ownership?  And then, much to my shock, this visiting pastor proceeded to gift the senior pastor and his wife with T-Shirts touting the name of their program and then posed in front of the whole congregation for a photo op and said “With the gift of these T-Shirts we transfer the anointing of this project to you.”  What?!  Are you as irritated reading this as I was hearing it?  I’m sorry, a T-shirt doesn’t “transfer the anointing” like some trinket we hawk in the market.  It seemed so arrogant.  Matthew 25 interpreted correctly means we don’t bring Jesus with us when we enter into someone else’s misery and brokenness, Jesus is already there.  We come to meet Jesus when we enter into poverty because he lives among the broken and hurting. After all, He lived (and lives) among us…right?

We mean well, I know we do, but what are we doing?!  The only way ANY country can rise out of poverty is if/when the people of that country take ownership of their country and are given less short term charity (except in emergency situations like natural disasters) and more long term empowerment.  As I think this all through I keep coming back to a phrase I heard 15 years ago in Senegal from a man who worked in development and understood this concept.  When I asked him about how we can really help he said the attitude going in is critical to the long term success of any development project.  It begins with the very first encounter.  His approach with those living in poverty was to say to them right up front, “We are not here to run in front of you and pull you out of poverty.  We are not here to come up from behind and push you out of poverty.  We are here to walk beside you – at your pace – and tackle the issues you face together.  We will learn from each other.  If you run, we’ll run.  If you walk, we’ll walk.  If you sit down, we will sit down. If you stop, we will stop.”

What I like about this approach is that it doesn’t let either side off the hook!  It’s saying we’re not going to do things for you, but with you.  In “the West” we don’t like that because it might take time and it involves investing ourselves in the process, not just investing our money.

“Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, but teach a man a fish and he eats for a lifetime,” is a cliché and you might be tempted to think that’s going to be my trite conclusion after my trip, but let’s not make it that simple.  In Matthew 6:33 Jesus says “Seek first the Kingdom and all these things will be added to you as well” but have you really thought about the implications of that?!  If you are a Believer in Jesus then that is what you are called to do, and if that is what we are called to do then “seeking first the Kingdom” impacts everything we do…every business decision, every disagreement with my wife, my checkbook, the way I parent, the way I interact with the cashier at the grocery store, and what I do when no one else is watching.  If we don’t live out that scripture and all its implications than it simply becomes a cliché because actually putting “Seek first the Kingdom” into action is hard, and gutsy, and requires tough decisions.  Likewise, the same is true if we quickly and easily say “Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime” but we don’t go any further with what that implies.  Teaching someone isn’t easy when everything inside me says “if they would only do it this way (i.e. my way) that would fix the problem.”  Teaching is intentional, it allows for failure (even if the stakes are high) and it requires patience…that’s why it’s tough to do for people like me.

It’s time for me to stop giving a man a fish because it makes me feel better.  It’s time we stop trying to do something for those in poverty but actually working alongside them in their struggle to escape poverty.  I know it’s hard to do because we lose control of the outcome!  And to that I say “Yes, and amen!”

David