Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty
In my life I have had some wonderful opportunities to travel and enjoy different cultures around the world.
This also means that I have seen a lot of poverty.
Over 1 billion people—1 in 6 people around the world—live in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1 a day.
I used to wonder how that was even possible. Minimum wage in the states is about 40 times that amount for a full day of work.
How do you think a person lives on one dollar a day?
They don’t have. They don’t HAVE. They might build a shanty out of scavenged materials. They don’t have a floor. They don’t have electricity. They don’t have clean water. They don’t have a vehicle. They don’t have STUFF. They don’t have education. They don’t have opportunity. They don’t have any other options.
I am not rich by American standards. But I do have options! I can move almost anywhere I want in the whole world! I can choose what type of schooling I want my children to have. I can apply for a credit card and spend myself silly. I can travel. If I decide to, I can earn a PhD.
The world is my oyster.
There are many groups and individuals who try to make programs and systems to help the poor. Some times intentions are good, but the aid doesn’t really make much of a difference. When I was in Belize, I spent time in a village that received “shoe boxes of love” at Christmas. These are little boxes of toys and school supplies that are collected at schools and churches in the US and then shuffled off to different impoverished communities all over the world.
Spending 12 weeks in this little village with no electricity or running water was an extremely eye-opening experience for me. These people lead VERY simple lives; houses were made of wood or cement blocks. Some homes had concrete floors and some had dirt floors. Every one used tin plates. Most people cooked over a fire. The diet was consistently beans, rice, corn tortillas, and the occasional chicken or egg. Most people only had 2 or 3 different outfits, which they washed by hand in a river.
So it seemed a bit bizarre when a truck of American men pulled up, handed out boxes of notebook paper and cheap toys and basic hygiene products to the waiting hands below the truck bed, and drove off again with arms waving and voices calling out, “Jesus loves you!”.
What just happened?
WHY was all of that money and effort spent to bring these children meaningless trinkets that aren’t even relevant to their lives? With all of the money that was spent 1) filling the boxes 2) shipping the boxes 3) employing three men to deliver the boxes 4) determining a way to drive 100 shoe boxes of love down a mountainous dirt road to deliver them to a Mayan Indian reservation…couldn’t they have instead done something of lasting value?
Start a community education program? Open a trade school for girls to learn some type of skill? Have a clinic every 6 months to provide immunizations to children?
I know it feels good to GIVE stuff to poor people. But is STUFF what they need? Is that what any of us needs?
The bondage of poverty is not the lack of stuff. The bondage of poverty is the lack of options.
Sure, people have basic human needs. But do they need a garbage bag full of your old clothes? Or do they need chances, opportunities, mentoring, and education?
I arrived in Southeast Asia the day after the Tsunami in 2004. It was a desperate situation and all of the world wanted to help. But some of the help was wasted effort. I heard a report of a crate of snow suits being donated from some European country. SNOW SUITS. Snow suits in Thailand. Did the tsunami victims need snow suits in the 100 degree weather? The needs were for food, clean water, mosquito nets, malaria medication, grief counseling at PTSD experts!
*sigh*
I really am a giving person. I would help anyone in need. But for situations like this, these “solutions” leave me with lots of questions.
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15 October 2008, 11:44 am
Snowsuits and notebooks to people with no food, electricity and very little clothing.
SO very sad. It just goes to show you how out of touch and how completely ignorant people are to real poverty.
15 October 2008, 12:59 pm
I think a lot of people want to help but don’t know how. They want to do some little thing to help, and often little is not much more than the cost of a notebook because they themselves aren’t well off. It’s well-intentioned but misguided. Joe Somebody wants to help, collects snowsuits thinking that poor people probably don’t have warm clothing and then don’t pay attention to where they get sent.
I’m not disagreeing with you, by any means. I think there is education in order because too often, from our “well-to-do” perspective, all we know is ‘STUFF’ and there is obviously something missing in the translation.
Plus, “we” don’t like to get emotionally involved or take up our “precious” time. Hand over something and walk away, you know what I mean?
15 October 2008, 7:00 pm
I never really realized how useless those shoeboxes really are. Judging by my experience, the ‘givers’ are very excited but also very wealthy. I doubt they take great care with selecting the items. They just give because it is quite the thing to do.
Thanks for the eye-opener and challenge CanCan.
graceinva@yahoo.com
19 October 2008, 10:48 pm
[...] blog action day 2008: poverty so it seemed a bit bizarre when a truck of american men pulled up, handed out boxes of notebook paper and cheap toys and basic hygiene products to the waiting hands below the truck bed, and drove off again with arms waving and voices … [...]
21 October 2008, 4:22 pm
Check out http://www.thehungersite.com/ and http://www.children.org/ . I am supporting them and really hope to help at least a little
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28 October 2008, 6:59 am
How are you?, Give something to help the hungry people from Africa and India,
I added this blog about them:
on http://tinyurl.com/6kv7fu
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