Perhaps a first rule we should
start with, do no harm. This is very
important to think about and one we often regrettably forget to ask. When we do ask ourselves that question, it is
often not thought through deeply enough before we step out in faith. For instance, after the massive earthquake in
Haiti in January of 2010 I believe it was, what happened? Americans sent down a massive supply of
clothing. What was the result? We clothed the naked, which was a good
thing. However, in our eagerness to
clothe the naked, we overlooked the inevitable consequence that we put locals
out of business. Why would any Haitian
purchase clothing locally when they could now get it for free?
Another instance would be the
organization that has youth groups and college students go down to Mexico to
build houses. They don’t employ locals
to do the building, nor do they have the homeowners themselves help build the
houses by and large. In their
kind-heartedness, they want to give locals a home as a free gift, like the gift
of salvation. This is all well and good,
until you realize very few things should be freely given outside of salvation
and love and other big ideas like those.
Roll with me for a minute please.
What is better for a local economy; to employ locals to build houses by
supplying them with the building materials and teaching them how to build
houses, or having high schoolers and college students from another country come
in and build a house for a week and then leave?
What is better, to have a poor person help in building their own home or
to give them a home for free? 5 years
down the road when something breaks, is it better for that homeowner to have
knowledge of how their house was built or to have to rehire the same youth
group to come back down and make fixes?
What is a better blueprint for multiplication and expansion, hiring local
builders who can them employ locals and scale the company or hiring high
schoolers from another country?
Secondly, we need to move beyond
pity and towards actually helping people.
If our motivation is pity, we are more likely to address short term
needs without thinking long term. A classic
example of this is Toms’ shoes. I know
I’m going to step on some toes here due to the popularity of Toms shoes and the
fact that many of my friends love their shoes.
Let’s think about it though logically for a moment. If you give someone a pair of shoes, how long
will they last? A year if you’re lucky,
right? Furthermore, what does more good,
teaching locals how to make their own shoes so they can ‘shoe’ their
communities or just giving them shoes?
Granted, it was a great idea from a guy with a heart of gold, I’m not
questioning that in the slightest. I’m
merely suggesting that a better way forward would be to teach people how to
make their own shoes.
Another organization I heard of
doing something similar is a group called “Soles for Souls” I believe is the
name of it. Again, a very well-meaning
non-profit that is simply near-sighted and therefore does long term
damage. As I understand it, they do
shoe-drives in different communities with the goal of giving shoes to poor
countries like Haiti, etc. This is all
fine and good, until you realize Haiti has an abundance of tires. What does that have to do with shoes you may
ask? Guess what makes a great
‘sole’? Rubber, of course. What is more sustainable, teaching locals how
to make shoes or sandals using local resources, or donating shoes from well
meaning Christians abroad?
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