![Who Are the Poor?
• ―…every human being is poor…‖ (WHH, p. 62)
• ―until we embrace our mutual brokenness, our work
with low-income people is likely to do far more
harm than good.‖ (WHH, p. 64)
• We ―sometimes unintentionally reduce poor people
to objects that [we] use to fulfill [our] own need to
accomplish something.‖ (WHH, p. 65)](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/whenhelpinghurts-121023132751-phpapp01/85/When-Helping-Hurts-Overview-8-320.jpg)
When Helping Hurts Overview
- 1. When Helping Hurts How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor … And Yourself By Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert
- 2. Why do we care? ―Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.‖ Isaiah 58:6-8
- 3. What Is Poverty? • The wealthy (us) tend to see poverty as a lack of material possessions. • ―Poor people typically talk in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness.‖ (WHH, p. 53)
- 4. What Causes Poverty? If We Believe the Primary Cause of Then We Will Primarily Try to… Poverty Is… A Lack of Knowledge Educate the Poor Oppression by Powerful People Work for Social Justice The Personal Sins of the Poor Evangelize and Disciple the Poor A Lack of Material Resources Give Material Resources to the Poor
- 5. The Real Cause of Poverty: Broken Relationships • Broken Relationship with God – Cause of sin and suffering • Broken Relationship with Self – Cause of God- complex or low self-esteem • Broken Relationship with Others – Cause of self- centeredness and exploitation • Broken Relationship with the Rest of Creation – Cause of materialism, loss of sense of purpose
- 6. A Secondary Cause of Poverty: Broken Systems • Political System • Economic System • Social System • Religious System
- 7. Again, What Is Poverty? ―Poverty is the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable. Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meanings.‖ ~Bryant L. Myers
- 8. Who Are the Poor? • ―…every human being is poor…‖ (WHH, p. 62) • ―until we embrace our mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people is likely to do far more harm than good.‖ (WHH, p. 64) • We ―sometimes unintentionally reduce poor people to objects that [we] use to fulfill [our] own need to accomplish something.‖ (WHH, p. 65)
- 9. What Is the Solution? • ―Poverty is rooted in broken relationships, so the solution to poverty is rooted in the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection to put all things into right relationship again.‖ (WHH, p. 77) • ―Poverty alleviation is the ministry of reconciliation: moving people closer to glorifying God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation.‖ (WHH, p. 78) • ―Material poverty alleviation is working to reconcile the four foundational relationships so that people can fulfill their calling of glorifying God by working and supporting themselves and their families with the fruit of that work.‖ (WHH, p. 78)
- 10. How Do Beliefs Tie In? • Distorted worldview concerning God o Giving Pachamama the glory for increased crops • Distorted Worldview Concerning Self o ―I can‘t hold a job. I‘m not smart enough.‖ • Distorted Worldview Concerning Others o Caring only about self – robbing and killing are fine. • Distorted Worldview Concerning the Rest of Creation o The world is this way. Nothing will ever change.
- 11. What Role Do Broken Systems Play? • IMF loan help to poor countries forced them to devalue their currencies and get rid of trade barriers. • The US welfare system used to reduce benefits per dollar earned, encouraging people to stay on welfare long-term and not to look for work. • US funding for public education is inequitable, meaning that up to 300% less is spent per student in poorer schools than in wealthier schools.
- 12. What Are the Types of Poverty Alleviation? • Relief: ―the urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering from a natural or man-made crisis.‖ (WHH, p. 104) • Rehabilitation: ―seeks to restore people and their communities to the positive elements of their pre- crisis conditions.‖ (WHH, p. 104) • Development: ―a process of ongoing change that moves all the people involved – both the ‗helpers‘ and the ‗helped‘ – closer to being in right relationship wit God, self, others, and the rest of creation.‖ (WHH, p. 104)
- 13. When Is Relief Appropriate? • Is there really a crisis? If you fail to provide immediate help, will there really be serious, negative consequences? • To what degree was the individual personally responsible for the crisis? • Can the person help himself? • To what extent has the person already been receiving relief from you or others in the past? • Relief should be seldom, immediate, and temporary.
- 14. Avoid Paternalism Do not do things for people that they can do for themselves. Types of Paternalism • Resource paternalism • Spiritual paternalism • Knowledge paternalism • Labor paternalism • Managerial paternalism
- 15. Start With Assets, Not Needs • Identify and mobilize the capabilities, skills, and resources of the individual or community. • As much as possible, look for resources and solutions to come from within the individual or community, not from the outside. • Seek to build and rebuild the relationships among local individuals, associations, churches, businesses, schools, government, etc. • Only bring in outside resources when local resources are insufficient to solve pressing needs.
- 16. Short-Term Missions • Short-Term Missionaries Need to Be Humble and Culturally-Sensitive o Be aware that the North American concept of time is very different than in much of the Majority World. • Time as limited vs. unlimited • Efficiency vs. relationships o Be aware that the North American concept of Self is very different than in much of the Majority World. • Individualistic vs. Collectivist • Individual achievement vs. group identity
- 17. Potential Negative Effects of Short Term Missions • ―By definition, short-term missions have only a short time to ‗show a profit,‘ to achieve, pre-defined goals. This can accentuate our American idols of speed, quantification, compartamentalization, money, achievement, and success. Projects become more important than people.‖ ~Miriam Adeney • ―After a short-term team conducts a Bible study in one of these communities, the children stop attending the Bible studies of my organization. Our indigenous staff tell me that the children stop coming because we do not have all the fancy materials and crafts that the short-term teams have, and we do not give away things like these teams do.‖ ~Anonymous, ―Short-term Missions Can Create a Long-term Mess‖
- 18. How Can We Do STMs Well? • Work with a host organization that understands the nature of poverty and practices the basic principles of appropriate poverty alleviation. • Make sure that the community wants your help. • Be open to not going – to sending the money instead – if that is what the community can really use. • Design the trip to be about ‗being‘ and ‗learning‘ as much as about ‗doing.‘ • Avoid paternalism; do not do for people what they can do for themselves.
- 19. How Does HOH Practice These Principles? How Can We Do Better? • Do we see poverty as it really is? o Our Mission is to ―Show Christ‘s love by healing bodies and souls.‖ This recognizes that the need we see isn‘t just material. o How do we address this? How can we do better? • Do we do relief, rehabilitation, or development? o Outreach clinics can be relief or rehabilitation. o Plaza work is relief, hopefully building to rehabilitation. o Public health work is development. o How can we work toward development?
- 20. How Does HOH Do?, continued • What assets does our community have? Do we help them use these assets? o Hospital staff takes initiative to improve the hospital o We are working with the school to improve the health of the community. o How can we do better? • How do we do with community involvement? o Our staff is primarily Bolivian. o Volunteers work with Bolivian organizations. Our work at the school was requested by the school, and teachers help out. o How can we do better?