Do your homework: What kind of missions are you supporting and could it actually be hurting?
I think there comes a time in every “missionary’s” life when something finally clicks. You finally start to “get it” and really see what is going on the in the developing world. Actually, this may happen even if you are not working in the developing world. Maybe you are working in the U.S. doing social work or are in some way involved in trying to help those who are less fortunate. You can still relate to the discussion I am about to begin. I think it took us about a year of living in Uganda for the veil to be pulled off of our eyes, and we began to see clearer what Aid and missions work is doing.
I want to begin by saying, if you do have a heart for helping others, which I think most of us as humans do at least to some extent, then bravo. Good for you! That is what we are supposed to do. We are supposed to help each other out. There are going to be times when you are on a mountain top, and your friend is in a valley and needs some help, and you will help them. Then there will be a time when your life has taken a downward turn, and you will appreciate that same friend’s willingness to pull you out of your slump. I just wanted to make that point because even though I am coming to realize that there is some harm done in helping, I don’t believe that we should ever quit loving our neighbors and offering a helping hand.
So as I was saying, once we had been living in Uganda for about a year, something started to change within us. We had been exposed to the great need all around us. We had been exposed to so many different people and organizations trying to do something about it. All of these groups seem to have great names with words like, hope, cure, vision, compassion, peace, and empowerment. We met people working for these organizations. We all have very interesting and different stories, but we all shared some sort of calling to help. Our lives had led us to this point where we had the opportunity to experience missions full time and totally immerse ourselves in this life instead of just doing short term work, going to fundraising events, and writing checks (all of which I think are equally great things to do and be involved in).
This is a difficult thing to describe, but I will try to put it into words as best I can. The conversations Newman and I had with one another about the business of foreign aid began to change. We both felt like something was off, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. When I really think hard about it, I think that these feelings came about from just a few frustrating interactions between me and the local people. I felt like we were here to help, and people seemed to want our help at first, but then when it came time to do the real work, nobody wanted to put forth the effort. I think this is universal. I am not saying that our neighbors, or our staff, or Ugandans in general are like this. In fact I have come across many who are willing to put forth the effort and are highly motivated. However, there were those who I interacted with, and I just felt like they wanted me to spoon feed them and something just seemed off. This really seemed to come from strangers more than people I knew. They saw a white face, and they thought “Money!” This may sound harsh or politically incorrect, but it’s the truth. In the U.S. we are so sensitive to racism and racial profiling which is a good thing. We have progressed and are so accepting (most of the time). Here, you walk down the street and you are completely called out simply because of your race and you are immediately judged and treated differently because of it. At first, it was cute to have a little baby yell out “Mzungu!” and I didn’t mind so much when children would run alongside me and giggle when they touched my arm. After about a year of that, you kind of start to get annoyed and think, why do they do this? Who told them to act this way towards us? What have the mzungus done to receive this type of attention? So, once I started to consider why people seemed to want to be spoon fed and why just because of my color I was a celebrity/target, I became concerned.
I began to dig deeper, and as it turns out people have been writing about and researching this very concern of mine. It wasn’t just that my heart was becoming hard. Apparently I was just finally catching on. I was just really starting to see what was going on, and I took it as a good sign that I actually cared enough to reevaluate what we were doing. I began to see that people wanted me to hand them everything for free and children saw me as Santa Clause because we had taught them to think this way. Enough people had come over to these communities with the intention of lending a helping hand, and very often it came in the form of free gifts and services. Of course that is appreciated by those on the receiving end and those on the giving end receive a huge amount of satisfaction and are greatly humbled by helping.
There was an awesome article I read recently on Forbes.com, and it was an interview with Peter Greer, CEO of Hope International, which is a microfinance organization. I will put the link to the article below because Peter really hits the nail on the head as far as what I have been feeling and noticing. He quotes an author, Bob Lupton, who describes so well what happens when people try to help those in need by just giving it away for free. He says, “when he gave something the first time, there was gratitude; and when he gave something a second time to that same community, there was anticipation; the third time, there was expectation; the fourth time, there was entitlement; and the fifth time, there was dependency. That is what we’ve all experienced when we’ve wanted to do good.” I have seen this even with the children that come to my front door day after day. They start out with just giving us a smile and a hello, and so I give them a sticker or a drink of clean water. After a few more visits like this to our house, we got less smiles and friendly greetings. Instead, we just get a face in the window that says, “you give me water” or “you give me money.”
Another great example that Peter Greer gives the interviewer is of a community in Haiti that was visited by a missions team each year that would identify the household with the most need, and they would build them a new house. The community caught onto this and instead of trying each year to improve their living situation, they competed to be the neediest or the poorest, so that they would be chosen to receive next year’s new house. Now, for that team of people who were on the missions trip building houses, that trip probably changed their life. They were probably forever impacted by what they saw and the people they met. They probably went home and had a whole new outlook on the wasteful spending and lifestyles of the people around them. I think that’s a good thing. I think we all need to realize how the developing world lives, be grateful for all that we have, and be willing to share our blessings with those less fortunate. If it takes a short term missions trip like that to change someone’s life and turn them on to missions, then I think that’s great! That’s how it happened for me. I went on a short term trip with PMI, and was forever changed. All that said, do your homework and look into what you are really doing. Look at how it is impacting that community. Is what you are doing sustainable? Are you creating a dependency? Are you encouraging and empowering a community to help itself, or are you just giving handouts? You can argue the same thing in the U.S. Are we encouraging handouts and creating a dependency on Aid or are we empowering and encouraging people to help themselves? It’s the same as raising a child. I have yet to do it myself, but I have been around enough different families to be able to say that parents who gave their children everything they wanted without them having to work for it, usually ended up with children who were less grateful and more dependent. Parents who had their children do chores and work for their allowance or whatever they were given, generally had children who have a strong work ethic, they appreciate what they earn, and they are less dependent. I think we can all agree on that.
This does not mean that we don’t need people to give their time, money, and resources. It takes people giving those things to set people up for success. We need donors to give to PMI so that my husband has a salary and so that we could build all of the buildings for our clinic and supply them with beds and equipment. We need short term missions teams to spread the news about our clinic on the ground while providing medical care and education. The difference is though that PMI is empowering and enabling a staff of Ugandans to run their clinic sustainably, change the lives of their families, and provide affordable and high quality care to the community. They are not giving it out for free, therefore those who come to the clinic are showing that they are taking ownership of their healthcare, and they value it.
Basically all I am trying to say with all of this is, do your homework. Research the organizations you support. Think about how you are trying to help, and even consider if maybe what you are doing is doing more harm than good. Please read this article below, as he puts all of this into words better than I can. It’s a two part article, but I am only posting the link to the 1st part below. Also, I am going to attach a link to another article that is a little more on the amusing side and is also SO true. It’s called 10 Reasons I Love/Hate Being a Missionary. I can identify with just about every word he says, except that we don’t have children and he does; however, we have missionary friends who do have children and I know they identify with this 100%.
Sorry this is so long, but it’s been on my heart for a while now, and I just thought I’d share because I know a lot of our readers have a heart for missions and I want people to really consider this. Thanks so much for reading and for supporting us. We love you all!
Love
Trish
http://bringlove.in/10-reasons-why-i-lovehate-being-a-missionary/
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