11lightmagazine.ca

In the documentary Where’s my goat?, di-

rector Christopher Richardson journeys to

Zambia to track down a goat his company

bought a third world family. Th e director

brings a light touch to a heavy theme: how

the best of the West’s intentions to benefi t

those in the ‘majority world’ are often in-

terpreted very diff erently by the recipients

of that charity.

When helping hurts “By focusing on symptoms rather than on

the underlying disease, we are often hurting

the very people we are trying to help. Surpris-

ingly, we are also hurting ourselves in the

process,” writes John Perkins in the Foreword

to When Helping Hurts. “As followers of Jesus

Christ, we simply must do better.”

Th e authors of the book,

Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert,

conclude that North American

Christians, as the “richest people

ever to walk the face of the earth,”

are often using methods that are

“exacerbating the very problems

they are trying to solve.”

While North Americans usually

focus on the material lack in ‘poor’

nations, the authors contend that

poverty has more to do with bro-

ken relationships. For people to be

whole and wealthy, they must be fully

functioning in four building blocks for all of

life – their relationships with their Creator,

themselves, each other and the rest of cre-

ation: “If we reduce human beings to simply

physical – as Western thought is prone to do

– our poverty-alleviation eff orts will focus on

material solutions. But if we remember that

humans are spiritual, social, psychological and

physical beings, our poverty-alleviation eff orts

will be more holistic.”

By focusing on material needs, Fikkert

proposes that North American Christians are

simply feeding their “god-complex … a subtle

and unconscious sense of superiority in which

they believe that they have achieved their

wealth through their own eff orts and that they

have been anointed to decide what is best for

low-income people.”

“We are often deceived by Satan and by our

sinful natures,” writes Fikkert. “Part of what

motivates me to help the poor is my felt need

to accomplish something worthwhile with my

life, to be a person of signifi cance, to feel like I

have pursued a noble cause … to be a bit like

God.” Fikkert concludes, “Until we embrace

our mutual brokenness, our work with low-

income people is likely to do far more harm

than good,”

Th e good news is that, as always with God,

there is another choice. And some groups are

trying to get it right.

Are North Americans addicted to the high of giving?

“For sure,” says Ben Hoogendoorn,

president/CEO of FH (Food for the Hungry)

Canada. “It’s about stuff . Easiest thing in the

world to do, just to give stuff .”

“Sustainable community development

is actually quite boring,” adds Hoogendoorn,

who has worked for FH Canada for over a

decade. “Because you’re there a long time, and

progress can be very, very slow. But the results

at the end are very exciting.”

FH’s motto is “to walk with churches,

leaders and families in overcoming all forms

of human poverty by living in healthy relation-

ship with God and His creation.”

Many of their programs begin in a relief or

crisis situation, but then the government asks

FH to stay and help with development. “You

have to transition from relief into rehabilita-

tion, and then into long-term development,”

says Hoogendoorn. “Most of the time, the staff

we have working in relief we can’t have work-

ing for us in development, because they are of

the mindset that they want to continue to give

things.”

What’s needed in North American givers is

a “cultural shift, a whole paradigm shift,” says

Hoogendoorn. “If we see pictures on televi-

sion with starving children, it must mean they

don’t have enough money, so we should just

give them money.”

“Now that is partly true, because if people

are starving, then they do need something.

But you can’t just leave it at that. What hap-

pens tomorrow, next week, next year? If you’re

going to see a situation and throw money at it,

then you’re going to continue to do that until

the end of time. You have to go back and fi nd

the root cause.”

Partnership: “walking with”, not “do-ing for”

Hoogendoorn pointed to the defi nition of

paternalism: doing something for

people they are able to do

themselves, which creates dependency, not

thriving sustainable communities.

FH’s approach emphasizes “walking with”

rather than “doing for,” allowing the commu-

nity to develop its own model of a preferred

future. Th is means that instead of pouring in

funding, FH staff work with the community to

identify the root cause that is keeping it from

health and sustainability.

In the case of one community in Uganda,

it was a belief that they had been cursed with

poverty for generations. FH staff “started

to tell them that they were created in God’s

image, that they did have value, that He had

a purpose for them and it was not God’s plan

that they should be like this,” relates Hoogen-

doorn. “Th at community graduated with

unbelievable results, after 11 years.”

Th ey have graduated 34 communites since

1994, the latest being the village of Cubi,

Rwanda. “Our brand promise is to graduate

communities after 10 years,” said Hoogen-

doorn. “We don’t want to be in a community

forever, so every community we go into, there’s

an exit strategy.”

Sometimes FH’s approach results in the

agency being turned down by communities

that are used to accepting aid and fi nancial

support. “We do not want to engage with a

community unless there’s a total buy-in from

their leadership,” stresses Hoogendoorn.

“Th ey’re ultimately responsible for seeing

growth and progress.”

Of FH’s 2,000 staff , 96 percent are nationals.

Another organization that emphasizes

partnership is MCC. Phil Schafran, the Men-

nonite Christian Committee’s director of

Resource Development and Communications,

says their approach to development is to build

relationship.

“We try to work with local

partners, so we’re not bring-

ing in a Canadian agenda or

solution to their local issue.

We’re trying to fi nd trustworthy

reliable partners that we can have

a longterm relationship with.

Similar to FH, they ask their

local partners what they need

help with. “We want to build their

capacity, we want to strengthen

them, we want them to take the

leadership in the project,” says

Schafran. “I think we recognize that

money is power and whenever you’re bringing

money into the equation, the person bring-

ing the money has the power, so you have to

mitigate that power. So rather than saying, ‘we

have the money, we’ll make the decisions, we’ll

tell you what to do,’ we’ll listen to them.”

Tobi Elliott, a 30-something writer from Abbots-

ford is interested in your feedback. Contact her

at tobielliott@lightmagazine.ca

From paternalism to partnership by Tobi Elliott

Last month The Light Magazine explored how short-term missions can appropriately serve the group they intend to help. This month, we examine some of the unintended consequences of North American giving, as well as some ministries that are doing community development work well.

Editor’s Note: please note in last month’s article

Short Term Missions by Tobi Elliott, we incor-

rectly reported Phil Schafran’s position with

MCC. He is the Director of Resource Develop-

ment and Communications.

Recommended reading:When Helping Hurts: How to alleviate

poverty without hurting the poor and

yourself, Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett

(Moody, 2009).

Busekera Rwanda Opening ceremony, celebrating

a new partnership with FH.

Cubi Rwanda Graduation celebration