Poverty, Hunger & How We Can Help

Poverty is prevalent in much of Africa, including Zimbabwe and Mozambique, where we visited. Here are some thoughts on helping:

1. Poverty (as most of us understand it in the west) is not the problem. Being poor is not a problem - in fact, anxiety and depression are American problems that have increased in lock-step with our affluence. Don't feel sorry for the "poor" people in Africa - they don't feel sorry for themselves.

2. People starving is a different matter. Because of government mismanagement of economies, droughts, the devastation of AIDS, and other such things, there are often situations in Africa where people are truly hungry and people are dying. At times like these, we in the west need to rise to the occasion and share what we have been blessed with.

3. Bigger is not always better. Large scale actions might be well intentioned and make good news stories, but they also have many unintended consequences that are not always helpful. For example, the UN, Oxfam, and other large donor organizations must funnel their aid through the government. Food aid then becomes a political tool in the hands of the ruling party. Large shipments of clothes often find their way to the markets, where they are sold.

If large shipments of clothes are being distributed free (which does happen) it makes it next to impossible for the local merchants and manufacturers to compete and stay in business. A short-term solution short circuits the long-term solution.

Organizations with staff have overhead expenses, and that's money not going where you intended it to go. Institutions, once set in motion, tend toward existing for their own sake. This leads to the temptation of skewing facts for the sake of maintaining donations. (Can you imagine a major aid organization saying "don't send us any more money; the crisis is over and we are disbanding the organization.")

4. Small scale solutions work - on a small scale. When multiplied, they work on a large scale.

Late in 2008 and into 2009 there was no food in Zimbabwe. When we recently talked about that with people there, nobody mentioned the UN or any other large-scale aid program as a part of how they survived. They all mentioned the small donations and care packages that came into the country from abroad.

Small scale projects have no overhead, do not attract government attention, can be quickly changed, can be easily monitored, and accountability can be maintained.

More information about a crisis situation in Zimbabwe and how you can easily help is at www.cupsofwaterafrica.blogspot.com.