David, Author at A Blog by D.W.

Yesterday evening, a huge, 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit right outside Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti. There is a small timetable where the most vulnerable – those who are trapped under the rubble, who are injured, and who lack access to clean water, food, and medical supplies. According to the Christian Science Monitor, “the International Red Cross estimates as many as three million people may have been left homeless by Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti.” (Source)

With an education in Communty Development, I understand the importance of doing relief work quickly and efficiently in situations such as this one. Those who are experienced in this type of work are the ones who need to be supported right now.

Often times people who have very good intentions want to help, and believe that the most effective way to help is by going to be at the location of a natural disaster right after the event happens. When inexperienced people come to the site of a natural disaster, there is great potential to hinder the relief operations and/or to not be as culturally sensitive to the needs of the affected people.

As of a couple hours ago, the airport in Port-au-Prince is still closed, so it is very hard to even get experienced relief workers into the country. I am following Twitter updates from the Food for the Hungry Emergency Relief Unit. Their past couple of tweets indicate this. You can follow them at twitter.com/FH_ERU.

If people are looking for the best possible way to give in the immediate future, I would encourage them to give financially, and to pray. Pray that the relief operations will be able to start as soon as possible, and that the necessary people and supplies would be able to enter the country.

The following organizations are ones that I would be comfortable giving my money to for the purposes of relief work in Haiti (more will be added soon to this list).

Below is a list of more organizations (Here’s the source of a lot from this list. I am adding to it):
Emmanuel Gospel Center: http://www.egc.org/
Haiti Reborn: quixote.org/haiti
Church World Services: www.churchworldservice.org
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance: www.pcusa.org
World Vision: donate.worldvision.org
Bright Hope: www.brighthope.org
UMC Disaster Response: secure.gbgm-umc.org/donations
UNICEF: www.unicefusa.org
Christian Aid: www.christianaid.org.uk
Americares: www.americares.org
Mercy Corps: donate.mercycorps.org
American Red Cross: newsroom.redcross.org
United Church of Christ: www.ucc.org
Disciple’s Week of Compassion: secure.groundspring.org
Episcopal Relief: www.er-d.org
Reformed Church in America: www.rca.org
Oxfam: www.oxfam.org
Habitat For Humanity: www.habitat.org
Haiti Emergency Relief Fund: www.haitiaction.net
World Care: www.worldcare.org
Save the Children: www.savethechildren.org

Despite the quick action that the current crisis calls for, Haiti has a long road ahead of them filled with recovery and development. Once the days have turned into weeks, and the weeks into months, Haiti will need more than handouts intended for relief in the immediate aftermath of the quake.

There is a big difference between relief and development. Relief can be defined as helping people who are helpless to meet their most basic needs. Development, on the other hand, should be done when people ARE able to meet their most basic needs.

The challenge that those who want to help Haiti in the long run face is allowing Haitians to take control of THEIR country, and to make decisions for themselves. As development practitioners, we must be thinking about helping the poor to help themselves.

Bryant Myers, in his book “Walking With the Poor,” describes 4 key relationships that must be addressed in community development work:

Relationship with God
Relationship with Self
Relationship with Others
Relationship with the Environment

If the poor do not know God as their personal savior, they are missing out on the most important thing. If they think they they personally do not have any skills or experiences to help themselves, then they are living in denial and must be encouraged and shown that they DO have God-given skills, gifts and abilities. If they have several enemies, some of whom may be more powerful and oppress them, then they will most likely loose the little bit that they do have through bribes and oppression. And finally, if they do not take care of the environment or know how to plant a garden, then they will have a much harder time putting food onto the table.

I firmly believe that Community Development must begin with affirming the poor for who they are, for their abilities, and for their ability to make decisions. Americans (and other rich, primarily-Western developers) must not make decisions for the poor, and must not do things “For” or “To” the poor.

Instead, we are called to something better. We are called to affirm their dignity. We are called to let them make their own decisions, and let them tell us what they need.

William Easterly would agree. In his book, “The White Man’s Burden, Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done so Much Ill and so Little Good,” he writes “Poor people have already accomplished far more for themselves than [people who make plans disregarding the poor’s interest] have accomplished for them.” He also writes, “The needs of the poor don’t get met because the poor have little money or political power with which to make their needs known and they cannot hold anyone accountable to meet those needs.”

Over the next weeks and months, let us continue to help Haiti by allowing them to make their own decisions. Donated money is good. Missions trips are good (when done appropriately). We can still HELP! But we need to do so responsibly.

But first, the cry for relief for over 3 million people ring out. Let us give generously. Let us pray hard. And let us hope for the best.

So I was thinking about making two posts on the same day, but I think I’ll just stick with 1 post, and will get around to making the other post in the next day or so. This might ramble a little. I apologize in advance.

Yesterday as I was walking out of church (I went to the early service at Reunion), I rounded the corner onto Mass Ave, and right at the corner of the bridge there was a white woman sitting in a chair with a sign that said “Laid Off.” I glanced at the sign, but didn’t read much more than this, and as an idea came into the back of my mind to ask her if she wanted to eat lunch at Wendy’s with me (which was right across the street), I pushed the idea aside and kept walking to the subway station so that I could pick up my car where I left it at Andrew station, go grocery shopping, and cook myself a meal at home.

As I pulled out of the parking lot of the Stop & Shop in the South Bay Shopping Center, there was a white guy begging in the middle of the street. As I sat there in my air-conditioned car with tons of groceries at my feet, I hesitated. Finally, what seemed like years later, I rolled down the window and yelled “Sir” and grabbed a box of granola bars I had just bought and offered them to him.

He declined, saying he didn’t have bottom teeth. I didn’t believe him, rolled up my window, and pulled out onto the street.

Instances like these are certainly not a rare phenomenon in Boston – especially in Dorchester. Yes, yesterday was the first time I actually rolled down my window to talk to one of these beggars, but being asked for money is not new. I have made it a habit of never giving any money to anyone who asks for it on the street. This is only good stewardship. Chances are good that the person – I will refrain from saying “beggar” from now on – that makes him/her sound like a nobody, which they’re not – as I was saying, chances are good that the person will use the money not for food or clothing or shelter, but for a drug or alcohol dependency.

If I give money on the street, I send a message to the receiver that says “I don’t care about you, because all I’m doing is giving you money just to make me feel good about myself. If I really cared about you, I’d sit and have lunch with you.” I also help to feed that good chance of a dependence on a bad habit.

So what to do? As any American will tell you, time is of the essence. We want to take the easy way out, pull out a couple of dollars, and be on our way. But this only furthers dependency. “Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime” as the saying goes. Translate this into inner-city America: Give a man a few dollars, and he (probably) spends it all on drugs. Build a relationship with the man, and he (hopefully) builds a relationship with God and kicks that dependency in the butt.

See what I’m saying? Community Development is NOT easy. But as Bryan Myers points out in his book, “Walking With the Poor,” poverty is fundamentally a result of broken relationships. Relationships are not easy! But we must be willing to invest.

So this lingering guilty feeling that I had from passing the woman on the corner of the bridge on Mass Ave right before getting to the whatever-it’s-called Convent Center Subway Stop: What am I going to do about it?

When we build relationships with people, and empower them to lift THEMSELVES out of poverty, we are teaching that person to fish, using the God-given talents and abilities that they have been blessed with.

As for the title of my blog, how do we know that the problem we are presented with is the truth? We don’t know. And actually, we have a gut feeling that it’s not true (because most of the time, the problem that is presented to us is indeed absolutely false). Does this mean that we should just ignore the person? Not at all! I am writing as a “reading break” from Brennan Manning’s Abba’s Child. Just a few minutes ago, I read:

What makes the Kingdom come is heartfelt compassion: a way of tenderness that knows no frontiers, no lables, no compartmentalizing, and no sectarian divisions. Jesus, the human Face of God, invites us to deep reflection on the nature of true discipleship and the radical lifestyle of Abba’s child.

So I leave myself, and you, my readers, with this thought?
What does compassion to others look like? Are we really willing to invest, and *gasp* spend TIME with others on their journey of life? Oh, that I may live a life of true compassion: Helping, without Hurting. Building relationships, and not simply throwing out money handouts.

PS: Feel free to comment. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

A Blog by D.W.

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Author Archives: David

Haiti: A Call to Responsible Action

Homeless, Hungry, Laid off: Legitimate or BS?