Thanks. I was invited by the CEO of Tearfund, a large evangelical British charity, to spend a day with him and his ministry heads learning about their work. http://anitamathias.com/blog/2012/03/28/a-day-at-tearfunds-headquarters-learning-about-the-real-hunger-games/
He said Africa is littered with the shells of schools, hospitals, hydroelectric power stations, and yes, wells, which no longer work, because people built what they thought the local community wanted, and stuck their names and ministry names on them, but did not ask the community what they really wanted.

“‘the simple life’ is conflated with being poor when living with very little resources is actually very complicated.” Yes, I am sure that’s true–just as living in the country, which I do, is more complex than living in the city!! Your suggestions are MUCH better than mine, which were lame–but I was opening up a discussion on a question to which I did not know the answer.

Oh Jo, I know my blog is lame…but I was honestly wrestling with the question of remembering the poor. Sorry! 🙂

The key is in the research…and spending ALL your money (yes, even food and clothing money) cognizant of where it’s going. All the way down the line, too, not just the pitstop it’s going to make at the vendor. It takes time and a lot of it. I researched little by little until I finally turned most of my spending over into conscious spending.

Also, our reaction to those pictures of starving kids in Africa is exactly what these charities want you to see. Anyone who parades these poor kids in front of cameras to get you to give money is immediately discounted in my book. REAL charities that do long term and really life-transforming work do not need to stoop to such levels to get your aid.

Through research, I have found a number of charities I no longer support at all and a number of new ones that I do. I give the main bulk of my money to local charities because there is a lot of poverty and devastating alcoholism here on the reservations…poverty at a level that rivals those pictures from Africa. For my overseas contributions, I give to charities that provide long term solutions and work with local leaders and people directly to determine the right aid for their community, not what WE think they need.

Perfect story out of Peru. One of the charities’ board of directors went down to meet the ladies we work with down there. She was appalled that our grants had not been spent on things SHE thought were important, and she totally imposed her American culture and values on them. It took a long time with our local contact there for her to understand that what she thought was “the next step in improving their lives” was not theirs. Too often, charities, though well-intentioned, provide projects and things that are not what the people actually need, but what we think they need based solely on our world view. It is devastating to these people also to do for them instead of just giving the right pushes in the right directions, as they need, not as we need. In building people wells for clean drinking water, many charities just do-for-them which sends a message of “I don’t think you’re smart enough to do this yourself”. Just like with our kids’ first time in the kitchen, you want to take over and do for them, but you know they’ll never learn if you just do it for them. These charities just don’t think of the mental impact coming in and just doing it all has on the community. And then there’s this problem after they leave…the people have no idea how to maintain these wells because nobody bothered to teach anyone. My friend here locally has joined a community of people who are getting degrees in engineering just to be able to travel to these remote places and teach the people directly how to maintain the technology these well-intentioned, but misguided charities left for them. I’m spending money to help her buy tool sets for these villages.

This level of research takes time, but Satan is counting on people not taking the time to research where our money is going. Not just our donations, but every single penny of our spending. As we get further and further removed from our money and our world globalizes, there is a danger of us losing touch with where our money goes. I’m doing my best to fight against that…it’s hard, really hard, but I feel it is the best way to live out Jesus’ request to always Remember the Poor.

Thanks 🙂

Anita – I have a few contacts that I work with directly and whom I trust implicitly. It isn’t so much that I’m afraid people will use monies for their own purposes as I am concerned that they don’t have the skills to manage money correctly. Yes, even among the Filipinos there is much malnutrition and under-nutrition — I am also working to address that in some communities, but it is such a massive undertaking and I don’t have the resources to address the problem. Most of the work carried out by Educate Bohol is accomplished by myself and rarely with the help of others. I just continue to do as I can and let the Lord guide me and support me as He wills. You can learn more of my efforts at http://www.EdcuateBohol.org