Panhandling Pitfalls

It was a late, humid Pennsylvania night. I walked down the city street which led to my home. In the distance, I heard the thump-thump of bass beats, resounding loudly from tire-sized speakers. The streetlights, fashioned like historic lanterns, illuminated the sidewalk as I paced home. As I approached my house, a man mirrored my quick steps from the opposite direction. The closer he got, the clearer it became he was walking toward me.

His voice broke the rhythm of the distant bass music. “Hey man. Hold on one second,” he stated strongly.

I nodded my head in his direction, but sidestepped him, keeping my walk in-gear. It was late, my home was just around the corner, and I was in no mood for a streetside conversation. I hoped my head nod and quickened pace would convey my intent. It usually did the trick. But not that night. Not for this guy. I heard him circle and begin following me. His first foray to stop me did not work, but his second stopped me immediately, causing the gravel beneath my shoes to skid as I put on the brakes.

“You ignoring me is exactly what you people do,” he shared. “Don’t walk past me just because I’m black.”

His comments instantly ratcheted up the conversational intensity. I spun around and explained that skin color had nothing to do with my disinterest in a sidewalk soirée. It had everything to do with my fatigue and my longing to be home. Even still, I was on the defensive, knowing I had been less polite than I ought to be.

Ignoring my defense, he launched into his story: He had come to the city to visit his son. He came by bicycle, but it had been confiscated by the police. He had exhausted other transportation options and needed to get home to take care of his other kids. His only option was the last-chance bus which left the station in 30 minutes. The cost of the fare? $16.

Without asking too many questions, I pulled out my wallet and thumbed through my cash till I found a crisp $20 bill. I handed it to him, wished him well, and continued home to finish my journey: Mission accomplished.

(video expounding on these questions from my friends at Urban Entry)

As it turns out, this was the first of many times I would run into this same guy on the street. He always used the same attention-grabbing lines and he relied on the same stories to solicit funding for his train ticket. In subsequent encounters, I let him know that he had already used his story with me, but that did not stop him from finding other passersby who would guiltily foot his fictitious bill. Every time I watched an unsuspecting pedestrian be accosted by this routine, my sheepishness swelled. My response had been wrong in every way. Let me expound on the ways:

1. I dismissed his humanity: When our paths crossed, I avoided eye contact, did not ask for his name and pretended I didn’t hear him. In his book, Under the Overpass, a memoir of his volitional decision to spend a year living with the homeless on the streets, Mike Yankoski articulated a simple starting point for interacting with panhandlers and homeless people. “Looking people in the eyes can restore the humanity in homeless people.”
2. I gave cash: “Giving cash to someone in need is the least helpful and most temporary solution, and should only be a last resort,” said Andy Bales, director at Union Rescue Mission, in a recent article in Christianity Today. Handing out cash to someone on the street or out the car window is almost always a bad idea. It undermines the work of local ministries and city programs. It enables recipients to feed destructive habits like drugs and alcohol. And, as Andy articulates, those truly in desperate need are very rarely the folks you see asking for money on the streets.
3. I made a rash decision: I allowed an emotional story, personal guilt, and my own hastiness to cloud my judgment. Had I talked with him for more than a minute, I would have found the holes in his story. If I hadn’t been in a hurry, I could have shared that I support the local shelter and could have given him directions so that he could have a place to rest his head for the night. Simply taking more time would have defused the tension in the situation.

It’s a common conversation among my friends: How should you respond to the gal asking for money on the street corner? Maybe you can learn from my travails how not to respond and use my failure to equip you to respond with grace, thoughtfulness and clarity.

Should I Sponsor a Child?

In a conversation with a friend a few years ago, we began discussing international child sponsorship. We wrestled back-and-forth for some time, discussing both the good and the bad. Since that initial conversation, I have repeated that discussion time-and-again, including a lengthy conversation with a colleague who was himself sponsored as a child in the Dominican Republic. His insights have informed this post significantly. It is a sensitive issue and I pray, even while I write this, that my reflections are gracious and balanced.

Child sponsorship has been a wildly successful in connecting donors with poor children around the world. Billions of dollars are funneled every year to international organizations through child sponsorship programs. Letters are written back-and-forth and funds are given faithfully every month. But, is it doing long-term good? Or could it actually be perpetuating the problems it claims to solve?

I am reminded of Christ’s admonition to us… “Be shrewd as serpents and kind as doves” (Matt 10:16).  In that light, I will highlight both the good and the bad of child sponsorship programs and allow you to disseminate accordingly. First, a few strengths of child sponsorship:

• Jesus had a special place in his heart for children (Matt 19:14). Without exception, children are our world’s most vulnerable demographic. Christians are mandated to defend and protect orphans throughout Scripture.
• The majority of people which enter into a relationship with Christ do so before the age of 18. How can we ignore this important demographic? The data supports this as a strategic age upon which the Church should focus.
• Helping children can change the future. As children are educated, equipped and mentored, we have the opportunity to train the next generation of leaders.
• Many organizations are “doing it right” and I am convinced that Compassion International, to be very specific, does child sponsorship better than anyone else. The centrality of the Gospel in their curriculum, their close partnership with local churches, their laser-focused precision on children, and their grounded and principled operations set them a notch above all others.

That being said, not all child sponsorship programs are as effective. While “helping children” is an amiable aim, we need to examine the long-term impacts. Several important considerations:

• These programs can undermine the role of parents. I had a friend who visited a community in Ghana and an angry mother chased him out of her neighborhood saying, “I can take care of my own children!” She thought my friend was with a child sponsorship organization. An extreme example, but worth considering. God’s design includes parents as providers for their children. Only a small percentage of sponsored children are truly orphaned.
• Child sponsorship can have the same impacts of a bad welfare system. In an email I recently received, a friend shared a story which communicated just that. “My sister is a missionary in Chile…She knows of families that live off the money they get from child sponsorship programs. As one child outgrows the sponsorship program, the parents have another child so they can continue to qualify for the funding.” Yikes.
• These programs can pitch wealthy Americans as the “great heroes” to the poor children in the developing world. Are we sending a message which paints a picture of the donor as the healer and the child as the patient? The nature of this type of relationship can be unhealthy.
• Many of these programs are wrought with fraud.  A friend who worked in Congo shared that one of the Christian child sponsorship program directors wrote (not translated) the kids’ letters to the donors. She would often come to his office and he would have piles of letters which he authored, pretending to be the sponsored children.
• Jealousy is alive and well. My colleague who was sponsored as a child talked about how it stirred up jealousy among his peers. He would receive special gifts (baseball gloves, toys, etc.), a better education, hot meals, and a chance for college scholarships and the un-sponsored children would not.
• Child sponsorship can encourage dependency. Poorly designed charitable aid can put a choke-hold on ingenuity and entrepreneurship. Our goal should always be to help those on the margins stand on their own feet so that continued support is no longer needed. I have met with countless friends working in orphanages and with sponsorship programs who have expressed concerns about kids who graduate from their programs being unable to fend for themselves.

I’ll end with a suggestion from an expert, Jonathan Martin. Jonathan was a missionary in Asia for over ten years and is currently a missions pastor in Portland Oregon. His fantastic book, Giving Wisely?, devotes a chapter specifically to this issue. He ends with a list of four hard questions which he suggests we all ask the agencies through whom we sponsor children:

1. How does this program seek to get the children out of a cycle of dependency?
2. How does it encourage work?
3. How does it keep the responsibility upon the shoulders of the parents and the society to take care of its own?
4. What time frame does the agency have for getting the community to stand on its own feet so sponsorship is no longer needed in a given village?

No intervention or program is perfect (as I’ve written previously) and this is not an indictment of an entire approach, but rather a call to prudence and accountability. Not all child sponsorship is created equal.

A Tale of Two Cities — Education

Two months ago I started a journey, in monthly installments, to two fictional cities—Assetsville and Needsville—both cities representative of poor communities in Africa. While the issues, such as poor health care and dirty water, in these cities are identical, the responses to these issues could not be more different—both in philosophy and methodology.

Tomorrow’s leaders are currently studying in schools across our country and around the world. The importance of how we educate our children cannot be overstated. However, well-documented problems exist in the educational systems of even the wealthiest of nations, including our own, as we stare at a future where, for the first time in our history, illiteracy rates will be higher for our children than they are for us. These problems are only exacerbated in places like in Needsville and Assetsville, where infrastructures are broken, governments are corrupt, and safety nets are porous.

Needsville’s leaders are aware of the depth of the educational problems in their community. In some parts of the city, the schools are the issue. Accountability does not exist. Teachers rarely show up, or show up intoxicated, and students receive only a semblance of an education. In other parts of the community, government power-brokers perpetuate the problem. Teachers are poorly equipped and undertrained and some teachers have gone months without pay because the local government has withheld or distorted aid funding. To counteract the steady regression of Needsville’s youth, they have poured enormous amounts of resources and new strategies into resolving the problem. They have filtered huge amounts of foreign aid to government-run schools. Yet, the increase in funding has simply expanded a broken system, rather than driving positive reform, though it is not from a lack of clever ideas.

“Laptops for all!” was lauded as a quick-fix, but the actual citizens of Needsville had no role in the development of the final product, and the program failed due to limited demand and poor design. A few Christian missionaries have set up quality private schools, but the reality is that donor funding limits them to reaching just a fraction of the students in the community, and there are no missionaries in many of the city’s neighborhoods. Sadly, the future is not bright for Needsville’s children. The numbers are clear. Despite all the increase in funding, the schools are failing and 30% of Needsville’s children are still not attending school.

In Assetsville, the future of the city is brighter than its present because of recent reforms. Across the city, parents, frustrated with the quality of their children’s education, decided to take action. Fed up with the quality and bureaucracy of their city’s schools, dozens of aspiring parents became the solution. They started private schools, many held in local church buildings, to provide their children with a higher level of education. Students at their schools consistently outperform their neighbors in Needsville and attendance rates are much higher. The local government even got into the act. Encouraged by the results, government leaders began providing private school vouchers to families and training to these teachers.

These schools are run by “edupreneurs” who charge a small monthly fee to the students, though close to 20% of the students in these schools, predominantly orphans, are exempt from fees. This arrangement adds accountability for the edupreneur, as parents now have a real voice in their children’s education. While providing a much-higher quality education for the poor, the school is also providing jobs for the edupreneurs and teachers, and in many cases, bringing the community back into the church building. Encouraged by the progress, a new organization was launched to support these edupreneurs through teacher training, small loans for facility improvements through microfinance organizations, and through curriculum support. The Christ-centered curriculum is designed with the edupreneurs and emphases entrepreneurialism, with a vision of shepherding and equipping the next generation of Assetsville’s leaders. Next month’s final installment will look at the guiding values and principles of this series.

*Thanks to Professor James Tooley, whose research I drew upon heavily for this article

(Chris)

A Tale of Two Cities — Clean Water and Sanitation

Last month I started a journey, in monthly installments, to two fictional cities—Assetsville and Needsville—both cities representative of poor communities in Africa. While the issues in these cities are identical, the responses to these issues could not be more different—both in philosophy and methodology.

Clean water and sanitation are luxuries. The statistics are devastating: One billion of our planet’s citizens lack access to clean water. Unsafe water and poor sanitation cause 80% of all diseases and kill more than two million people annually, 90% of whom are children under the age of five.

When these realities became publicized in Needsville, the response from the international community was swift and profound. Wells were drilled. Rainwater was collected and purified. Water filtration plants were installed. The challenge was big and the response was inspiring.

Sadly, the outcomes fell far short of the aspirations. Shockingly, 80% of the new wells fell into disrepair. The entire region became a “wasteland for broken water and sanitation infrastructure.” The working wells became overworked, plagued by shortages and unmotivated staff. Long lines developed at these wells as the meek recipients waited anxiously to fill up their jugs with the “free” water. Even some church well projects, while well-meaning, were not sustained. The wells were drilled for the residents of Needsville by missions trippers, not by or with them.

In sharp contrast, the streets of Assetsville are now flowing with clean water. Local ingenuity, entrepreneurial grit and sustainable models abound. A local church recently built a water purification center with the help of a Christian ministry and is now providing affordable clean water to their community. The water business employs a handful of church members and creates a revenue stream for the church to pay its underpaid pastoral staff. Refreshing: The local church is providing affordable pure water and sharing about the Living Water.

A microfinance program in Assetsville built a purification system in its branch office. Dozens of clients subsequently took out loans to purchase the clean water in bulk. These water vendors load up their bicycles with jugs of water and sell it in some of the most-underserved communities in the city. Through this model, they collectively sell over 300,000 gallons annually and experience the dignity of work. Innovative: Water solutions—microfinance-style.

Down the road, a pioneering new business is a booming success, bringing dignity to sanitation, through its high-quality, public, pay-per-use toilet and shower facility. Counterintuitive: “The poor” paying for the privilege of using clean bathroom facilities.

Even the children are involved in the movement. They pump clean water into their schools while they play on merry-go-rounds. The excess water is sold to the community and advertising space on the water tanks is sold to ensure the pumps are maintained. Clever: Sustainable clean water fueled by the play of children.

All throughout Assetsville, fresh ideas and entrepreneurial tenacity are charting a new course—a course fueled by smart solutions, and framed by healthy partnerships between the residents of Assetsville and those who are descending on the city to provide help. Next month’s installment: Education.

(Chris)

On Helping the Poor: Book Recommendations

I often get asked by friends for book recommendations on helping the poor. There are many wonderful texts on this important topic, but here are a few of my favorites, all of which are very reader-friendly:

• Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life, Robert Lupton – Probably the most influential 100 pages I have read on this topic. Lupton’s focus is on his experience in domestic urban ministry, but the principles are broadly relevant. I wrote an entire post about this book last year.
• Giving Wisely or When Helping Hurts, Jonathan Martin or Brian Fikkert/Steve Corbett – I share these two as an either/or because there are such similar themes woven throughout both books (in short: we need to closely examine whether our attempts to “help” internationally are truly helping). Giving Wisely is a must-read for all missions pastors/committees and is oriented towards church programs to help the poor. When Helping Hurts is still a nationwide bestseller, nearly a year after its release, which is indicative of this book’s poignancy.
• Blood River, Tim Butcher – I felt like I was traveling with Tim Butcher in his harrowing cross-country journey through Congo while reading the account of his travels. Weaving in reflections on Africa, Congo, and poverty, this book gives you the taste of what life is like for many of our world’s poorest citizens. If you enjoy reading books in more of a narrative style, this one is for you.
• The Poor Will be Glad, Peter Greer – Full disclosure: Four years ago, I was Peter’s executive assistant at HOPE International, where I still work. After returning from a trip to Afghanistan, Peter handed me a stack of his own wrinkled business cards with small handwritten notes lining both sides. These business cards, the only paper available to Peter as he flew over Afghanistan in a rusty Russian helicopter, were the first draft of this book. Peter asked me to translate the scrawling into a Word document. Fast forward to October, 2009…and the book was published by Zondervan and is on its third printing. I have already identified my personal bias, but, that aside, this is an excellent book, specifically if you want to learn more about Christ-centered microfinance. And it’s loaded with award-winning photography — who doesn’t love a good picture book?

There are a few excellent academic books, which are fantastic if you are looking to dive a bit deeper. These books are not easy reads, but each is loaded with great content:

• Walking with the Poor, Bryant Myers – Great overview of why Christians should be concerned with helping the poor. Myers also outlines the theological underpinnings for how we should help.
• The Bottom Billion, Paul Collier – An examination of what makes poor countries poorer, and on what factors have prevented these poor countries and their citizens, the bottom billion, from entering the global economy.
• Portfolios of the Poor, Stuart Rutherford – How do the poor really live on less than $2 day? This book looks at the financial habits, tools and coping mechanisms the poor use to manage meager incomes.
• The Mystery of Capital, Fernando de Soto – The title is a great summary. De Soto looks at why capitalism has thrived in many parts of the world, but not caught on in others. Focuses heavily on property rights, legal systems and financial inclusion.
• White Man’s Burden by William Easterly or Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo – As you might surmise, these two books illuminate the incredibly low ROI the West has received from the trillions of dollars we have invested in aid in the developing world. Both Easterly and Moyo are scathing in their criticism of aid, but the data is irrefutable. In most cases, there is an inverse relationship in countries between a) the amount of government aid received and b) the prosperity of its citizens.

That should get you started. Have I missed any of your favorites?