Who's Eyes?

So much of the promotion work done by relief and development charities requires the viewer to get out of our cultural context and imagine life for those living in severe poverty half a world away. Most of us flip channels when Sally Struthers or some other spokesperson pops up in front of a mud hut surrounded by children.

Here's a much more intriguing approach:


I don't know enough about charity:water to endorse their work, but I love their creativity and vision to produce this piece.

Why Charity Ultimately Fails

The word Catalyst gets used in several nonprofits and ministries. One that I can recommend is the Catalyst conference and all the ancillary elements they've added. I've enjoyed their podcasts for a couple years and am disappointed that I won't be available to accompany a group from our area to Atlanta next month to see it all live. It's definitely on my hit list for 2009.

One of the founders of our foundation sent me this article from the Catalyst website that explains with clear and simple illustrations why we're becoming involved with microfinance in our efforts to support relief and development for the world's poor, rather than traditional charitable efforts. We realize there are times and situations where immediate needs require free donations, but by and large we are more and more convinced that there are better ways to help in the long run.
we also hope that the time we spend researching and understanding options and strategies can help others to begin to explore some of the organizations we're enthusiastic about.

And Away We Go

I am trying to catch loose ends before I leave for a project with Medical Ministry International in the Dominican Republic tomorrow morning. Point form here we go:

-I am very excited about the time with MMI. They (Leanne Graham in particular) have been amazing in the process of making arrangements for this trip after two previous attempts didn't work out.

-I haven't been in a cross-cultural situation in a while. Hope I can still fake enough Spanish to not offend people too much.

-Catalyst just approved a refined funding strategy for this year (focusing on preparing for granting in September). I am very excited about our approach and look forward to explaining it here and on our website later in July.

-Books I'm taking with me for the Dominican project and a week's vacation afterwards:
Out of Poverty - Paul Polak
Making the Best Of It - John Stackhouse
Wishful thinking - Frederick Buechner
Forgotten ways - Alan Hirsch

-The "What is missional?" synchroblog was an interesting experience that I would probably repeat. Great variety of perspectives, but overall too academic and impersonal from where I sit.

-I'll be out of touch until July 14th. Peace to you.

Can you donate people out of poverty?

On The Hour tonight one of the guests is Paul Polak, founder of IDE. He is leading advocate of what some people call Market Driven Development. The basic idea is that traditional charity efforts are doomed in part simply because they are based around giving things to needy people for free.
Polak and others argue that this creates dependency, devalues what is provided, and treats the poor as inherently inferior. On the other hand, charging people for goods and services invites them into an exchange with some degree of mutuality, draws on their own intelligence and ingenuity, and increases the overall quality of both the provision and application of relief.
Obviously this is somewhat controversial. The immediate reaction is something like: "How can you expect people who have nothing to pay for things they need to survive?". What we may not realize is that our reaction itself betrays an attitude and assumption about poverty that may not be fully true. People in the field are discovering that the poor often have great resources in many ways. Effective strategies are being developed that draw on the innovative capacity, diligence, and sense of community that have commonly been ignored or merely romanticized.
IDE, our partners at Medical Ministry International, and some others are finding that there are remarkable benefits to be found in these kinds of innovations.
I am fascinated by this. It has enormous appeal to the entrepreneurial spirit that the Catalyst founders share.

Amidst the Turmoil

I got this message from Tim DeYoung, the Haiti director for MMI: (his blog is insightful about what's really happening there)
Chris,
I just got a chance to read your blog. Had looked forward to meeting you and having you get to know a bit about what life is like here in Haiti. Based on what i saw today and the talk on the streets, there are protests planned for Monday, but now that the PM resigned an hour or so ago, who knows. At the airport dropping a friend off who was here for a "vacation" I met up with a number of missionary groups who are trying to get their volunteers out. It was a bi t chaotic. I am glad i am not in their shoes.
I spoke with Leanne the other day about trying to run the project later in May. She has some conflicts, but I think by then this will have quieted down. Gas and Diesel are now a shortage and we are all waiting to see what happens next. Embassys continue to send out warnings and travel info. I really feel bad about this whole thing. At times its just out of my hands. This came out of no where. In the past days friends and i have been talking about how rare that this flared up with no warning and how fast things got so bad. It was really a shocker. Every one was caught off guard.
I will keep you informed about future info if you would like.
The struggle i face now is how non-productive i am. This would have been our first project of the year. Things were really planned out well for this one. Partners were all looking forward to our visit and new partnerships were formed only now to be put on hold. Well take care and look forward to reading more about Catalyst F.

Sincerely,

Timothy DeYoung
MMI Haiti Director
deyountp@yahoo.com
t.deyoung@mmint.org
Visit my blog site for photos and stories: http://mmi-haiti.spaces.live.com/

Haiti Update

The situation in Haiti continues to be unstable as the government's proclamations and pledges to support further indigenous agriculture are not satifying a populace who are needing food now.
MMI's Haiti director Tim DeYoung has decided against bringing our team in at this point because our security can's be reasonable certain. So we're not going.
I have mixed feelings. After reading Stu's comments on the last post (see below) I was more open and interested in going if Tim said it was okay; but still I am somewhat relieved to have the decision taken out of my hands.
I'll be working with Leanne Graham (MMI Canada director) to figure out if we will arrange another trip later this spring to another location or something else.
Please pray for Haiti. These people are the poorest people in the Americas and their suffering is very real. Pray for the leaders, there are no easy solutions after decades of uncertainty. Pray for Tim DeYoung and his wife who are in the midst of this turmoil.

Brave or Foolish?

I came home from a meeting about 2pm yesterday to have my neighbour tell me their dog had fallen into the creek and been swept over Webster's Falls. Miraculously, the dog has survived the fall (absolutely astonishing!), but was now stranded on an inaccessible ledge just below the falls with the current surging by. After a few hours some bystanders risked their own safety to climb their way to him and eventually got Murphy out. I suppose they were heroes, but from where I watched I was truly fearful that one of them would slip into the creek and be in more danger than the dog was. So were they brave or foolish? It's sometimes a fine line.

How does this relate to the Catalyst Foundation?

This Sunday I'm supposed to be travelling to Haiti to participate in a dental project with MMI. The issue is that the last couple days there have been violent protests there, in the city where we're going to be based. The project director, Tim DeYoung,let us know that things are pretty dangerous right now. He thinks things might very well be settled by the time we're to arrive, but he wants to see what happens in the next day or so. When they called me with the news they asked my thoughts.

Haiti is always somewhat volatile. Being the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and having food prices increase by 40% in less than a year makes that inescapable. Political stability has really never been part of the picture.

So, what should I do? If Tim (who knows Haiti intimately as a resident there) says he thinks it will be safe should I trust that judgment? I'm hesitant. I know that I can reschedule for another trip later this year, to another place where the need is enormous. I don't believe Haiti in particular is somewhere I'm supposed to be. So would going there next week be an act of courageous faith, or one of unnecessary risk? And how do we distinguish the difference?

I'd love to hear thoughts from some who have more international experience than I do...

Intriguing or Offensive?

Today's Hamilton Spectator had an article on something called "poorism". It's basically the development of tourism in the world's poorest slums.
I've been on a couple trips to areas like this to do work with local churches, which I see as quite different from what this article describes. Still, there is an element of voyeurism or at least satisfying our curiosity involved even with our honourable motives.
My belief is that short term experiences in areas like these are usually of minimal benefit to the people there. But they can be transformative for those who go. IS this exploitative? Is the tourism approach disgusting or innovative?
In a few weeks I'm going to Haiti as part of a team with MMI. We'll bve accompanying and assisting a dentist providing care for local people who otherwise have no access to this kind of help. I'll be sure to update with a lot more reflections when I get back.
I'm curious how some of my friends who are more experienced in seeing the world will respond to this article.